Identity theft is on the rise, which means your information is at the mercy of cybercriminals. In 2021 alone, more than 40 million U.S. consumers fell victim to identity theft.
If you’re worried about hackers stealing your money and committing crimes in your name, then we recommend looking into identity theft monitoring software like Aura, which is built to prevent these very scenarios.
In this article, we dig deep into Aura’s features, usability, and customer support to see whether it’s worth your money. Ready to hear our verdict?
Aura Mini Review
In our experience, Aura is effective at protecting you from identity theft as it keeps tabs on your credit file and informs you of breaches. Though an identity monitoring software at heart, Aura also offers a wide range of security features, namely a VPN, password manager, and antivirus.
Aura excels at checking the dark web to see if your accounts and personal data are exposed to cybercriminals. Its VPN, meanwhile, offers only basic online protection — it’s good, but not as good as dedicated VPN software.
All in all, Aura is an excellent identity theft protection tool with handy extras, perfect for those who need a robust security suite.
A Quick Review From a Colleague:
One of our team members who is a victim of identity theft used Aura during our testing. She found the service superior to all others she’s ever used, including LifeLock. Her identity was locked by all the credit bureaus, but Aura made it easy for her to access her information. She also mentioned that the service was super easy to set up and Aura’s customer support was kind and resourceful.
We recommend Aura if you:
- Want to be alerted if your credit or personal information is compromised
- Want a theft monitoring tool for a family of up to 5 people
- Have children who play lots of video games and might be subject to cyberbullying
- Want to test a theft monitoring tool for 60 days
We don't recommend Aura if you:
- Need a VPN for streaming
- Need social media monitoring software
Aura is an effective and easy-to-use identity theft monitoring software. We recommend it for people who want to avoid becoming victims of identity theft.
We especially like the family plan, which allows you to set up identity theft protection accounts for your family members, implement parental controls, and get alerts for cyberbullying during gaming.
What Does Aura Do?
Aura is a full-featured identity theft protection service. Here are just some of the benefits you get from an Aura subscription:
- Identity theft protection services for the whole family: Aura will alert you if the email addresses and passwords belonging to your family become compromised. It scans both the surface web and the dark web.
- Financial fraud protection and credit freeze support: Aura can help you contact all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) to freeze your credit in case you get targeted by scammers. You’ll also get alerts if someone tries to get a loan or credit card in your name.
- Holistic privacy and security: By default, Aura includes a virtual private network, an antivirus, and a password manager, whereas other identity theft software offers these at extra cost.
Below, we discuss Aura’s full list of features, pricing, usability, and more.
Pricing
Aura offers three plans, and in the table below, you’ll see what each offers.
| Feature | Family Plan | Couple Plan | Individual Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $37/mo | $22/mo | $12/mo |
| Coverage | 5 adults, unlimited kids | 2 adults | 1 adult |
| Online and Device Security | 50 devices (10 per person) | 20 devices (10 per person) | 10 devices |
| Spam Call and Message Protection | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Premium Identity Theft Protection | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Identity Theft Insurance | Up to $5 million ($1M per adult) | Up to $2 million ($1M per adult) | $1 million |
| Financial Fraud Protection | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| White Glove Fraud Remediation | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Privacy Assistant | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Vault | 5 GB | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Parental Controls | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Cyberbullying Alerts | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Child Identity Protection | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Aura has a 14-day free trial period. In other words, you can use Aura without paying if you cancel within the first 14 days of your purchase.
Moreover, all of Aura’s plans are covered by a 60-day money-back guarantee. This is an impressive offer, considering the industry average is 30 days.
Features
In the table below, we highlight each of Aura’s identity theft features and the benefits you stand to enjoy so that you don’t become a victim of identity theft.
| Feature | How It Can Help You |
|---|---|
| Identity Theft Protection | Aura monitors the internet and the dark web. It will alert you if your email address, passwords, and accounts are compromised in a data breach. For instance, if a cybercriminal uses your social security number to open an account, Aura will send you a message right away. |
| Credit Freeze Support | A White Glove fraud resolution team will help you contact credit bureaus and initiate a freeze. Note that you are covered by a $1,000,000 identity theft insurance policy. |
| Credit Monitoring and Credit Reports | Aura alerts you if anyone makes inquiries into your credit files and tries to get a loan or credit card in your name. |
| Bank Account and Home Title Monitoring | You’ll receive alerts if anyone makes changes to your bank accounts and titles to your properties. |
| Financial Transaction Monitoring | If you link your account to Aura, it will notify you if there’s any spending beyond your threshold. |
Apart from these identity protection features, you also get the following additional privacy and security tools as part of your subscription:
- VPN: Aura’s VPN encrypts your traffic and changes your virtual location. It also blocks trackers to enable you to browse privately.
