Why You Can not Get $ 125 in Equifax Data Violation Settlement

If your personal information has been exposed as part of the Equifax data breach in 2017, the payment of $ 125 that you may be able to claim may not be enough to compensate you for the bereavement you suffered to recover from piracy . It's still something. However, during the first week, so many people expressed an interest in filing a claim for cash payment. The FTC warned that if all eligible people requested the option of cash payment, the profit would be "well under $ 125".

The reason for this is that, according to the FTC, while Equifax had agreed to pay up to $ 700 million to compensate the 147 million victims of the data breach, the money reserve set aside for the payment of $ 125 is $ 31 million. Instead of receiving a much lower amount than $ 125, you have the option of obtaining free 10-year credit monitoring. And that's the choice the FTC recommends: "Frankly, monitoring free credit is worth a lot more – the market value would be several hundred dollars a year," the FTC said. "And this monitoring service is probably more powerful and more useful than anyone you already have."

As part of settlement between the FTC and the free credit badessment company, you can also claim the refund of time spent recovering from fraud and theft of identity, money spent to protect you from the violation and the cost of Equifax credit. subscription tracking. You can ask for up to $ 20,000 in compensation, providing documents and receipts to support your application.

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We have a guide to choosing between optionsif you think about the best choice for you. And if you have already filed your claim, the FTC told you that you could change your mind. Monitor the e-mails of the settlement administrator with instructions.