Equifax data breach victims will not qualify for $ 125 settlement unless they meet these criteria

There is no such thing as simple cash for victims of Equifax settlement with data interventions.

The $ 700 million settlement they owe comes with some strings attached, a settlement administrator said this month. The settlement, which was unveiled in July, offers the 147 million consumers affected by the massive breach in 2017, a choice between 10 years of free credit monitoring or $ 125 in cash.

But now applicants are taught that they must already have "some form of credit monitoring or protection in place" to expose any chance of cash offered in the settlement.

Over the weekend, people who applied for $ 125 began receiving emails from settlement administrators saying that they must confirm that they "had some form of credit monitoring or protection in place and will continue to have credit monitoring in place for at least six months . "

This alert was the last piece of bad news for people hoping to get some money from the settlement. In late July, the Federal Trade Commission said victims of the breach would be better off going for free credit monitoring rather than cash because only $ 31[ads1] million earmarked the $ 125 individual payments, so individual payments could end up being much less than $ 125.

The FTC said that people should take credit monitoring because it is a better value compared to some cash rewards. Many consumers are eligible for free credit monitoring because they are often offered people who have been subjected to big data breaches, such as those suffered by Equifax, Capital One

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and Marriott.

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Those who have to pay for the service can expect to pay from about $ 19 to more than $ 30 a month, according to The Balance and NerdWallet.

Victims of the Equifax breach has until October 15 to either name the credit monitoring service they used when filing their claim for cash, or to change the requirement to request free credit monitoring instead of $ 125, according to the settlement administrator's email.

If claimants do not do something by October 15, their bid for money will be rejected, the email warned.

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will be substantially lowered and will be distributed proportionately if settlement will be final, "the email adds. "Depending on the number of valid claims filed, the amount you receive for alternative compensation may represent a small percentage of your original claim."

To be sure, the proposed settlement that was unveiled in July mentioned the strings attached to the $ 125 cash payment.

Class Applicants "must identify the monitoring service and confirm that they have some form of credit monitoring or protection from the date" they submit their claim and warrant that they "will have such credit monitoring in place for at least six (6) months from the requirement

Government regulators and plaintiffs' lawyers insist that free credit monitoring is a lot – now more than ever considering how money for "alternative compensation" in this settlement is stretched thin.

The free credit monitoring consists of four years of free credit monitoring from all three credit bureaus, Equifax

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TransUnion

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and Experian

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                                        . After that, applicants can get six more years with free credit monitoring from Equifax. The retail price for this monitoring amount is $ 1,920 per person, plaintiff's attorneys have previously said.

There is a final deadline for January 22, 2020, for people to file for free credit monitoring or "alternative reimbursement compensation."

The settlement also offers up to $ 20,000 "for documented losses that are quite traceable to the breach," court papers said. But experts say consumers have a challenging task to prove that the breach was directly responsible for financial losses.

The FTC, Equifax and the Settlement Administrator, JND Legal Administration, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Equifax shares are up 55% from the start of the year. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index

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increased more than 18% and Dow Jones industrial average

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has gained almost 15%.