Select Security should be treated as a legacy provider record, not as a current standalone buying option. On December 24, 2020, SecurityInfoWatch reported that Brinks Home Security acquired approximately 30,000 residential and small-business monitoring contracts and 8,000 large-commercial contracts from Select Security. A current or former Select customer should verify the company now billing, monitoring, servicing, and controlling the account before relying on an old Select proposal, website reference, sticker, or review.
Select Security status at a glance
| Question | What the record says | What to verify now |
|---|---|---|
| Is Select Security a current standalone provider? | Brinks acquired Select monitoring contracts in December 2020 | Current legal entity, account owner, service branch, and support contact |
| Who monitors the alarm? | The acquisition covered residential, small-business, and commercial monitoring contracts | Monitoring station, communication path, verification rules, and dispatch procedure |
| Who owns the equipment? | The news report does not settle each customer’s equipment terms | Purchase, lease, financing, return, warranty, and compatibility records |
| Do old terms still apply? | Account acquisition does not answer an individual agreement | Current term, renewal, price, notice, cancellation, move, and service terms |
| Can the system be moved or reused? | Depends on the exact panel, communicator, sensors, cameras, locks, and account state | Model list, installer lock, cellular support, radio compatibility, and release process |
1. Reconstruct the account chain
Collect the original Select agreement, later notices, invoices, bank or card descriptors, emails, app names, monitoring certificates, permit records, service tickets, and cancellation correspondence. Write a dated chain showing Select Security, any acquiring or servicing company, the current monitoring entity, and the party authorized to change billing or dispatch instructions. Do not send credentials or payment data to a phone number taken only from an old yard sign or sticker.
2. Verify the current provider through independent records
Use a recent invoice, current app, verified corporate contact page, monitoring certificate, and state or local license record where required. Ask the provider to state the legal name, account number, monitored address, service branch, central station, emergency contacts, and equipment ownership in writing. The acquisition is documented in SecurityInfoWatch’s December 2020 report; individual account terms still require account-specific proof.
3. Inventory every installed device
Record the panel, communicator, keypad, siren, door and window contacts, motion detectors, smoke and CO devices, water sensors, panic devices, cameras, recorder, locks, thermostats, bridges, power supplies, batteries, and network equipment. Capture model and serial numbers without publishing them. Mark whether each item is owned, leased, financed, provider-controlled, installer-locked, unsupported, or unknown.
4. Map the alarm and monitoring path
For each priority opening, document the sensor, zone label, entry delay, siren, panel communication, monitoring verification, contact order, dispatch rule, permit, and false-alarm process. Confirm what uses broadband, what has cellular backup, what happens during an outage, and how the household places the account in test mode. A working app is not proof that monitoring and dispatch are current.
5. Audit cameras, recordings, and privacy
List each camera’s field of view, power, network, recording trigger, storage location, retention, overwrite, timestamps, audio, privacy zones, named users, provider or installer access, and export method. Test the first useful frame, not only live view. Remove former occupants, employees, installers, and shared links. Keep cameras away from private neighboring areas and follow applicable recording and audio-consent rules.
6. Read the current agreement, not the legacy sales summary
- Initial term, renewal, notice window, allowed price changes, and current balance.
- Equipment purchase, lease, financing, ownership, return, and installer release.
- Monitoring, video, storage, automation, taxes, permits, activation, and service fees.
- Warranty, battery, replacement, remote support, and technician-visit terms.
- Move, sale, death, disability, military, outage, cancellation, and early-exit terms.
- Privacy, recordings, arbitration, liability, assignment, and account-transfer terms.
7. Test billing and cancellation controls
Match the provider name and amount on the latest invoice to the payment descriptor. Confirm the renewal date, notice method, notice address, required account verification, equipment-return instructions, and final-bill process. Keep delivery proof and written acknowledgements. Do not cancel a cellular communicator or monitoring account until the replacement response path has passed testing.