- Antivirus: Aura’s antivirus offers real-time malware protection as well as protection from potentially dangerous sites. You can benefit from its protection against ransomware, adware, Trojans, spyware, and more.
- Password manager and vault: This feature lets you create and store strong passwords so you never have to remember them individually. The vault also helps you store and share your digital information and files safely.
- Parental controls and safe gaming: Aura allows you to set content filters for your children, limit screen time, and view reports of their online activity. It also scans communications during games and alerts you if it notices cyberbullies or online predators.
- Spam call protection: Aura screens and blocks spam calls and text messages. It has an AI-powered assistant that can pick up and screen spam calls on your behalf.
Usability
Aura’s website is clean and well-organized. The homepage contains all the important information about Aura, and you can click the menus at the top of the website to discover its features, pricing, and knowledge base.
Furthermore, signing up and setting up an account with Aura is easy and fast. We completed the process in less than 15 minutes.
Aura has easy-to-use apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, which include the antivirus and the VPN. It also has browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome, which feature Aura’s password manager. As such, you’ll need both the apps and the browser extension to make full use of Aura’s tools.
We installed the app on our Windows laptop and iPhone to test it ourselves. Overall, we found the desktop app easy to use, clutter-free, and intuitive.
Because we subscribed to the family plan, we were able to easily add other family members. Setting up a child review dashboard, parental controls, and cyberbullying alerts was also easy.
Aura antivirus
We tested the antivirus by running a quick and full scan of our computer. The quick scan took under 10 seconds, while the full scan lasted for about 12 minutes. This is within the ballpark of what some of the best antivirus software delivers.
Aura VPN
Aura VPN is sufficient for users who just need to hide their IP address and encrypt their browsing activity. As an add-on, this VPN is nice to have, but it’s by no means a top-ranking VPN, as it’s missing many features.
For example, you can’t choose server locations using Aura VPN, which means you can’t unblock a specific Netflix library. It also lacks a kill switch, which prevents your IP address from leaking in case you get disconnected. As such, we don’t recommend using Aura if your primary purpose is getting a good VPN.
If you need a premium VPN, we instead recommend NordVPN. It offers robust encryption, advanced security and privacy features, and over 5,000 servers in 60 locations. Using a VPN with an identity protection service is essential to making sure you remain private on the internet.
Aura data removal
Aura’s data broker service works as advertised. Within hours of setting up an account, it reported 12 successful removals.
However, Aura’s data removal service is not as extensive as Surfshark’s Incogni. Incogni works with more data brokers and has a professional team, including lawyers, who help enforce data removals.
Customer service
If you need help with Aura, there are several support options available.
We recommend starting with the help center, where you can find various articles, including setup guides, troubleshooting guides, and FAQs. We looked through some of the articles and were glad to see that they include screenshots and annotations, making them easy for anyone to follow.
If the help center doesn’t resolve your issue, you can reach out to Aura’s customer support agents through email, live chat, or phone.
Note that the live chat is actually a chatbot that directs you to articles in the knowledge base. There’s no option to speak to a live agent.
Reaching out to email support isn’t the best choice, either. When we sent an email, customer support responded within 48 hours, encouraging us to call the helpline instead.
As such, your best bet is to call Aura. We called the designated number, +1 833-552-2123, and we spoke to a kind and courteous agent who swiftly helped us with our issue.
Comparison Table: Aura vs. Competitors
In the table below, we compare Aura identity theft protection to LifeLock and Identity Guard, two of the most popular identity theft software programs. This comparison will help you decide between Aura and the competition.
| Feature | Aura | LifeLock | Identity Guard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | From $12/month for the annual plan | From $7.50/month for the first year | From $6.67/month for the annual plan |
| Family plan | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Insurance coverage | Up to $5 million | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million |
| Credit monitoring (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Phone support | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bank and card accounts monitored | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dark web monitoring | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial | ✖ | ✖ |
| Money-back guarantee | 60 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| Child identity protection | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Parental controls | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Safe gaming | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Get a 53% discount on Aura | Get up to 42% off on LifeLock | Get up to 40% off on your Identity Guard subscription |
As you can see from the table, Aura is superior to the competition in many departments. Its maximum insurance package is higher than most. It also has a rare “safe gaming” feature.
