Update, 1/21/20: Tomorrow is the last day to file a claim!
Update, 9/9/19: Equifax has sent out an email for those who have already opted into a monetary compensation stating that if you did not specify which credit monitoring service you were using you will not receive any compensation.
If you had already been using a credit monitoring service you can verify your current claim by going here and entering the claim code found at the top of the email sent out, you can then enter the name of the credit monitoring you used.
Alternately, can switch from the cash settlement to free credit monitoring.
New claims can still be submitted until 1/22/20, but if you had already filed a claim, you only have until 10/15 to verify or amend your claim.
Update, 7/25/19: The FTC has updated their page saying that people won’t get anywhere close to $125 for having their own credit monitoring and that they strongly recommend that you select the 4 years of free credit monitoring. Will you switch from a cash settlement to credit monitoring?
“The public response to the settlement has been overwhelming. Millions of people have visited this site in just the first week. Because the total amount available for these alternative payments is $31 million, each person who takes the money option is going to get a very small amount. Nowhere near the $125 they could have gotten if there hadn’t been such an enormous number of claims filed.
The free credit monitoring provides a much better value, and everyone whose information was exposed can take advantage of it. If your information was exposed in the data breach, and you file a valid claim before the deadline, you are guaranteed at least four years of free monitoring at all three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and $1,000,000 of identity theft insurance, among other benefits. The market value of this product is hundreds of dollars per year.
You can still choose the cash option on the claim form, but you will be disappointed with the amount you receive and you won’t get the free credit monitoring.
The settlement administrator will be sending an email to people who already submitted a claim for the alternative cash payment. In that email, you will have the option to:
1) provide additional information OR 2) switch to free credit monitoring.
You also can send an email to info@EquifaxBreachSettlement.com to make a change to your claim.”
I wrote about the Equifax data breach on 9/7/17.
There is now a settlement that you can opt into.
- You can check here to see if you’re eligible to file for a settlement from Equifax.
- If you are eligible you can then file a claim here.
- You can read the FAQs here.
Here is what you can claim:
- $125 cash if you have credit monitoring as of the date of your claim, as long as you plan on keeping it active for 6 months. Chase Credit Journey is free and monitors your credit file, so signing up before filing is a no-brainer. Just note that the credit score it provides isn’t your real FICO score.
- Alternatively you can signup for 4 years of free credit monitoring from Equifax in lieu of a cash payment.
- An additional cash payment for time spent.
- You can claim reimbursement at $25/hour for up to 10 hours spent in response to the data breach by providing a description of how you spent that time. That includes reading about the data breach and how it happened, learning about the 3 credit reporting agencies and how they determine who is creditworthy, learning how to protect yourself from unauthorized use of your credit, learning about the consequences of identity theft, learning how to freeze your credit reports, checking to see if you were a victim, checking to see for anomalies on your credit report, etc. You must certify that your description is truthful. If you have your own credit monitoring and spent 10 hours in response to the data breach you are eligible for $375 in reimbursement.
- To claim more than 10 hours and up to 20 hours, you also must provide documentation of fraud, identity theft, or other alleged misuse of your personal information fairly traceable to the Data Breach.
- A 25% rebate for the cost of identity monitoring paid for between 9/7/16-9/7/17.
- If you have out of pocket loses or attorney fees due to identity theft from the data breach you can claim these as well.
Of course if too many people opt in then there won’t be enough money and everyone’s payment will be reduced proportionally.
Will you file to opt into the settlement payment?
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165 Comments On "Last Day! Check If You Are Eligible For A Cash Settlement From The Equifax Data Breach"
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Essentially your identity is worth approximately $125 or less
$375 with a claim of 10 hours.
$25 x10 is $250 unless I’m off with my math?
$125+$250= $375.
In addition to the $125 on top.
Let’s get a mock breakdown…
But if I didnt spend 10 hrs on the data breach is my identity theft only worth 125?