8. Decide whether to keep, migrate, or replace the equipment
| Path | Use when | Required proof |
|---|---|---|
| Keep current service | Monitoring, support, equipment, privacy, and price meet the household’s needs | Current agreement, successful alarm test, service contact, and recovery plan |
| Move to another compatible dealer | The panel and sensors are owned, supported, released, and compatible | Model list, radio support, installer-code status, communicator plan, written quote |
| Replace the platform | Equipment is locked, unsupported, poorly documented, or too costly to maintain | Parallel cutover plan, coverage map, removal plan, and full acceptance test |
| Use hybrid equipment | Selected wired sensors or cameras can be retained safely | Compatibility, supervision, power, privacy, ownership, and support boundaries |
9. Compare three-year cost at equal scope
Compare the same number of protected openings, motion zones, sirens, users, cameras, storage days, backup communication paths, monitoring level, installation work, service visits, batteries, and warranty coverage. Include upfront equipment, activation, installation, recurring monitoring, video, storage, taxes, maintenance, rate changes, move fees, cancellation, and equipment return. Do not publish a universal price from a legacy Select agreement.
10. Where a DIY sensor-led system fits
A household that wants direct equipment ownership, self-installation, self-monitoring, and optional paid response can compare the Abode Smart Security Kit and current Abode plans. Compare like for like: entry sensors, siren, communication backup, cameras, storage, monitoring, installation, support, privacy, and three-year cost. Also review the Brinks Home Security review and security contract cancellation guide.
11. 60-minute Select Security account and migration test
- Minutes 0-10: match the current provider, account, monitored address, contacts, permit, and billing record.
- Minutes 10-20: trigger representative door, window, motion, panic, and life-safety zones under approved test mode.
- Minutes 20-30: verify siren, app alert, monitoring contact, event label, and timestamp.
- Minutes 30-40: disconnect internet and then AC power separately; record local alarm, cellular, camera, battery, and recovery behavior.
- Minutes 40-50: test named users, remove a temporary user, review camera access, and export one event or clip.
- Minutes 50-60: confirm support, service escalation, recovery contacts, cancellation controls, and written follow-up for every fault.
Verdict
Select Security is best understood as a legacy account history. The 2020 Brinks acquisition makes current provider, billing, monitoring, service, ownership, and agreement verification the first job. Keep the system only if the current account passes a supervised alarm, outage, privacy, evidence, and recovery test at an acceptable full cost.
FAQ
Is Select Security still a standalone home-security provider?
SecurityInfoWatch reported that Brinks Home Security acquired Select Security’s residential, small-business, and commercial monitoring contracts in December 2020. Verify the current provider for the individual account.
Did the acquisition automatically change every contract term?
The public acquisition report does not answer an individual customer’s current agreement. Review account-specific notices, invoices, terms, and applicable law.
Can old Select Security equipment work with another provider?
Possibly. Compatibility depends on ownership, exact models, communicator support, installer locks, sensor radios, firmware, and whether the current provider releases the equipment.
Should monitoring be cancelled before a replacement is installed?
No. Build and test the replacement alarm, communication, response, camera, user, and outage paths before ending the existing protection.
William is a tech buff and former corporate security officer turned cybercrime analyst. Computers have few secrets left for him, but home security and alarm systems… Well, those have plenty of secrets for their users, which William is now uncovering and explaining. His articles on home security helped many people take the matter seriously, invest in highly performing systems, and avoid becoming victims of burglaries.
Deana Jane says
I was actually looking into considering this product due to their provided lifetime warranty and free maintenance, but the lock up of 60 months sounds awfully too long. And basing on the comments from customers above they sound like a company I wouldn’t want to work with. Thanks for sharing though and thank you to the many others in the comments who shared some feedback, this saves me some time!
Brittany says
Don’t waste your money! They lie about not putting you into a contract and then you’re in a contract for five years and their service is terrible.
