I understand your frustration but from experience you can not enroll into this program without a privacy assist agent speaking directly to the customer as the customer have to provide and very information and provide a credit card to charge the account. No bank rep can do that AT ALL IT IF THEY DO THAT MEANS THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN COMMITTING SOME TYPE OF FRAUD. I KNOW FOR FACT THAT THE EMPLOYEES WERE NOT ABLE TO ENROLL CUSTOMERS IN THAT PROGRAM WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION.

I gotta tell ya', after reading this thread I really girded my loins for a fight.

Called the number on a Saturday afternoon, talked to a nice young woman, got the whole thing resolved in about 5 minutes. That said, I didn't try to fight the existing charge on my card, I just wanted to cancel any recurring future charges. Fool me once, etc.

Despite the fact that I didn't know my "account number" (by which I gathered she meant my "Privacy Assist" account number, which I have NEVER seen), or my old phone number, she did accept my DOB, old address and the account number of the BOA card on which the charge is applied. That plus the last four of my social. Yeah, yeah, I know that's a lot, especially for a "security company", but I figure just the last four is probably ok. (I know that I'm dancing on the edge security-wise, but I just want the fee to STOP).

I got a little schpiel (about two minutes long) about how you can protect up to 22 cards (are you serious?) and about how my state was the 10th worst in the nation for card fraud (she kinda bobbled that pitch a little bit, but recovered).

I was even prepared for a fight about monthly charge vs annual charge, but she implied that they were only charging a monthly fee, not an annual fee.

So, theoretically, everything has been canceled. She even gave me a "confirmation code".

I'm not saying that I believe for a second that this could possibly be as easy as it seems to me, but at the moment it does kinda sorta seem that way.  I guess I'll have to wait a month and see if the monthly fee is actually gone. If yes, then I guess I will have to wait a year to make sure they don't try to hit me with an annual fee. Either they are smooth-talking me or the trick is to write off your losses and not fight for the refund.

So... either enough people have applied enough pressure that they have finally cleaned up their act a little bit,  or they they are just running the "long con" on me. Only time will tell.

As a former employee, everything that's been said on this forum I heard roughly 20 times a day.  Now multiply that by the 150 agents that worked at my location alone!  There's no way you can be put on a no-call list.  If you call and ask for them to pull the tapes verifying verbal enrollment, they say it's 4-6 weeks and if THEY determine you verbally agreed over the phone, you don't get a refund.  Many people cave to the telemarketing calls and agree just so they can stop receiving the calls every night, some which are placed at 10 PM.  Management tells the agents that their [idiot] customers don't pay attention and they do indeed get their credit reports in the mail, but I never received my own reports in the mail!  The services claims "next business day monitoring", but the alerts may be three, four, ten days after credit has been applied for.  I can understand once in a while somebody getting signed up without permission, but when the calls are constant, you know there's a scam involved.  When 65% of the call volume is retention sales, i.e., people calling to cancel their service, something's not right.  Management not only believes you're stupid, they think their agents are stupid.  Even if you call in and say you didn't sign up and you just want it cancelled immediately, the agent is required to give you two rebuttals, convincing you the service is worth it.  You may be miserable as a consumer, but imagine taking calls like yours all day and having to retain a certain amount of customers so you don't receive disciplinary action...  The service isn't completely crap, but it's majorly flawed and the enrollment process has to be the way it is or else nobody would enroll.

they charged me 12.99 for something....????? wtf?

I just noticed this on my Mothers Bank Statement, and the amount was $11.99, charged twice.  My mother is 86 years old and hard of hearing, but has excellent credit and has NOT signed up for anything like this.  The reason this is doubly upsetting is that Bank of America made a mistake LAST month on her bill, and said that they would correct it, and it would be on her next statement. THE STATEMENT WAS NOT CORRECTED. I am showing this to a friend of mine who is an attorney, and will be calling Bank of America during normal business hours on this.  I am also showing this to my banker, affiliated with another Banking Entity, to help spread this blantant disregard for client satisfaction Bank of America is, and has been doing, for some time, with the 800-516-9561.

can i get this 12.99 back?? they took it out twice in one month..