You don’t need to spend 10 hours. If you spent 1 hour then you are eligible for $125+$25. 30 minutes would be $125+$12.50.
I have some credit monitoring from capitol one from having their credit card, do I still need to enrol in the one you mention above?
No
Capital one monitors all three credit bureaus
Who runs the website to even check to see if you’re eligible ? I glanced at it.
Anyone have details?
Dan, how do you get your real FICO score?
Several cards still give it for free.
Which cards?
Download the experian app. They give you your real fico score.
Just filed. That was a quick $125. Thanks.
This is the only time when getting the money is not such a good thing…
on the subjectof settelements, do you mind posting the number for the cash settelment for the delayed flights when flying to europe? you posted it on one of your posts and i could for the life of me find it i checked every post in the search engine
Dan, What option do you recommend? I don’t any credit monitoring at the moment.
Read the post?
When is the deadline to submit the claim
You have until January 22, 2020 to file a claim and you won’t get the money until the judge signs the settlement which can be a few months
The deadline to file a claim for time you have already spent as a result of the Data Breach is 01/22/2020. The deadline to file eligible claims for time you spend in the future as a result of the Data Breach is 01/22/2024
done… submitted!
I’m a bit confused. I can just claim the $125 without all these hours? That’s additional $$?
Yes.
Does credit karma count as credit monitoring?
Sure.
Hey Dan, if I opted in for the $125 but didn’t opt in to the 10 x $25 for the $250, is it too late to go back and get that?
Was this data breach only credit card numbers or social security numbers as well?
Credit karma is good too ?
If I am a Chase customer do I still have to enroll in Credit Journey?
$125
in for $375 thanks
Was there an additional form to fill out for the 10 hours?
Seems like if I pay monthly for Equifax monitoring for a family plan, it would make sense to take 4 years of free monitoring, than the $125. Makes sense?
To add injury to insult if your had an ID Theft issue with regards to this breech. They may send you a 1099-misc.
It will probably will not apply for most people but if your end up with a claim over $600 up with a 1099-Misc and tax law change in Dec 2017. Except for Personal injury awards (i.e. car accidents, etc). You pay taxes on 100% of any other monetary rewards (no longer write off Atty fees on awards).
Not an atty but learned last tax year about this, from a lawsuit which we prevailed.
https://margarianlaw.com/are-class-action-settlement-payments-taxable/
What makes a credit score real? It all depends on what the company you’re trying to get a loan from uses. Can you clarify which one is used most?
I have a Transunion Vantagescore 3.0 reported from Chase and Capital One, and an Experian FICO score 8 reported on my Amex.
Mortgage lenders and banks use FICO scores.
Transunion, Equifax, or Experian?
I haven’t read the fine print, but in theory if someone has problems down the line due to the breach, are they settling with Equifax now and exempting them from any further claim by accepting $125 today?
I know this is far fetched, I’m just thinking out loud….
You can still make claims for future damages.
I now live in Israel. I have not received a letter. Is it still applicable to me.
There is no letter. The link to check for eligibility is in this post.
Hey Dan & co.
The credit monitoring offered by Equifax is offering in addition to the monitoring itself, a $1M insurance in case of identity theft, that sort of sweetens the pot, maybe that’s worth $125? WDYT?
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/equifax-data-breach-settlement
I’ll take the cash please.
Would the credit score provided by Amex qualify as credit monitoring to be eligible for this offer?
+1?
does discover identity alerts count as credit monitoring
Have that question 2
I’m in for 250 and my wife for 125. Thanks Dan!
BTW, 174 million people were affected, but settlement is only $425 million – at $125 per person (minimum, I’m assuming the credit monitoring is calculated to be approximately worth that amount), that doesn’t come close to cover all injured parties, what happens if there are more claims than money?
Most people won’t opt in, but your questions is answered in the post 🙂
Yes, it was indeed – thank you! 🙂
425m for 174m people, that 2.44 MILLION PER PERSON
Lol check your math dude.
