Dave Ramsey Loves Zander’s ID Theft Protection Plan, Should You?
Popular American financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker endorses Zander Insurance’s ID Theft protection plan. If you listen to Dave Ramsey’s endorsement on Zander’s ID theft page he states:
“…I got together with Jeff Zander of Zander Insurance to develop the identity safeguard program. I knew my listeners, my employees, even my family needed a way to protect themselves.”
Now while I respect Dave Ramsey as an author and educator, if he’s claiming ownership (partial or otherwise) of Zander’s Identity Safeguard Pan, I don’t think Lifelock or Identity Guard need worry about Zander grabbing all their business. It’s not a bad service but in this incredibly competitive industry, there are just too many choices for consumers not to insist on a great service. As someone who considers themselves an expert on identity protection plans, Zander’s plan falls short in the critical detection part which should be essential in any identity theft service.
How Does Zander Insurance’s Identity Protection Work?
- Free Annual Credit Reports
- Assistance in Using Existing Consumer Services
- Full Managed Recovery
- Reimbursement
Zander will send you reminders to order your free credit report through annualcreditreport.com.
Zander will integrate and assist you in using existing programs already available to you like the Do Not Call Registry, Opt-Out program and Fraud Alerts.
When a member becomes a victim, an expert recovery advocate will handle all phases of the recovery process. The Zander advocate will stay on the case until it is resolved and will handle all disputes on the members behalf related to new account fraud, medical ID fraud, social security, insurance, benefit and employment fraud, etc. In addition, they will work to remove any criminal or civil judgments, and provide information to the Federal Trade Commission and other government agencies.
Individual and family participants will be reimbursed for lost income and expenses associated with identity theft up to $20,000.
Analysis
At $6.50/month for individuals and $12.50/month for famalies, Zander is very affodrably priced.
This is one area where Zander’s ID theft services fall short. Basically the prevention aspect of their program involves educating you on the use of existing consumer resources and a monthly newsletter alerting you to scams.
Zander’s ID Theft program doesn’t scan public databases or black market websites for your private information and the only tool available is the free copy of your annual credit report you are already entitled too. You are no better off than a non member at being able to detect that identity theft has occurred.
Zander does offer members unlimited recovery assistance by a recovery expert until complete resolution has been achieved. They will handle all aspects of your case as well as insuring that any fraudulent criminal or civil judgments resulting from identity theft are removed.
Opinion
Zander’s ID Theft program is aggressively priced at $6.50/month but for a few dollars more you can get far more value and protection in a program like TrustedID’s IDEssentials. You can read our full review here. Besides the recovery assistance, Zander’s doesn’t offer members much value in the prevention or detection department. Sure, it’s nice to know that in the case of identity theft you’ll have somebody holding your hand as you go through the tedious process of restoring your identity but it would be nicer if some resources were devoted to preventing the theft in the first place.
THE GOOD: Unlimited personalized resolution services.
THE BAD: Only unlimited personalized resolution services.
Visit zander.com to sign up.