UPDATE: July 31, 2019, 4:09 p.m. EDT The FTC is now officially suggesting that consumers take the free credit monitoring services because there's not enough money to go around. Read more here.
By now, you’ve likely heard about Equifax’s settlementwith the FTC for its massive data breachin 2017. News spread quickly regarding the restitution, a possible $125 cash payment (or 10 years of free credit monitoring services) to the nearly 150 million affected. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even tweetedabout it.
However, if you’re only requesting $125 from Equifax, you’re not asking for enough. If you spent hours dealing with the fallout, you should at least be asking for $375.
When filing at the Equifax settlement website, consumers can elect to claim $25 per hour, for up to 20 hours, for time spent dealing with the fallout of the breach. This is in addition to the $125. If an individual claims no more than 10 hours, no documentation proving identity theft or fraud is necessary. They just need to describe what actions they took and how much time was spent dealing with the breach. That’s $250!
I’m not telling you to make up the time spent. If you were one of the more than 147 million affected, you should take the time to monitor your credit, double check your security with your various financial services accounts, keep up-to-date with the breach, and safeguard yourself from identity theft or fraud. That takes time -- at least 10 undocumented hours.
Hackers accessed names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, driver's licenses, birthdays, and other private information. The purpose of the hack and what the breached data was or will be used for is still largely a mystery.
As news of the up to $700 million settlement spread, media outlets began covering a detail involving the $125 disbursements, known as the “Alternative Reimbursement Compensation,” that dashed some hopes and dreams of an easy check from Equifax.
“If there are more than $31 million claims for Alternative Reimbursement Compensation, all payments for Alternative Reimbursement Compensation will be lowered and distributed on a proportional basis,” states the settlement agreement.
As Mashable pointed out earlier, “if every single one of the 147 million people affected by the data breach opted for a cash payment, each person would get $0.21 each. If only a million people go for the cash, you're getting $31 apiece.”
If you’re not a gambling type, Mashable recommended that consumers consider forgoing the $125 for the 10 years of free credit monitoring. (Of the total settlement, only $425 million has been set aside to specifically pay consumer restitutions.)
SEE ALSO: How should you take your Equifax data breach settlement?The same funding caveat is true for the time spent reimbursement.
“If there are more than $31 million in claims for Time Spent during the Initial Claims Period, all payments for Time Spent will be reduced and distributed on a proportional basis,” says the settlement.
Any amount leftover from Equifax's $425 million Consumer Restitution Fundat the end of the settlement claim periods (Jan. 22, 2020 for current losses and time and Jan. 22, 2024 for an extension) will be used to lift the $31 million caps on both the “Alternative Reimbursement Compensation” and “Time Spent” funds. The money would then be proportionately distributed among those who filed claims.
So, there’s a chance you’ll receive money from Equifax. Right now, it’s anyone’s guess as to how much. Just make sure you maximize your disbursement by filing for everything you can in your claim.
Equifax's data breach reimbursement system: It's just like Vegas.
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