$2.44 per person.
If those numbers of 425M settlement and 174M people affected are correct:
If average payout is $150 (most ppl $125, but small amount of ppl claiming significantly higher for time and costs), then 2.833M ppl would hit their settlement amount. That’s 1.6% of the 174M ppl eligible.
These numbers obviously are not exact but pretty surprised if that little people would claim.
I get that most people won’t opt in but here even 2% of people opting in is already over the amount of settlement and payouts would be reduced.
Ok wow so your numbers are wrong. There should be 147M (not 174M) people eligible, and though there’s few different settlement numbers being thrown around from $525M to $700M, there’s only $31M total available for most people! Under 0.2% of people would have to claim for people to get full payout.
Dan – any thoughts?
So do we have to put in our ss# so they can breach it again
They have it anyway.
It’s technically done through a third party.
it seems from the wordings that for any claim on spending time response to the breach you need to provide documentation even for the first 10 hr. is that the situation?
As the post says, the first 10 hours requires that you provide notes or a description on how you spent the time.
Thank you for spoonfeeding us. However, I did need to change the pronouns…next time could you please write it in the first person? 😉
LOL!
@Dan In your next revision will you also break down each activity in tenth of an hour billable increments with minimum times for each activity. 😉
It’s truly a shame that we are limited to $25/hr and not what we actually bill clients for in real life.
I needed that laugh!
hey dan or anyone else. are you familiar with a visa/mastercard settlement that is in the works for billions for people that accepted visa/mastercard as a form of payment and they were overcharging for years?
Got the free credit monitoring for myself and wife
Thanks Dan
The past few weeks I kept getting phone calls about my security being hacked , I believe they said my social security is at risk, it was an automated message, they left multiple messages. I ignored it as I believe it was fraud.
Any suggestions what I should do?
Is it in connection to this?
Thanks!
Scam.
Thanks!
I’ve been getting that every other day. I finally gave it to them over the head and haven’t heard back since.
Why the cash over the credit monitoring?
Because you can get free credit monitoring.
Where can you get free credit monitoring other than discover?
But you’d be losing out on getting the $1M insurance
What do you need insurance for? If someone steals your identity you’ll need to dispute those items and have them removed.
Fighting identity theft is not like disputing a credit card charge.
Identity theft insurance is to cover the massive expenses you’ll have retaining attorneys when someone, for example, uses your identity to obtain a loan and then defaults on that loan, or gets access to your bank account and drains it bone dry.
Freezing your credit isn’t a fail-safe and it certainly doesn’t cover every situation of identity theft.
The insurance is worth well more than $125.00. But Dan, for every person that opts for the insurance, that’s one less person to make sure you get the max $125.00 😉
Well said.
This is exactly why I’m choosing to get the insurance instead of the $125 payout.
also you might end up getting nothing if to much people claim , so taking insurance might be a better option
Right.
You’ll only get the full $125 if only 290,000 file for it.
On the second link for filing a claim it does not ask for SSN. How do they verify your eligibility?
Thanks Dan. Wouldn’t have known about this if not for your post. Always happy for some extra cash 😉
BTW any idea when to expect the payment to be mailed??
These things take a very long time. Don’t hold your breath!
If there are more than $31 million in claims for Time Spent during the Initial Claims Period (see FAQ 12), all payments for Time Spent will be reduced and distributed on a proportional basis.
I’ve had a couple accounts like Marriot hacked and spent loads of time with the hotels on trying to fix it… Do you think that could have been because of this breach?
Do they have a way to know if you currently have credit monitoring ?
You need to certify that you do. Not hard to signup for Chase credit journey.
I’m eligible
Thanks Dan!
this is what i meant. while not relevant to most it may be relevant to some
https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/18/news/companies/visa-mastercard-lawsuit-settlement/index.html
If I wrote by mistake 8/17 instead of 8/18 is it fine?
