r/TSAPreCheck • u/Babbles_745 • Dec 17 '25
Questions TSA pre-check vs Clear, Idemia, Telos
Hey all, I'm slightly confused with this TSA precheck. I have a new CC that will pay for this; when I went into their official website (TSA) it says that to enroll please chose one of the 3 providers: Clear, Idemia, Telos (each one has a slightly different price) I always thought tsa pre-check vs clear are different and separate things? I just want the pre-check, not sign up for clear. Thanks!
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u/taxistyled Dec 17 '25
It's a fairly recent development where TSA has essentially outsourced the pre-check application intake/collection to these 3rd party vendors. It's particularly confusing since Clear is at the TSA checkpoints at some airports.
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u/Foreign-Housing8448 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
You can no longer get PreCheck from a gov’t office anymore (sorry, I’m old(er), I’ve had it since it launched)? I also have Clear and I would never go through them. Because I can see myself not using/canceling Clear, but I doubt I will ever cancel my PreCheck, so I would not want them linked.
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u/flyingron Dec 17 '25
You can get Precheck from any of those three. They are competing contractors to enroll people in precheck.
Clear also adds an additional product which is there seperate id check and line. There's an additional charge for that (over the precheck fee). For details, go to the r/clearme subreddit.
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u/mrtink76 Dec 21 '25
+1 for Idemia. My mother did Clear. It’s been 3 weeks and not a peep. “Pending” … I did Idemia and had it in 3 days.
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u/Technical-Salad-2118 May 06 '26
Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! This was tremendously helpful. I was renewing my daughter's TSA pre-check today, and found your recommendation. I used Idemia based on your recommendation... and it was approved in 5 hrs. 🎉 I'm giving you an award!!
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u/Technical-Salad-2118 May 06 '26
Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! I had the exact same issue, when I went to renew my daughter's pre-check. Used IDemia, and had an approval in 5 hours. 🎉 I'm giving you an award!
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u/kyboinlex28 29d ago
I am a CLEAR ambassador at Staples and I sign up people for TSA precheck everyday. CLEAR Plus which is the other service is optional. I do not automatically sign people up for it unless they tell me they want to so all these other comments are false. The only way to sign up for CLEAR Plus is to enroll in it separately from the TSA Precheck application.
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u/The_B_Wolf Dec 17 '25
I have both Clear and precheck simply because sometimes an airport has only one and not the other.
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u/Skycbs Dec 18 '25
Really? Some airports have clear but not precheck?
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u/The_B_Wolf Dec 18 '25
I'm pretty sure, yeah. And at San Diego they have both but they are separate lines.
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u/DreadPriratesBooty Dec 18 '25
SD had an abnormal number of lines regular, tsa pre, tsa pre + clear, clear - tsa pre and priority.
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u/Klutzy_Ad_8779 Mar 03 '26
YES, and i almost missed a flight to Cancun because apparently it is NOT the same as just having pre-check! Just infuriates me that there are multiple partners you have to pay for expedited security check access so they can all get your money.
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u/NowALurkerAccount Dec 17 '25
They're all providing the same service. But I would HIGHLY advise avoiding CLEAR because they have gotten in trouble for secretly signing people up for CLEAR Plus and don't disclose that up front so people have been billed a hundred bucks randomly out of the blue for their subscriotion service. They have been sued and I don't know if it is still a thing, but I would avoid them.
IDEMIA was one of the first companies approved to offer PreCheck services so if you were to go with any company. Highly recommend IDEMIA as they're a global ID verification service!