Not necessarily.

​At the time of writing (Sept 2016) You ID Me has three different service plans allowing customers to choose from: -

• Silver Plan: A basic plan that is free for life
• Gold Plan: A one-time payment allowing you to store more vital information
• Platinum Plan: A yearly service charge providing our highest level of safety 

Learn more about the You ID Me service plans and prices.

No. You ID Me is a brand of Ahead Solution UK Ltd. and Ahead Solutions is the only company that supplies emergency and medical ID products that use the You ID Me medical alert service.

You ID Me is the worlds most effective emergency ID system. This is because in the event of an accident or an emergency it does a number of essential things: - 

• ​INFORMS: It quickly provides first-responders with essential info about the wearer
• ALERTS: It alerts the emergency contacts of the wearer that there is a problem
• LEGAL: It can provide doctors with legally binding medical documentation

For more information on the features of the service that many thousands of people choose for their medical and emergency ID service start here

The short answer is yes.

Using the unique 12 digit ID code printed on the reverse of the ID card, the You ID Me system works with any connected device: Smartphone, tablet or PC.

Behind the label is an NFC chip / tag.

The instruction printed on the label advises that the ID code can be entered at www.You-ID.me OR that the label may be read with an NFC phone to retrieve the wearers emergency details.

iPhone users must use the ID code method. This is because iPhone users do not have full use of the NFC decoder (its use has been locked down by Apple). All other smartphones may use both methods to retrieve the same info.

Things to bear in mind: - 

i) Entering the ID at the You-ID.me website remains the most common method of access.

ii) It is likely not to be your own phone used in the event of an emergency - 

So why has Apple locked the NFC on my phone?

iPhone 6 was the first of the iPhones to join the majority of smartphones containing an NFC controller.

However, at the moment, this new iPhone is “locked down” and may only be used by with the Apple Pay mobile payment system. This means that iPhone 6 users are not yet able to take advantage of the massive potential of NFC through apps, tags and communication.

Despite this, in the 72 hours following its launch, a million credit cards had been registered with Apple Pay - an indication of the popularity from Apple's user base. 

Apple may open up the “locked down” access and that iPhone will join Android, Blackberry and Windows in scanning tags. When however is anyone’s guess.

As a percentage there are far more Android, Blackberry and Windows users than iPhone users which is reassuring when one considers the likelihood of a Smartphone carrier successfully scanning the wristband.

You ID Me is an Internet based service that works wherever there is an internet connection.

Customers' emergency profiles are held on a secure server.

If the wearer of one of our emergency ID products is in an accident or an emergency anywhere in the world it should be possible to access their emergency ID profile from that country in the same way it would be accesses in the UK.

If a foreigner were to access the emergency ID profile of a You ID Me customer, the information would usually show in the same language as it has been entered at set-up.

Often modern browsers offer the option to translate what is shown into the native language. However this of course cannot be guaranteed as cannot the quality of any such translation.

The You ID Me database uses UTF-8 encoding.

All English characters render perfectly across all devices.

We do not guarantee that foreign accents will render correctly - for example acute, grave or circumflex in French or Eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp in german etc.

Customers in non-UK countries should always check that their information renders satisfactorily across all devices after setting up their profile.

We're pleased to announce a new service plan to You ID Me which brings you great new features. The following services are available as standard on our new Platinum Plan and to customers that have previously upgraded from the standard service.

There's guidance below to help you find out what plan you are on if you're not sure.

A new service which will send SMS text alerts to your selected emergency contacts - as soon as your ID profile is accessed - to notify them that you have a problem.

Text My Contacts provides you with an allowance of ten SMS alerts per month which are automatically triggered whenever someone accesses your emergency ID profile.

A space within your Platinum Plan profile to upload and store up to three legal medical documents...

Use of this feature is of course optional. It allows you to upload legal medical documents such as 'last wishes', Advance Decisions and Advance Statements to a place designed to be accessed in the case of an emergency.

We've increased the number of available service levels to three providing more choice for our customers...

The quick way to find out which service plan you are on is to log into your ID profile where you will see an indicator like the one below at the top of your profile page.

When you registered your unique ID code with us you were placed on the Standard You-ID.me Service Plan.

Customers that registered their unique ID before September 2016 will enjoy continued FREE use of our Gold Plan. You may upgrade to our Platinum Plan to access the new additional SMS Alerts and document storage features.

Customers that have previously upgraded have been automatically migrated to the Platinum Plan in readiness for the new features. If you're a Platinum customer and now want to activate the SMS. Please read this first.

Short video to demonstrate how to change your You ID Me password.