| By Jim Bruene on October 17, 2006 1:54 PM | Comments (1) |
While there's nothing unusual about the product or offer, with 50% market share in online banking, everything Bank of America does at its website is news.
After reviewing my credit card balance online today, I was greeted with a 30-day free trial offer for Bank of America's Privacy Assist Premier, a daily credit-monitoring, three-bureau service priced at $12.99/mo.
Below is the splash screen displayed after logging out from online banking:
We were a bit surprised at the lack of disclosure on this screen; not a single word about the eventual $156 annual cost, to which even the most well-heeled BofA clients may take exception.
Another surprise: Clicking the Accept button simply dropped us back on the home page with not a word of thanks or any confirmation that our selection was accepted.
However, most users will be smart enough to choose Learn More before signing up. On that landing page the cost is well documented appearing in the first bullet point in the shaded box (see below).
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Bank of America didn't protect me from identity theft, and in the simplest way.
Their TELLERS gave $12,000 of my money, total, on seven separate occasions, to thieves with a fake driver's license in my name. No PIN was required. The signature was not verified to be mine. The withdrawals were in places I never go, and for over a thousand dollars each time.
I write seven days a week and take out a few hundred dollars at the ATM. I never go to teller windows, never take out large sums of cash, pay for almost everything on a credit card.
They were repeatedly and spectacularly negligent, in a bunch of different branches, SEVEN different times.
And then they fired me as a customer, as of the end of July (today); apparently for complaining too vociferously that they failed their fiduciary duty to me.
$156/yr. credit monitoring? How about just having a teller look at a signature and check that it matches the account holder's before they hand over the account holder's money like lettuce?