Thanks Guys

I just got a call and I hangup after hearing privacy assist. I had googled and find information very useful

Watch out.. I just got an email from the same group asking me to call my B of A Credit Education Specialist at 800-516-9561 because they said they noticed significant activity on my credit files.
I plan to call our local branch to verify these statements

My grandmother was contacted by this bogus company.. I called to have her removed and they told me she has voluntarily signed up for the service. She recieved a phone call about this service and they told her she would get 3 credit reports but forgot to tell her she would be billed. I am waiting to see if the charges are removed from her next bill... What a shame that B of A is giving away this information.

im in the same boat as "Mongo" from above... tried to get them to verify how my account was open... no dice, they wouldn't tell me till i gave up my SS#. hell no i said. ganna complain to BoA and stop payment.

f-these guys

got a call from this number, and wanted to talk to someone with a similar last name as my GF.

I hung up right away . then called back from another number, and it seemed bogus.

Privacy Assist Premium and 800-516-9561

I put the phone number into Google and found this site and many, many others.  This company is like a rash on the Internet - usually a good sign you don't want to deal with them.

I have a checking account with Bank of America and never subscribed to this service.  However, while updating my online activity on this normally inactive account, I noticed charges for $12.99 on 6-02-08 and 4-28-08.  This included the phone number and entry listed as "800-516-9561 DES:PrAsstPrem ID".  I immediately contacted BofA by secure email and they answered that is was a ACH (Automatic Clearing House) transaction.  "These transactions are a contractual agreement between you and the merchant. Therefore, I recommend you to contact the merchant in question."

BofA refused to correct the problem although offered to let me file a formal dispute.  I called Customer Service and they recommended I contact the merchant to see if they would offer a resolution first.  

I did so.  At Privacy Premier Assist, the foreign voice said they had a key log of my choice to enroll (which they don't) and something else.  She claimed that I had affirmed wanting the service by pressing 1 once when I called Bank of America's customer service number.  I said I had done no such thing.  And I've never received any mail or credit reports from them.  After a short discussion of how un-interested I was in their service, she offered to refund the 2nd charge but said she couldn't refund the 1st charge.  I said that wasn't acceptable.  I said, I know you'll end up having to give all the money back eventually, so why not save some time and just do it now.  And after waiting a short time on hold, she came back and said I'd get my refund in 24 to 48 hrs.  

I'll post here again regarding that refund.  

As for the Do Not Call registry - this company doesn't apply. Since Bank of America is supplying them with your private information to contact you in the first place, you have no recourse with DoNotCall.  Most here who say they don't bank with BofA likely have a credit card which is processed by them.

The solution obviously is for Bank of America to sever their relationship with this shady company.  I doubt that will happen as long as they're making money from it.  However, if enough people complained directly to BofA and filed formal disputes, it might have some effect.

WTF they just keep calling and it appears private on my caller ID and they want me to give them my SSN, they're so retarded, I already said no, they kept calling so I just hang up now.

They are contracted by Bank of America to provide the "privacy assist" service if you have selected it for credit reporting and ID theft awareness.  $5.99 for the basic plan (1 credit reporter), $12.99 for "premier" plan (3 credit reporters).

they charged me 5.99 for something

I received a call to my cell phone and I called the 800 number and never got a live person. There was a recorded message, but it didn't give any reason for calling.  They claimed that they are some privacy assist.

I have this charge on my bank account for $12.99 . If this is for credit protection, I thought I cancelled this two months ago.  Since then my account has been ransacked for over $500 in less than 2 months.
Can I get this charge reversed back to my accunt?

Same thing, all of a sudden on my B of A credit card comes this $12.99 charge that was NEVER authorized!  Its utter BS.  They harass the crap out of you on your phone and then finally tell them NO and go away and they charge you instead.  No wonder B of A needs taxpayers bailout, the way they manage their finances by defrauding customers, they must really need a ton of money.  No to mention the class action suit agains BofA for fraudulently imposing NSF charges.  They best stop this nonsense on all the accounts or they may just have another suit!

they do not ask for the SS # because they have the last four.  if they are a legit company they would tell you that or maybe you dont stay on the phone long enough to hear it.  if someone ask you for your social then i would be suspicious and i would call and complain.  but should not take it out on every telemarketer becuase they are only doing a job that brings food to the table.

I had recieved a 12.99 charge on my account too! I called today and asked for a refund. They had said that I had confirmed it by "voice" twice in December. Why bill in April for something "confirmed". What really gets me is that this is supposed to be credit report whatever, and I don't even have any credit yet! They said to call back within two days and the refund should be returned. I'll post again whether i recieve it or not.

