Plaid pays $ 58 million to users of Venmo, Robinhood and more

Earlier this month, users approached Google to find out if emails informing them of a “Plaid Settlement” were legitimate or spam. They’re genuine, and if you have one, chances are you could owe some money from the fintech company’s recent $ 58 million class action lawsuit.

Plaid’s technology allows users to connect their bank accounts to approximately 5,000 different ones types of apps, from mobile banking and savings apps to business services and payment apps. In fact, you may find that one of your apps uses Plaid to work, as I did when I wrote this article. Popular apps that rely on Plaid include Venmo, Robinhood, American Express, Capital One, Wells Fargo and Coinbase, among thousands of others.

Last year, Plaid settled a $ 58 million class action lawsuit filed by users who claimed that the company obtained their bank login information and collected more data from them than necessary.

according to complaint, the plaintiffs said that the company designed its Plaid Link interface to have the look and feel of the bank accounts’ login screens, which led them to enter usernames and passwords. The usernames and passwords were then given to Plaid via the interface. In addition, the plaintiffs claimed that Plaid obtained more financial information and data than was authorized or necessary by the app they used.

Plaid has denied these allegations. Because a settlement has been reached with the plaintiffs, the court has not ruled on whether the company is guilty of what it is accused of.

“[N]”a court or other entity has made any findings against Plaid or any decision that the law has been violated,” it is stated in a statement on the settlement’s information website.

So how do you find out if you owe money? If you used a Plaid-dependent app to connect to your bank account from January 1, 2013 to November 19, 2021, there’s a good chance you’re entitled to a payout. (It should be noted that considering the number of apps using Plaid and the time period covered by the complaint, it is not likely that you will get a lot of money).

It’s pretty easy to find out if your app used Plaid. The lawsuit settlement site allows you search for affected apps and services. You may also have received a notification that you are part of the affected class via physical mail or email. Once you have figured it out, you need to submit one requirements form before April 28, 2022.

If I were you, I would check my spam folder to make sure the alert was not accidentally sent there. I also want to see if my most used financial apps show up on the settlement website. You may not get much money out of this, but hey, free money is free money.