Here is an opinion as to why everyone should file for the $125.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/you-have-a-moral-obligation-to-claim-your-dollar125-from-equifax/ar-AAEUnOF?ocid=spartanntp
I wasn’t affected. Neither was our middle son. H was, so he filed for it. Haven’t checked the other two lads yet. Need to look up their SSNs first, so need to be home for that. Guessing there’s no reason to check Mom’s SSN since she’s no longer here. Doubt she was affected anyway since she didn’t finance anything in the last decade or so.
The max will be $125 as there is a finite $ settlement. Given the number of people affected and the total dollars available, the amount received will probably be much lower.
So Creekland brought up a good point; do we check for our parents if they are recently deceased? I just checked both mom and dad, and both come up as impacted. Can my mother receive my dad’s check, or debt card is we file a claim for him; he just passed away last month.
I filed today and my wife filed today, $125 each. There has been a lot of publicity about this (have seen several stories on local TV news) so I am guessing the money will be used up quickly. I also applied online for a Mobil 1 (6 qts oil + filter) rebate worth $17!
I. Was impacted but also had someone opening credit-card accounts in my name and had to freeze accounts, go to the police station to make reports, file a federal trade commission report (FTC) and fill out forms for Equifax etc. Still doing stuff for it so when I get back from out of town will decide what to do and how mich5/long to file for.
I looked on the website to see if my mother could file for my recently deceased father (he was alive in 2017 on the date designated as the claim date) I couldn’t find anything.
I sent it to my daughter and she feels it is a scam so doesn’t want to do it. Her loss.
Latest news is that no one will receive the $125.00.
My credit card includes it, but Credit Karma is a free option. Creepy data collector, but free.
My D and I were impacted, S was not.
And its unlikely everyone will get $125 - or that plus the 10 hours (I froze all credit with 5 bureaus and included that time and i have proof of when I did it) , since the settlement is finite. Perhaps a ton of early filing will prompt them to make it larger but somehow i doubt it.
The whole thing makes me furious. I can’t believe they are getting away with this.
Frankly I think everyone should freeze all 3 (or 5) credit bureau accounts. It’s free (as a result of this breach) and it’s very easy to instantly and temporarily unfreeze if you need to apply for credit. I did it recently and it took about 5 minutes. And in the meantime, no one can open a credit account in my name. Monitoring, after all, only lets you know after the fact. And my credit info can’t be offered to anyone for “pre approved” anything, which is one way those bureaus make money.
Gosh I’m mad all over again.
I’ve had equifax credit monitoring (free) for one of the many times my info has been hacked. What infuriates me is that now I get spam equifax emails with credit card offers. WTH??
I read that everyone will get $125 if fewer than 250,000 people file (the basic fund is $31M). I find that highly unlikely. I think 250,000 have applied just from this thread. I think my mother has told 250000 just since I told her.
H, oldest son, and I were impacted. Two younger kids were not. $375! @Iglooo thanks for the link!
@OHmomto2 - thanks for the reminder. Via Credit Karma I’ve learned something new today – there is something called a “credit lock” which is almost the same as a freeze, except that the lock is easier to turn on and off. Two of the credit companies offer this service for free – TransUnion & Equifax – the main difference is that it’s much easier to unlock. With a credit freeze, to unfreeze you need a PIN & it may not happen instantly - so if you want to apply for credit then it could be an impediment. (And I’m not sure what happens if you forget your PIN) You can’t have both a lock & a freeze at the same time. All the bureaus are now required by law offer freezing / unfreezing for free – but Experian charges for the unlock service. More info here: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-lock-and-credit-freeze/
I froze my credit a couple of years ago (Thought I lost my ss card, but found it the next day. Left the freezes on anyway). Two times since I have applied for credit cards and had to unfreeze with ONE agency only. One time I was given a one time pin that I gave over the phone to the credit card people and stayed on the line while they accessed my credit report. The next time they told me they would not accept a one-time use pin so I was able to unfreeze (again with just one agency) for one day, and that worked also. Both times it was very easy. - I have always felt (is this cynical?) that the Equifaxes of the world end up making money on a data breach. They create an awareness of the “need” for credit monitoring services and even if they have to pay fines and offer the service for free for 6 months or a year in the end they have many more subscribers for this service and eventually end up with more revenue.
Latest upgrade n news, no way getting the $125.
We already have free credit monitoring through CapitalOne (which has its own security breach, great).
Yes, I think the amount we all receive will be MUCH lower, maybe in the $10 range. There are going to be millions who apply and have to split the pot. Still, was nice to feel rich for a day.
Oh, well, anything will be nice!
@calmom I managed the freezes online and they were instant. Specify how long I want them unfrozen (a day or a week or whatever) and they go back to frozen automatically.
I don’t trust the lock. And I’m definitely not giving them any money.
Been frozen on all three major for years. Only needed to unlock one time to finance a car. I do not think it is foolproof at all but on a day to day comfort level is worth it.