Same thing here Bank of American statement says Privacy Assist and I was charged $59.99. Don't recall if I recieved a call or not for this service and if I did I mostly say I'm not interested.

I noticed that they were charging $12.99 for my cousin for more than a year and who does not have a clue about this service. This is a total ripoff and I can not understand how Bank of America is not complicit in this.

I just got a notice of insufficient funds from BofA on my brothers account with a $35.00 bank fee due to an electronic with drawl of $12.99 on 06/27 to this same number...for a total of $47.99 due to BofA.  My brother died on May 30th and I closed his account by going into the bank with the required death certificate.  He was not one to check his bank statement so I wonder how much they got out of him.  Shame on Bank of America.   They do not even realize his account was closed and are trying to colled an addition $35.00 on top of it.

I enrolled for a new Bank of America Free Checking Account in October 2008 and was approved with the minimum initial deposit of $25.00. This account was registered on line in addition to my existing accounts with Bank of America. Since then I did not made any further transactions/authorizations except for the enrollment of this specific account.
Then here comes the unauthorized charge of $12.99 by ACH HOLD Privacy Assist on July 31, 2009.
I called Bank of America (1-800-432-1000) immediately to get assistance to recover the unauthorized charge, but after several question and answers, I was advised to forward my inquiries to 1-800-516-9561.
The guy on the other end of the telephone explained that this is a one-time charge of monitoring and protecting my identity and providing credit reports for my review and corrections. I told them that I did not received any credit reports and I did not authorized these and requested for a refund.
This scheme will eventually drain your money and will bind me to an obligation I did not authorized and would destroy instead my credit records.
Bank of America should be held accountable for this scam.

Privacy Assist continues to call my number asking for Tohito.  I've called them twice already and they say they have no records of anyone calling me.  Hello!!! Its their automated system that is calling my number and if they have no record of it then how the hell am I supposed to stop getting these calls.  I talked to the manager and she said that she opted me out and that she needed my name and address.  I'll see if this works.

Unknown #; caller asks me to verify my identity ; there is no explanation of who "they" are outside of an oblique "Premier..." I will not take their call now or in the future.

Privacy Assist which partners with BOA charged my card  $12.99 and said I agreed to a membership from a telamarket firm.  I explained that it would be impossible for someone to call me because I was signed up on the national no call list AND my phone blocks all calls that do not have a name. He then said he would get the tapes and I said I would hold on because I would love to hear them. Then his super came on the phone and said they would cancel my membership and I told them I had no membership to cancel. So after much going back and forth they agreed to credit the $12.99 back, I asked for a case number-badge number-and name and they gave this to me. Now what do you want to bet that somehow this will get lost ?  I said I would join the California class action and that seemed to help I think, Tomorrow I plan to fax letters to both BOA and PA . I was a member of BOA since 94  and I canceled my card tonite because BOA has let bogus charges slip on my account for three straight months and I was issued 2 new cards in a row. Since I didn't speak to them I'm still listing it because someone granted a membership on a non answered call/

This is a BOA scam. There is a California class action lawsuit filled against BOA for violating various statutes in relation to Security Assist.  If you want to become a party Google Security Assist Class Action.  I received a full refund by threatening to file a complaint with our state division of consumer affairs and becoming a party to the law suit.  When I was offered a partial refund I told the rep that a partial refund would be good since it would serve to legitimize my complaint. They asked for all kinds of personal information which I refused to give them.  I never enrolled in the program and they claimed they had added three monthly payments to my BOA credit card which I plan to cancel.

Mike, you're the one who's retarded.  I just spent 28 minutes on the phone to get a $29.99 charge refunded that appeared suddenly ONE YEAR after I had cancelled Privacy Assist.  They said "Oh, we're sorry. We cancelled the $12.99 monthly charge, but didn't know you wanted the $29.99 ANNUAL fee cancelled!  Our bad."  Are you kidding me?!   Here's what is happening.  They are counting on you not noticing the charge!!!  They are STEALING from us.  Simple.

The BAC PRIVACY ASSIST IS A SCAM!!! I had my BankAmericard for almost a year and just received my credit statement. I was charged $12.99 for a BAC Privacy Assist on 02/24 of this year. I did not sign up nor did I say yes. I always tell a person, 'No, you do not have my permission.'

I do not have a Job and the gov gives me little money every month, can I sue this low lives for stealing from my pocket as well tampering with my account?