Low price
Easy-to-use dashboard
No credit monitoring
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If you’re looking for the best identity theft protection service, you should consider Zander. Zander Identity Theft Protection offers identity monitoring and restoration services at a surprisingly fair cost. While most competitors charge upwards of $25/mo for premium services, each of Zander’s plans comes in below that. Its most premium plan even offers antivirus and a virtual private network (VPN).
While there are some issues, like cookies and trackers on its website and data sharing with third parties, Zander also offers solutions on how to block or opt out of those. We took a look at Zander’s available offerings and how easy the service is to use. Depending on what you’re comfortable with, this could be an option for you.
| Price | $6.75-$19.49/mo |
| Identity theft insurance | Up to $1 million |
| Credit monitoring | No |
| Credit reports | No |
| Credit score | No |
| Identity recovery | Yes |
| Dark web alerts | Yes |
| Social media account alerts | No |
| Details | Get Zander Identity Theft |
Zander Identity Theft Protection is just that, identity theft protection. While it provides access to Experian CreditLock, there isn’t any other feature within the service dealing with credit or the other credit bureaus. There are a multitude of services that do both, but it might be difficult to decide on one without an identity theft and credit monitoring guide.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are services like MoneyLion and Credit Karma that will monitor your credit on Experian, Equifax, and/or TransUnion for free. When you take that route, Zander actually becomes one of the most affordable identity monitoring and restoration services that we’ve seen. The Essential Individual plan is affordable, at $6.75/mo (and even less if you purchase annually). If you decide on the Family plan, it jumps up to $12.90/mo.
The Elite Cyber Bundle costs $9.99/mo for individuals and $19.49/mo for families. Still, not a bad monthly price considering the Elite plans give you antivirus protection and a VPN.
If you have a tight budget but still need these services, Zander is likely a good option. Just be aware that the company allows third-party cookies and trackers on its website. This is likely how the price is kept low, but it can be circumvented with a good ad and tracker blocker. What you might be unable to circumvent is the company sharing your data with “subsidiaries and affiliates.” But you do have the option to opt out of data sharing.
Identity theft protection monitors your personal information to catch fraudulent use before it becomes a major problem for you. Most people think it’s just your Social Security number (SSN) but it can be so much more than that. Zander Identity Theft Protection offers the following:
While Zander Identity Theft Protection doesn’t have the most features out of all the ID theft protection services we’ve seen, it does have a good selection, especially for the price. While there’s no credit monitoring, you can use another free service like MoneyLion or Credit Karma to monitor your credit. Zander’s ID monitoring and ID restoration features will keep an eye on your personal information. Elite plan members also receive antivirus protection and a VPN.
If you choose a family plan, you can add another adult and up to 10 minor children living within the household. Preventing child identity theft might not be something you thought you needed, but it’s happening more often with ransomware thefts of school children’s information. You’d also have some protection for non-minor residents of your home.
Adult dependents, such as children or an elderly relative, will also have some, but not all, benefits. You’ll need to reach out to a customer service rep to discuss what options you have for those individuals. And considering there’s an education center within the portal, this could be a great time to learn with family members about identity theft and identity protection.
Zander doesn’t come with any credit monitoring. There is a credit lock feature that alerts you when someone tries to access your credit history or applies for a new credit account in your name. Here are the protections according to the Experian CreditLock portal:
"When locked, your Experian Credit file is NOT accessible to:
When locked, your Experian Credit file is accessible to:
Alerts for all protections are easily viewable on the home screen of the dashboard. The Alerts Summary window will tell you what the alert is about and take you to the reporting page for the alert. It provides instructions on what action you can take and explains why you’ve been alerted. Some of the alerts you’ll see aren’t actually of any concern, but Zander is just letting you know that it is attached to your name.
For example, it might show you all the addresses ever associated with your name and SSN. If there are 10 but you only recognize nine, Zander can help you with the one you don’t recognize.
Since this service is through a web-based portal, you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues with devices. We tested this on a Safari browser and had no issues. If you do experience issues using the service, we suggest changing to a more universal browser like Safari, Google Chrome, or Microsoft Edge. We also use ad blockers and tracker blockers on our browser as well as some AI browser extensions — with all of that running we still didn’t have issues.
Purchasing and logging in to Zander was quick and easy. We wish the service accepted PayPal or Apple Pay, but we were able to check out using a credit card. You can also pay with a debit card or electronic check.
After our payment was processed, we filled in a little more information including our SSN, address, phone number, and date of birth. The site required two-factor authentication (2FA), so we opted to have the code texted to our phone. After we logged in initially, we could allow the site to remember our device for 60 days so we wouldn’t require 2FA again. If you’d prefer to keep the 2FA on, you can do that.
There wasn’t much to Zander after that. Once we input our data — including our driver’s license number, bank info, passport number, the medical ID number on our insurance, and some other information — we let the service do its thing. We locked and unlocked our credit a few times and got a text alert on our phone each time. Overall, services like this are pretty low maintenance, as they’re meant to run in the background and monitor things.
Zander was just a little too good to be true. It comes at a great price, offers a lot of services, and reimburses up to $1 million in insurance to cover identity theft losses, so we obviously went straight to the privacy policy. It’s not the worst we’ve seen, but there are cookies and trackers on the website from third parties and affiliates.
