Did you claim $ 125 from Equifax? There is one more thing you need to do to make it happen
People whose data was compromised by the Equifax breach in 2017 and seeking compensation must take an additional step to get a shot to receive the $ 125 payout.
Equifax on Sunday sent notices to people who had submitted Cash settlement requests inform them of a necessary step to receive the money.
Individuals seeking $ 125 must "verify" their claim by providing the name of the credit monitoring service they had in place when they filed it, and the service must be in place for at least six months after filing. This new step must be completed by October 15, otherwise the cash compensation requirement will be rejected. Alternatively, people can "change" their claim by signing up for the free credit monitoring service provided by Equifax, and forgo the cash settlement.
The step is compensation ̵[ads1]1; meant to subsidize external credit monitoring services that people had already paid to put in place – it would probably be less than $ 125 anyway. In July, Equifax was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay up to $ 700 million in individual damages and civil penalties for hacking. This meant that anyone affected by the violation who already had credit monitoring in place could file a claim for cash compensation.
But only $ 31 million of the total settlement was earmarked cash payments, to be distributed to anyone with valid claims. The money is part of a larger settlement fund of $ 300 million, the rest will pay for Equifax's own free credit monitoring services.
One week after the settlement site went live in late July, millions of people had logged in, prompting the FTC to warn that each settlement check would likely be "nowhere near" $ 125 originally promised. The agency urged those concerned to take the free credit monitoring offer. This service provides 10 years of free credit monitoring: four years through the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and six years through Equifax.
Equifax again highlighted this point in the email it sent Sunday to people who had filed claims.
"Based on the number of potentially valid claims made to date, payments of these benefits are likely to be significantly reduced," the company said.
Asking for the name of the credit bureau's people Asking for a cash payment has been used can be a way to limit the group between which the settlement will be split. The company also stated that they may be asked for additional information before receiving the payment. Although people's $ 125 claims will be rejected if they do not state the name of the credit monitoring agency by October 15, claims for other types of compensation will still be valid.
Equifax's data breach was the largest in history, affecting at least 147 million Americans.
