‘Overwhelming’ Equifax response means you likely won’t get full $125 payout, FTC says
Droves of consumers impacted by Equifax’s 2017 data breach have been seeking the $125 cash payment option from the company’s settlement — but that “overwhelming” interest comes at a cost, federal regulators warn.
With so much demand for cash payments, it’s likely each consumer requesting money will get far less than $125, wrote Robert Schoshinski, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, in a blog post Wednesday.
“The public response to the settlement has been overwhelming, and we’re delighted that millions of people have visited ftc.gov/Equifax and gone on to the settlement website’s claims form,” Schoshinski wrote.
That’s the good news.
The bad news, he writes, is that “the pot of money that pays for that part of the settlement is $31 million. A large number of claims for cash instead of credit monitoring means only one thing: each person who takes the money option will wind up only getting a small amount of money. Nowhere near the $125 they could have gotten if there hadn’t been such an enormous number of claims filed.”
The settlement, which was announced on July 22, includes up to $425 million to help breach victims recover from the data exposure, according to the FTC.
Instead of selecting the cash option, federal regulators are advising consumers impacted by the breach (which hit 147 million people) to choose the free credit monitoring offered by the settlement.
“Frankly, the free credit monitoring is worth a lot more — the market value would be hundreds of dollars a year,” Schoshinski wrote. “And this monitoring service is probably stronger and more helpful than any you may have already, because it monitors your credit report at all three nationwide credit reporting agencies, and it comes with up to $1 million in identity theft insurance and individualized identity restoration services.”
A spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office agreed with the FTC about the pluses of credit monitoring, saying that “free credit monitoring for 10 years is an extremely valuable tool for consumers across the country affected by the breach,” CNBC reports.
If you already asked for cash and have changed your mind, it’s not too late to switch to the credit monitoring option, the FTC said.
“For those who have already submitted claims for this cash payment, look for an email from the settlement administrator,” Schoshinski said. “Or, if you want to change your mind, you’ll have a chance to switch to the free credit monitoring. You can also email the settlement administrator, JND, at info@EquifaxBreachSettlement.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 2:04 PM with the headline "‘Overwhelming’ Equifax response means you likely won’t get full $125 payout, FTC says."
