Privacy Assist is an identity theft protection service offered by Bank of America, which is a banking and financial services institution founded in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1998. The company provides a wide range of insurance solutions and financial services to over 47 million consumers, 4,700 retail financial centers, and 3 million businesses worldwide.

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The Good

Affordable
Credit Monitoring Services

Affordable

At $9.99 per month, Privacy Assist is reasonably priced and affordable for most consumers.

Credit Monitoring Services

As part of its services, Privacy Assist provides its customers with credit monitoring and reports from all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. If any suspicious activity is detected, the company will issue an alert to the customer immediately. The company will also assist consumers to dispute errors that may be discovered on credit reports.

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The Bad

Lack of Features
Lawsuit

Lack of Features

Unfortunately, Privacy Assist places a heavy emphasis on credit monitoring and does not offer a number of other important identity protection features, including identity theft insurance, internet scanning, bank account monitoring, antivirus software, and identity restoration.

Lawsuit

In 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Bank of America to refund $727 million to its customers for illegal credit card practices dating back to the year 2000. These allegations included but were not limited to billing customers for add-on products such as Privacy Assist without or before having the authorization to do so. Bank of America was also fined an additional $45 million for deceiving customers into believing that these add-ons came with a free 30-day trial, when in reality, customers were being charged for services, some of which were not rendered, as soon as they signed up.

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The Bottom Line

Bank of America's Privacy Assist is affordable and provides credit monitoring from all three major credit bureaus. However, Privacy Assist is missing a number of important features, including identity theft insurance and identity restoration. Additionally, Bank of America was involved in a lawsuit in 2014 because it was billing customers for add-on products such as Privacy Assist without having the authorization to do so.

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User Reviews

Star Rating

2.1

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17 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

24%

4 grade

3 grade

2 grade

12%

1 grade

65%

Sentiment Criteria

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Everett Brooks

I tried calling to set up an email alert so they won't start charging me $3.00 more to mail alerts. I was on hold for $15 minutes the first time before I hung up and 25 minutes the second time. Been with them for over 10 years and thinking about moving over to Life Lock.

2 months ago

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Geri Reynolds Placentia, CA

Dee helped me today to access my credit report. She was knowledgable and so patient with me and kind. She stayed on the line until she was sure I was where I needed to be and could access the information I needed. Tbank you so much Dee!

2 years ago

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Matt

If you ever need to speak to someone at customer service you are in for hours and hours of frustration. Their automated phone service doesn’t work and takes literally hours to get someone on the phone. Use another service.

3 months ago

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Dwayne Holland Charlotte, NC

I had ID protection coverage with Bank of America and I thought there was some fraudulent charges and I talked to customer service, whom was very nice and professional to me. Well come find out there wasn't any fraudulent charges after all but I had made a mistake. When I talked to them they didn't treat me like shame on me, they were very nice and professional with me. They made me glad I had used them and I would definitely recommend this company. Thanks

2 years ago

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Nancy Oliver Lake Orion, MI

Added to my account as I am a card holder. Had one issue where on Amazon. Kept receiving packages daily but never ordered. The Amazon company just kept adding orders to my card then shipping to me and also adding to my card. Dirty for sure. Mastercard handled everything and I did not owe a dime. Very much appreciated as it was over 700.00 dollars.

2 years ago

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Stuart Heitschmidt Redding, CA

They hung-up on me when I asked to speak to a Sup re cancelling them stealing $120/year, for years. they charge me but can't find me or my spouse in their database. They can't even find me or my spouses' phone#'s in their database. Talk about crappy service! I asked them at what address do I mail a "Cease & Desist" order, and they would not give me one. Now I have to go into town to BofA, and maybe my CC bank. I'm disabled so this is a real inconvenience. And I have better things to do! I'll be spending hours on this. My spouse and I are separated, and they just can't deal with it! My spouse is not on any of my accounts so how can this be even if she put it there? They don't have any info on their database anyway!

2 years ago

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Debbie Borgio Mount Arlington, NJ

I've been paying them for 15 years and I just canceled. They changed everything over to email but I'm old school and want a hard copy. So how that hard copy disappeared, they claimed they don't save information but they could tell me what on the August statement. So you can see it, you can tell me about it but you can't print it out and send it to me?!?!?!?! I was reimbursed for 1 month when as far as I can tell they haven't done anything for 6 months. It's been a huge waste of money on my part!!!

2 years ago

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MM Nolan Elmhurst, IL

I am considering terminating my Privacy Assist account. When I thought I had lost a credit card, they were unable to help me. It was up to me to contact the credit card company. Why did I need to give them all my credit card numbers then? Also, I have been charged 12.99 per month for years. Now I see on their web site the cost is only 9.99. What gives?

5 years ago

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Steve Bera

I have $25,000 of identity theft protection coverage even though I am enrolled in privacy assist least expensive program. Therefore, the main review you read on this website is not correct when they stated such coverage was not included.

7 years ago

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Carrie McCracken

I've tried to call today 5 different times to speak with a representative, each time the call gets picked up the rep just hangs up, I guess they don't like their job and are treating the customers like dirt.

10 months ago

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Raul Cisneros Short Hills, NJ

I have had the service for years (since 2010) and I thought I was paying for ID theft and forgot that I was paying for Credit Card Theft. Then I forgot to update my credit cards since 2012 and they NEVER reached out to me to remind me to update my credit cards. So I have been paying a fee for almost a decade without really getting the protection

3 years ago

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carol shapiro Boston, MA

I find that every time I try to access my account is extremely convoluted so am considering changing to another credit watchdog service.

1 year ago

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Michele Portales, NM

The worst bank to deal with identity theft especially with an elderly dementia member. They are the most difficult company to deal with in trying to solve the theft.

6 years ago

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Shoshana Friedman Charlotte, NC

Used to provide a good service until they made changes to the website and the service and now it is NOT worth the monthly payment.

2 years ago

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anupam sumessur Curtis Bay, MD

Very user friendly and communicative. Always there when needed.

2 years ago

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david astor Kankakee, IL

Been paying 12.99 for years to find out that it is 9.99. Called and was denied compensation.

2 years ago

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Robert Adams Provo, UT

There is no link to logon to my privacy assist account on the logon page.

1 year ago