By the date I wrote August 2017 instead of 2018 can I still get the $$?
+1
whoops. meant that for the q abt kids
Can you get $125 for kids?
+1
meaning i wanted to know if you can do for kids under 18?
I live in a apt that I do not plan on being in in a few years (when the checks would come). Should I put a different address when filing the claim, or does it have to be my billing address?
My privacy was blown, which resulted in untold aggravation, how would I ever prove that it has anything to do with the hack?
Thanks, applied for the $125, did not spend any time on this.
Hi Dan, If you click on the second link, it allows you to skip the vitrifaction process and you can file a claim even if you are not eligible
Vitrifaction process??? Are you being turned into glass???
did anyone check to make sure this is legit? Not spoofing?
Everything is verified before it gets posted on DD:
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/equifax-data-breach-settlement
I billed for $125 + 4 hours of freezing my credit ($100), researching and singing up for a credit monitoring (ultimately did with Lifelock) + $560.67 for 22 months of Lifelock at $25.49 per month
I always sing my credit monitoring.
Is this tax exempt, or the government becomes a Mechiten here too?
Many thanks, Dan!
How come I have a account by credit karma and also by Chase and I am not eligible for this money ?!
how are you guys justifying the 10 hours ?
Slow reader!
Hey Dan,
If I have Chase (I have/use Credit Journey) and Credit Karma, and a Capital One Savor card, will I need to sign up for the Credit Monitoring by Equifax? Or can I get the $125 plus $250 from time spent researching without doing anything else except filling out the settlement information. I want to make sure I understand this all right.
I filled out the form. How do i know if i got approved for the payout?
We will all get significantly less than what is advertised. Mark my word.
If you already had Discover credit monitoring before the breach, does that count? Or you hd to sign up after the breach? Obviously, I didn’t sign up because I already had it!
Is Barclay card arrival fico score that gets updated regularly considered monitoring?
Is the info we provide for this settlement going to be public knowledge?
It already is. That’s what the settlement is for.
The chance you get $125 is a big fat ZERO
You can take the 10 years of monitoring of $0.35 once everyone puts in their claim
which dates did i monitor and work on my case
it amazes me how time after time people will comment or question and it’s always the same response, read the post! dan please change this generic response to: read the post three times please!
The FTC said there has already been millions of claims and cash payout will be majorly reduced (total payout of $31 million and millions of people already filed, we’re talking about a few dollars a person).
here’s to hoping everyone else changes to the credit monitoring…
Who could have predicted this? Other than everyone, I mean. From the beginning I expected to collect less than $1.
If only the lawyers were required to cut their payday proportionately.
@Dan, now that we know that it won’t be anything close to $135, will you be changing or will you be sticking with the cash option nevertheless?
Well I just spent 15 minutes reading the comments on DD. I guess that counts for 7.50
Crowds ruin everything.
Then why didn’t they do the math? It’s a simple division problem. If there’s x identities stolen, and y dollars in the settlement, don’t promise each person more than (y/x) dollars!
Thanks. I definitely spent at least ten hours on this since that time, but I haven’t been keeping any documentation of it. So, ten it is.
The argument to take the free credit monitoring for 4 years is very convincing. Why does that cost so much less than the $125 per person, especially if the FTC claims the 4 year credit monitoring is valued at “hundreds of dollars per year”?
For a breach of >140 million accounts, they provide $31 million dollars in restitution to the account holders. That’s about $0.22 per account breached! Pathetic that the FTC let them get away with a settlement like that, and even more egregious that they claim to pay ‘up to $125’ per account – everyone knew that was not going to happen!!!
It’s reverse psychology at this point. Now if everyone switches to the monitoring, those who don’t might actually be able to collect the 125. But if everyone thinks that way, then nobody gets it.
Nobody or close to it is changing to credit monitoring.
Dan – do you not think the $1MM in coverage is worth it? That isn’t cheap with competitive providers.
See Dan’s response to MB above.
