Comparison

CardValet vs Privacy.com

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

CardValet

Take full control of your debit and credit cards with instant on/off toggles, spending limits, and location-based restrictions. Receive real-time alerts for all transactions, monitor purchases, and manage your cards digitally from your smartphone.

Highlights
  • Turn cards on/off instantly
  • Set spending limits
  • Restrict usage by location
  • Control merchant categories
  • Receive real-time transaction alerts
  • View purchase history
  • Activate cards and set PIN
Features
Read full description

NOTE: This application is powered by Fiserv, Inc. but is activated through specific financial institutions. Check with your financial institution to ensure they participate in CardValet prior to downloading. CardValet helps you efficiently manage your cards digitally. TAKE CONTROL Stay in control of your card. Turn your card ON/OFF, set spending limits, decide where, when and how your card can be used. - Set card to be on or off in an instant, restricting whether it can be used or not - Restrict your card purchases to specific locations (merchants located within a certain range of your phone or select city, state, country or zip code on an expandable interactive map - Select merchant categories (Restaurant, Travel, Entertainment etc.) and transaction types (Instore, eCommerce, ATM etc.) to control purchases on your card - Enable or disable international transactions - Establish spending limits to allow transactions up to a certain dollar value and decline transactions when amounts exceed the thresholds set by you BE ALERT Receive real time alerts on all purchases, select purchases or when a card transaction is attempted but declined. Customize your alert preferences and get notified as per your choice. Alerts are sent in real time, immediately after a transaction has taken place, and help you quickly detect unauthorized activity on your card. VIEW YOUR CARD PURCHASE View your purchases, add memos and tag your purchases for easy tracking. DO IT YOURSELF Mange your card at your fingertips. Activate your card, set card PIN or report your lost/stolen cards seamlessly by making a call from the App. Key Benefits - Receive alerts to monitor transactions and help protect from fraud Actively manage your money and take charge of your card usage - Remotely control and monitor children’s spending - Helps ensure business spending policy compliance

About

Privacy.com

Safeguard your online transactions by creating virtual payment cards. Protect your actual financial details from compromised cards, unexpected charges, and recurring subscription fees. Enjoy enhanced security and control over your spending with customizable limits and real-time monitoring.

Highlights
  • Create virtual payment cards
  • Merchant-locked cards
  • One-time-use cards
  • Customizable spending limits
  • Real-time transaction monitoring
  • Pause/unpause/close cards
Features
Read full description

Stop exposing your credit or debit card information and protect your online payments with Privacy. Join over 250,000 users who have saved millions of dollars by using Privacy to block unwanted charges from compromised cards, overcharging, hidden fees, and forgotten subscriptions. Getting started with Privacy is simple: create your account, verify your information, securely link your bank account or debit card, and request your first virtual card. Start shopping and enjoy the added layer of protection Privacy provides to protect you from payment card theft and fraud. Benefits: - Shield your true financial information: Our Privacy Cards mask your debit card or bank account number to help protect you from card theft and fraud. Pay with greater privacy and security anytime, anywhere on desktop or on mobile. - Create merchant-locked and one-time-use cards: Our cards automatically "lock" to the first merchant they are used at, so if the merchant is ever breached, the card number can never be used anywhere else. You can also create one-time-use cards that automatically close after a single transaction. - Take complete control over your spending: Set customizable spending limits to prevent overcharging and block hidden fees—perfect for managing subscriptions and recurring expenses. If a transaction goes over the limit, we will automatically decline it. - Leverage real-time transaction monitoring: Receive notifications any time a Privacy Card is used. Easily pause, unpause, and close Privacy Cards any time with just one push of a button. Privacy’s core product is free to use on domestic transactions, because, like other card companies, we collect transaction fees from merchants. Privacy Cards can be used at most merchants that accept credit and debit cards. The security of our users’ personal information and data is critical to everything that we do at Privacy. You can review our security policies at https://privacy.com/security. Read about us in Forbes, Wirecutter, and The Wall Street Journal! For support, questions, or more information, please contact us at support@privacy.com.

Screenshots

CardValet4 screens
Privacy.com4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: CardValet at free against Privacy.com's free with in-app purchases. Privacy.com's advantage is update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (39% vs 19%). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for CardValet against 4.5 for Privacy.com. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 19K and 7.2K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 19% of CardValet's written reviews are positive against 39% of Privacy.com's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CardValet ships an update every 4 months, Privacy.com every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
CardValet versus Privacy.com: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCardValetPrivacy.com
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (19K ratings) — better4.5 (7.2K ratings)
Positive reviews18.8% of reviews39.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings19K — better7.2K
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 4 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB55 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFiserv, IncPay With Privacy, Inc.

Customer experience

CardValet

All ratings18,753 ratings
Positive89.9%
Neutral3.1%
Negative7.0%
Written reviews133 reviews
Positive18.8%
Neutral12.8%
Negative68.4%

Privacy.com

All ratings7,157 ratings
Positive88.6%
Neutral1.3%
Negative10.1%
Written reviews177 reviews
Positive39.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative57.1%

User reviews

CardValet

From 19K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Real-time transaction alerts
  • 🔒 Ability to lock/unlock card
  • 💡 Customizable spending limits
  • 👍 Convenient card management

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent login issues
  • 🐛 Unreliable connectivity
  • 🐛 Disappearing transaction history
  • 👎 Reduced functionality after updates

Privacy.com

From 7.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent protection
  • 🔒 Total control
  • 👍 Incredible
  • 🔒 Essential app
  • 👍 Happy user for YEARS

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Great service, HORRIBLE new app
  • 🐛 DISAPPOINTED THEY DONT BLOCK THEFT LIKE THEY CLAIM
  • 🐛 New UI and other irritations
  • 🐛 Card Not Supported
  • 🐛 Disabled my account

Bugs and requests

CardValet

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unable to reset password
  • Inconsistent account syncing
  • Repeated 'too many devices' errors

Requested features

4 requests
  • Balance and spending overview
  • Fingerprint/biometric login
  • Ability to add multiple cards
  • Improved notification system

Privacy.com

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Half of the time I cannot open the app after it was closed as FaceID is broken and disables keyboard entry
  • Automatically pausing cards set up for annual payments
  • Transactions being authorized multiple times on one-time use cards
  • App crashing issues
  • Compatibility issues with newer debit cards

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to search transactions by dollar amount
  • Option to hide closed cards
  • Ability to preload cards for budgeting
  • Option to set cards back to no limit
  • Landscape mode support
Show 1 more
  • Browser extension

In-app purchases

None

CardValet

No in-app purchases

None

Privacy.com

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CardValet free?
CardValet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Privacy.com free?
Privacy.com is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, CardValet or Privacy.com?
CardValet is rated higher. CardValet averages 4.6 out of 5 from 19K ratings, while Privacy.com averages 4.5 from 7.2K ratings.
Do CardValet or Privacy.com have ads?
Neither CardValet nor Privacy.com shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CardValet or Privacy.com?
CardValet ships an update every 4 months, and Privacy.com every 4 weeks. Most recently, CardValet was updated on October 15, 2026 and Privacy.com on October 17, 2026.

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