The following text is from Zander’s privacy policy, under “Third-party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies.”
“Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement, you should contact the responsible third party directly.
"You do have choices about how your non-personal information is collected through these tracking technologies. From our Website, you can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. Please be aware, however, if you do disable or refuse cookies, some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
"We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI") on the NAI website or from the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) on the DAA website. We are committed to complying with the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. To learn more and make choices about interest-based ads from participating third parties, please visit the NAI or the DAA consumer opt out page.”
Additionally, Zander will share your information with third parties. There is a statement in the privacy policy where you can opt out. There wasn’t any clear way to do that, so we navigated to the Support page to ask. We’re still waiting on a reply.
The following text is from Zander’s privacy policy, under “Disclosure of Your Information.”
“We may disclose aggregated information about our users without restriction.
"We may disclose Personal Information that We collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:
"We may also disclose your Personal Information:
Overall we do get annoyed when identity protection services sell or share our information, but at least this one gives you options. Most of the information shared is going to be for marketing purposes. If that’s something that’s a deal breaker for you, then you might want to steer clear of Zander.
Zander’s dashboard is a web-based portal, so you won’t need to worry about compatibility issues as long as the page loads in your browser. We did find Zander mobile apps in both the Apple Store and the Google Play Store but neither is highly rated. The Apple app is designed for the iPhone and has a 2.3-star rating (out of five possible stars), with negative reviews claiming it’s clumsy or unusable. The Android app has a slightly better 3.4-star rating (out of five possible stars), and negative reviews say it’s either buggy or clunky.
Finding Zander’s support center isn’t the easiest. It’s definitely not front and center on the website. Scrolling to the bottom and clicking the Contact Us link takes you to a page with the number, address, and main website.
Once there, we clicked on the link that took us back to the main website. We scrolled to the bottom of that page and clicked again on Contact Us, which took us to yet another type of Contact Us page. There we finally found a form that could be emailed to support.
This was an involved process that could get confusing fast. Based on our experience with finding this first method, we surmised that Zander prefers a phone call to the support line at (888) 210-3274.
We reached out to support in an effort to opt out of sharing our data. We filled out the form in the morning but didn’t receive a confirmation email or a response by the late afternoon. After 24 hours, we still hadn’t received a response.
Because the company allows some advertisements in the dashboard and does share your data, the monthly plan price is relatively low. There are options to block the cookies and trackers from the web advertisements and you can opt out of data sharing, so if you take the extra steps to protect your data this service might work for you. It’s especially good for anyone on a budget who also wants identity protection services.
In our opinion, the Elite Cyber Bundle offers more value. Since it comes with a VPN service and an antivirus, both offered by UltraVPN, there’s a potential financial savings if you’re currently paying for those services separately. Even with the Elite Cyber Bundle family price of $19.49 per month, you’ll still be getting a deal with this bundle. If you choose an annual plan, your cost goes down even more.
| Plan | Essential Plan (Individual) | Essential Plan (Family) | Elite Cyber Bundle (Individual) | Elite Cyber Bundle (Family) |
| Price per month | $6.75/mo | $12.90/mo | $9.99/mo | $19.49/mo |
| Price per year | $75.00/yr | $145.00/yr | $110.00/yr | $215.00/yr |
| Who’s covered | 1 adult | 2 adults, 10 children | 1 adult | 2 adults, 10 children |
| Identity theft insurance | Up to $1 million | Up to $2 million | Up to $1 million | Up to $2 million |
| Financial activity alerts | ||||
| Credit lock | ||||
| Identity recovery | ||||
| Dark web alerts | ||||
| Social Security Number monitoring | ||||
| Home title monitoring | ||||
| USPS address change alerts | ||||
| Details | View Plan | View Plan | View Plan | View Plan |
In our opinion, after using the product itself and reading the privacy policy, we do think this is a good option for identity theft protection. Having to opt out of data sharing, cookies, and trackers takes extra work but the low price tag might be worth the effort.
Jeff Zander is the latest in the Zander family to head the company as CEO since 1986. His family’s business began in 1925.
Zander monitors your personal information (e.g., your address, phone number, email, Social Security number, financial information, and other information) to let you know when it’s being used. That way you can identify and stop any fraudulent activities before they become major problems.
Follow these steps to cancel your Zander Identity Theft Protection plan:
Yes, Zander is a good product. If you put in the extra work to block the cookies and trackers as well as opt out of the data sharing, you can have identity monitoring services for an extremely reasonable price. If you opt for the Elite package, you’ll get an antivirus and VPN at no additional cost. All of this together sounds like a great deal, but if you’re not convinced, there are competitors like IdentityForce, Identity Guard, and LifeLock that may have more of what you’re looking for in a protection service.
Whether you’ve been a victim of a data breach, stolen funds, a hacked bank account, or have received a concerning fraud alert, having a proactive insurance policy with reimbursement and recovery services can make being the victim of identity theft easier to remediate. As ransomware continues to grow and our personal information continues to be exposed across the web, it’s easier than ever for criminals to commit fraud. That makes ID theft protection worth it. And a service like Zander can help you catch that before it spirals out of control.
Low price
Easy-to-use dashboard
No credit monitoring