Emes – his response was written when comparing it to receiving presumptively the full $125. Now that it’s pretty clear it will be significantly less (probably under $10-20 max), I’d like to hear his thoughts now.
To quote Dan – “What do you need insurance for?”
With a response like that one can reasonably infer Dan doesn’t think the insurance is worth anything. Speaking from experience I personally think he is mistaken, but he’s entitled to his opinion
I don’t believe in this thread that Dan mentions which option he actually went for , but nor do I think Dan ever thought he would get anything close to $125.00 considering he did say from the start the payout would be reduced the more people that file.
I actually am quiet satisfied with the free credit monitoring
This is very very frustrating and a slap in the face to consumers.
Their quote that “The public response to the settlement has been overwhelming. Millions of people have visited this site in just the first week. Because the total amount available for these alternative payments is $31 million, each person who takes the money option is going to get a very small amount. Nowhere near the $125 they could have gotten if there hadn’t been such an enormous number of claims filed.”
Basically admits they knew the settlement amount wouldn’t cover all the claims, the FTC is the one who decided the fine and payout package, they deliberately defrauded the public and are now trying to herd everyone to the free monitoring service.
It should be illegal to set up a compensation fund that can’t adequately handle all eligible participants. This should never happen again!
The FTC wants to make sure they use up the other money, besides the $31m allocated for the $125, but if more people don’t listen to the FTC and still opt for the money, whatever is left from the big pot will eventually be distributed to everyone.
So I believe the initial check will be just $20, but after for years there’ll be more checks coming.
https://slate.com/technology/2019/07/ftc-equifax-125-payment-credit-monitoring.html
Would I need to upload supporting documents for the cost of Equifax credit monitoring and related services that I paid for?
Can I change from 125 to credit monitoring?
This is a complete cluster F.
I’m not understanding the email or post. Can someone explain. I read it 3 times… I guess I’m not that smart ♂️
If you care about identity theft, then search near the top of this post: “You can check here to see if you’re eligible to file for a settlement from Equifax.” Follow that link and then the prompts. If you’re eligible for a claim, then file for three bureau free credit monitoring and the extended one bureau free credit monitoring. You don’t really need to understand anything else posted here.
Translation if this is confusing. Equifax wants to weasel out of this so they are creating extra hoops for you to jump through hoping you’ll forget or give up. They are proving themselves to be true villains.
At this point there’s nothing really to weasel out of. They are telling you if you left off the name of the credit monitoring company you are using, you need to go back and fill it in, because if you don’t, instead of getting $0.12 you’ll get $0.00.
I don’t recall being asked to name the monitoring service when I filled out the form initially. This feels more like another attempt to get people to switch from cash payout option to the credit monitoring option, just like they tried to influence people to do last month with the media campaign about $125 not being a realistic number.
does have credit karma work as credit monitering?
It should.
What do you recommend for retaining the $125 settlement (minimum) if individuals have existing credit monitoring? Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, or Quizzle?
Minimum? Thought that was a maximum.
credit journey from chase ?
Tomorrow is the last day to opt-in for this.
Dan: Do you have an updated recommendation for those of us who haven’t filed yet? Money or monitoring?
+1
Would also like to know, Dan. Have people in my family who’s identity did get stolen along with a couple who were just “compromised”. The one that got her identity stolen had to file a police report and has all that paperwork. I’ll try to help them file today, but not sure which one is their best option.
This is what i got when checked if i was eligible to file a claim, Does this show i wasn’t impacted (Great) or am i getting wrong Info??
Based on the information you provided, our records indicate that your personal information was not impacted by this incident. Please be sure you entered your information correctly, and check possible spelling variations (for example, Van Gogh and VanGogh). If you have used more than one last name (for example, a maiden name and a married name), please check all of your names.
@dan I got an email to register for my 4 free years of monitoring is it real. Have you gotten the same?
yay, my check is finally on the way!!!
Got paid on PayPal! $22.82