Equifax is Paying Up as a Result of Its Massive Data Breach – Are You Eligible for a Piece of the Pie?

It was September of 2017 when Equifax announced the personal data of approximately 147 million people had been hacked.

The data breach had occurred from mid-May through July of 2017 and included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in some instances, driver’s license numbers.

What was especially egregious about this lack of security on the part of Equifax is that you had no say whatsoever about your personal information being part of Equifax’s database.

As one of the major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, by virtue of its mission, automatically has access to, and stores, the vital statistics of any individual engaged in the U.S. financial system. There is no way to opt-out.

Considering this, you would think the security of that information would be the primary focus of Equifax.

It was not.

The Equifax Settlement

Equifax has agreed to a global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 50 U.S. states and territories.

The Settlement includes up to $425 million to help people affected by the data breach.

Were You Affected by the Breach?

To submit a claim for any of the Settlement monies/benefits, your information must have been exposed in the data breach.

To see if your information was part of the exposed data you must use the eligibility look-up tool.

I’m providing a link to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s site, on which is a link to the external eligibility look-up tool.

While nothing can be considered 100% secure, due to the site’s link being listed on the FTC’s site, it is – hopefully – about as safe as one can expect.

With this in mind, note you will be submitting your last name and last 6 digits of your Social Security Number into the look-up tool to check eligibility.

Federal Trade Commission’s Link to the Eligibility Look-Up Site

You’re Eligible

If your data was part of the Equifax breach, you can file a claim for:

Free credit monitoring and identity theft protection service for up to 10 years OR $125 if you decide not to enroll because you already have credit monitoring.

*Update: It appears the Federal Trade Commission is encouraging those planning to file a claim (or who have already done so) to choose the credit monitoring option rather than the $125. The reason? Due to a significant response rate, it is unlikely those requesting the cash payment will receive $125. Because the Settlement pot of money is capped at $31 million, the more people requesting cash, the less the payable amount will be. You can read the FTC blog post on this matter at the link above.

If you have signed up for Credit Karma, Chase’s My Credit Journey which is an account benefit of Chase credit card holders, or similar, then you do have some monitoring already in place.

Is the monitoring being offered better than what you might already have? I can’t answer that for sure, but my guess is the Settlement’s monitoring benefit would be on par with currently offered free monitoring options.

Whether you choose to accept the Settlement’s monitoring in addition to currently available free credit monitoring offerings is up to you.

If you choose the claim’s monitoring, you will receive:

• At least four years of free monitoring of your credit report at all three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and $1,000,000 of identity theft insurance.
• Up to six more years of free monitoring of your Equifax credit report.

If you were a minor in May 2017, you are eligible for a total of 18 years of free credit monitoring.

You may also be eligible for cash payments, capped at $20,000 per person.

• For expenses you paid as a result of the breach, like:
  • Losses from unauthorized charges to your accounts
  • The cost of freezing or unfreezing your credit report
  • The cost of credit monitoring
  • Fees you paid to professionals like an accountant or attorney
  • Other expenses like notary fees, document shipping fees and postage, mileage, and phone charges
• For the time you spent dealing with the breach. You can be compensated $25 per hour up to 20 hours.
  • If you submit a claim for 10 hours or less, you must describe the actions you took and the time you spent doing those things.
  • If you claim more than 10 hours, you must describe the actions you took AND provide documents that show identity theft, fraud, or other misuse of your information.
• For the cost of Equifax credit monitoring and related services you had between September 7, 2016, and September 7, 2017, capped at 25 percent of the total amount you paid.

Cash payments – especially at the higher amounts – are primarily for individuals who suffered actual identity theft as a result of the breach and had to take actions to clear up the resulting problems.

And, even if you don’t file a claim, you can still get:

Free Help Recovering from Identity Theft

• For at least seven years, you can get free identity restoration services. If you discover misuse of your personal information, call the settlement administrator at 1-833-759-2982. You will be given instructions for how to access free identity restoration services.

Free Credit Reports for All U.S. Consumers

• Starting in 2020, all U.S. consumers can get 6 free credit reports per year for 7 years from the Equifax website. That’s in addition to the one free Equifax report (plus your Experian and TransUnion reports) you can get at AnnualCreditReport.com. Sign up for email updates to get a reminder in early 2020.  

This information is from the Federal Trade Commission’s Equifax Data Breach Settlement page. You can view the above information on that page, as well as view FAQs related to the Settlement and access other consumer information links that may be beneficial.

Filing a Claim and Timeframe for Settlement Payments

All claims must be filed by January 22, 2020.

Exactly what must be filed depends on the type of benefit you’ll be claiming.

You can begin the filing process at the Federal Trade Commission’s Equifax Data Breach Settlement page.

Benefits – cash or credit monitoring – will not be provided prior to approval from the court which is scheduled for January 23, 2020, at the earliest.

Wrap Up

As a result of its 2017 data breach, Equifax has reached a Settlement Agreement with the U.S. federal and state governments.

Individuals whose personal information was accessed as a result of the breach are eligible for credit monitoring services, a cash payment if monitoring services are already being used, and financial compensation for additional actions taken as a result of the data breach and/or resulting identity theft.

I would strongly urge all individuals eligible to file a claim, to do so.

If for no other reason than to send a message that data security is paramount in today’s society.

And it is especially so when the company responsible for the lax security holds the vital information of so many by virtue of its mission, with no way for individuals to keep his or her information from its databases.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when our personal information is no longer private or secure.

We can take steps to limit the exposure of our personal information, but as is illustrated by the Equifax breach, that’s not always possible.

Your personal information is already available to nefarious actors whether the result of the Equifax hack or the many others that occur each year.

Proactive steps are the best option at this point to keep the bad guys at bay.

And that involves locking your credit, which recently has become easy and free to do.

Locking your credit won’t keep your personal information from being hacked, but it will keep criminals from using that hacked information to open credit in your name and change your life for the worse.

So, take some time to freeze your credit at each of the three main credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – and then submit your claim for the Equifax Settlement as a way to say “get your act together with regard to the security of my information,” as well as a benefit to your personal financial situation.

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