Today Is Your Last Chance to File an Equifax Settlement Claim
Procrastinators, please note today is the deadline for filing a class action settlement claim over the Equifax data breach.
If you’ve lived under a rock – and to be honest, we won’t judge you – Equifax announced in 2017 that 147 million people’s personal and financial data had been compromised by hacking .
When the settlement data was released in July 2019 , the credit bureau offered two options for people who wanted to file a claim: a cash payment or free credit monitoring.
The scale of the violation meant that virtually anyone could file a claim. So many people did that it became painfully obvious that the cash payment of up to $ 125 offered per person would end up being much less than that amount. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you will receive a check for $ 6 or $ 7 in the mail in a few months.
But all is not lost if you do want to make a claim. Instead of the now paltry cash option,you can choose to receive “at least four years” of credit monitoring through three bureaus through Experian. In addition to this, you will receive six years of Equifax supervision of your credit at this bureau, in addition to four years at Experian.
Even if it seems to you that your loan is blocked pretty well – you have frozen your loan , you have transaction alerts set up in your banks and loan monitoring alerts are enabled through a free service – it might still be worth jumping into the settlement point of the monitoring offer. It includes up to a million identity theft or fraud coverage, and you can check your Experian credit report whenever you want (although it will still be updated once a month).
To check your eligibility, go here (you will need to enter your last name and most of your Social Security number). If you opt for free credit monitoring, you will receive instructions on how to register.