If you want a system when there truly is an issue they should catch but miss and instead you catch it, report it, and they ignore what you say when they contact you as if it’s a brand new problem over 14 HOURS later then this is the company for you. Last night my daughter and I discovered that every single door and motion sensor was not picking up on the alarm panel and tripping an alarm like it should. So I call in and say what’s going on, give what contact methods to use for today, and that I won’t be available by cell phone because oh you know gotta work. Twelve hours later their panel FINALLY realizes there’s a problem but they don’t call then do they? Nope they wait until over two more hours later so a total of 14 hours after I figured out nothing was working myself. Do they read the notes from last night about contact method? If you haven’t caught on my now the answer is no they didn’t so they call my cell phone as I’m trying to leave for work instead of emailing or contacting my direct work line. Then after I tell the girl what’s going on and that I don’t have time to deal with it because they didn’t listen to begin with and I just need to make sure they have my right contact info for sending me trouble shooting instructions. Does she listen, speed it up, not waste my time? Funny haha that’s a joke nope she repeats every bloody thing I just said was wrong as if I hadn’t said a word and she was informing me of the revelation of new information. So pissed me off. Called back tell the guy to cancel service don’t have time to waste because I’m brushing my teeth while trying to get this done and rather than doing what’s asked he puts me on hold twice for a “supervisor” after I said I want it cancelled immediately because fourteen bloody hours and they don’t see a problem with that? What’s the point of a security system THAT DOESN’T WORK?!?! Don’t waste your time or money! It’s been over a week and a half with the system not working and no one has called me back yet about it, shocker.
CHELSEA FLOWERS says
I had my security system installed on August 31ST 2017. The panel malfunctioned and system was not working correctly. The motion sensor did not pick up any movement and did not alarm. On 9/5 the front door contact feel off and continued to fall off every day until after Hurricane Irma. Even after I put the sensor back on the front door contact would not work. The back up battery only worked for 8 hours. I discovered that during Hurricane Irma. They replaced the system a week later and the very next day the same issues started happening all over again. I’m paying for a system that has not worked correctly since it had been installed. I called 9/22 and asked to have a manager call me, they sent me an email requesting a date and time to pick up the eqipment. Some customer service.
Dan D. says
Everyone needs to read the fine print which states that the lease is automatically renewed every five years for a new five-year term. My mom had Select Security installed when her husband died eight years ago. She was living alone and needed peace of mind that a security system provides. She has recently moved into assisted living and has sold her home. She was told that if the new owner did not make the monthly payments she would be required to pay them until the second five years were up.
I can understand the initial five year commitment but the automatic five year contract extension seems harsh. I wish that I was there at the time and had a chance to read through the contract.
Alarm Reviews says
Thanks for the heads up Dan. Lots of security companies put the autorenewal in their contract which is absurd honestly. Always smart to check the fine print and ask questions up front.
David Storehouse says
Worst company ever. POOR customer service, took them 2 calls to replace a faulty batterie which I called them about in the first place. Canceled contract with 6 months left on first yr, no refund and now they are billing me for additional 2 years of service, Good luck collecting…….STAY AWAY from this company
Louise D. says
Things break all the time so having that guarantee means a lot for me. I feel like if something were to go wrong, I would be covered. I have 5 kids and several pets in our home and my husband works full time. I need to know what I pay for is protected so I think I will be giving Select Security a call!
Jackie says
I feel the same. This is what brought me here. I have been trying to find companies who will cover accidents. I had a another company charge me $800 for a few things that were broken! It was by my kids and not their fault but still. I am glad to have found a place like Select Security.
Kale says
I knew it was too good to be true! SIXTY MONTHS!? My cousin was telling me about Select Security and the prices sounded great compared to many other places around here. I was thinking maybe it was a 2 or 3 year max contract but 5 is just too much. He recommends them and has them but I need something more open.
Lee Harris says
If you aren’t planning on moving, they are more than worth testing out. I thought the same think prior to signing with them by 5 years goes by so fast. I think most people stay in one place for at least 5 years anyways. I have been with them since 2013, about 4 years. It has only felt like 2. Trust me, don’t let a 5 year contract scare you away from Select Security, they are one of the best ones out there!
Savannah says
The 60 months equates to 5 years. That is a LOOOOONG contract. Heck, it is longer than my lease on my car which is 4 years. I did end up signing on with Select because it was a name that many people around here were familiar with and a few members in my family already had a service with. I have no complaints other than that long contract.
Michelle M. says
Yeah the long contract seems a bit overwhelming but after a while, it is not a big deal. I just bought a house 2 years ago, my first home so Select’s 5 year contract was not a big deal. I will be paying off my home for the next 15 or so years anyways.