Though Aura is more expensive than many identity theft protection software programs, it offers a 14-day free trial and a longer money-back guarantee.
Setting up Aura: Step-by-Step Guides
Ensuring that you cover all your bases with Aura requires several minutes of setup. We go through each step below.
Step 1: Sign up for Aura
Here are the steps needed to sign up for an Aura account:
- On Aura’s website, click the pricing tab.
- Choose a plan and click “Start Free Trial.”
- Enter your email address and click “Continue.”
- In the next few pages, you’ll need to fill out your personal information, including your full name, home address, phone number, date of birth, and social security number. Make sure to use the name on your tax return or driver’s license.
- Afterward, confirm your selected plan and select a payment method. You’ll then have to fill out your credit card or PayPal information.
- Once you’ve paid for the subscription, Aura will send you a verification code on your phone that you need to enter.
That’s it! You should be done signing up for an account and a subscription. However, there are a few more steps to follow to set up Aura’s features.
Step 2: Run Aura setup scans
Aura will ask to run a scan to check the dark web and data broker websites to see if your information is compromised. We recommend performing this scan as soon as possible.
After Aura shows you the results of the scan, it will ask you to activate privacy protection.
When you click to activate privacy protection, you’ll be asked to “Continue Setup.” This will bring you to the next step.
Step 3: Set up safety checklist
Aura will show you a safety checklist to help you activate privacy protection and fully protect your identity. We recommend setting up all of them.
To get started, simply click on the checklist option you want to set up or activate.
Step 4: Credit monitoring setup
When you click “Protect My Credit” under credit monitoring, these are the steps to follow:
- Aura will ask you a series of personal questions to verify your identity and credit information.
- When you enter the details, you’ll be able to check your credit score from your Aura account, and Aura will notify you if there’s any activity on your credit file.
Step 5: Set up financial transactions
To protect your bank account, click “Protect My Money” under Financial Transactions on the safety checklist. Here’s a quick summary of the steps to follow:
- Aura will inform you that it uses Plaid to connect your account. Select your bank and log in.
- Select and confirm the accounts and information you want to share with Aura. When you click “authorize,” your account will be successfully set up.
Step 6: Setup identity monitoring
It’s vital to set up Aura to monitor your personal information and alert you if it’s ever compromised. To do that, click “Protect my identity” under “Identity Monitoring.”
- Click “Add Info to Monitor” to add the data that Aura should monitor. This could be anything from your email address to your home address. Aura will inform you that the information is being stored and monitored. You can add extra information to be monitored in your Aura Vault.
- When you’re done with the setup process, Aura will let you know what’s being monitored and what’s not being monitored.
Conclusion: Get Comprehensive Security with Aura
Aura is a well-rounded tool that protects you from identity thieves, thanks to its effective identity theft monitoring features. If you’re concerned about financial fraud, Aura is your best bet. It will monitor your credit cards, bank accounts, and properties. Plus, there’s up to $5 million in insurance coverage if anything happens.
We recommend Aura for families, especially those with young children. You can set it up to monitor your children’s activities online, including gaming.
Here are some other articles worth reading if you want to avoid cybercrime:
- What is Cyberstalking? How to Recognize It and Protect Yourself
- What are Deepfakes? How to Identify and Prevent Fake Videos
- What is a Botnet and How to Protect Your Devices
If you still have questions about Aura, we’re here to help. Below, you’ll find several questions on the identity protection service. Click on each question to reveal the answer.
Aura is a cheaper and more comprehensive option compared to LifeLock. For instance, Aura offers three-bureau monitoring on all plans, while LifeLock only offers it on its most expensive plan. Moreover, Aura’s plans include an antivirus, VPN, and a password manager.
Yes, Aura’s security features are worth it. The identity theft features effectively monitor all three credit bureaus and alert you anytime someone accesses your credit file. You can ask Aura to monitor specific information like your email address, driver’s license, and passwords. If your information is compromised in any way, Aura will alert you, and its support agents are ready to help.
We found Aura’s anti-identity theft features effective. The software alerted us each time there was any suspicious activity on our credit files or accounts. It also helped us remove our information from data brokers and third parties. Aura continuously scanned the dark web and informed us anytime our information or accounts appeared there.
Aura is an identity and fraud protection tool, ideal for families. You can set up Aura to monitor your accounts and personal information on the internet and the dark web. It will alert you if there’s every any suspicious activity regarding your account or information. An Aura subscription includes a VPN, antivirus, and password manager.
