What Ever Happened to My Equifax Settlement Check?
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If you remember, just three years ago (it seems like forever to many of us), Equifax was hit with a massive data breach that exposed sensitive financial information for over 145 million people. The company eventually settled lawsuits and promised payments to everyone affected, which led to a very simple promise: Those affected would get a $125 check.
Unfortunately, nothing is that simple. If you know you were affected by the Equifax breach (you should have received notification about this some time ago, but there’s a webpage where you can check), you may be wondering just when that check is going to arrive – unfortunately, a whole bunch of caveats apply. Continue reading to learn four things you need to know about your Equifax settlement check.
Filing as Part of the Claim
If you were affected by the 2017 breach, you needed to file a claim to be part of the class action lawsuit to get some of the settlement money (in theory, but more that later). However, the big catch is that the deadline to file the initial claim was January 22, 2020, which means it’s now too late to qualify.
In other words, if you haven’t already become part of the claim, it’s too late to get anything now. Other lawsuits focus on identify theft, so if you have suffered from identity theft related to this security breach, you may be able to enroll in additional claims until 2024. If this sounds like your situation, take a look at the FTC website for more information and how to sign up. Granted, you will have to wait at least four years for an as-yet nebulous payment amount, but at least you’ll be ready.
Making the Right Settlement Choice
Equifax is, of course, one of the big three credit bureaus. When signing up for the initial claim, those affected had two choices: They could get a cash payment, or they could choose to get ten years of free credit monitoring instead, divided between the other bureaus and Equifax.
If you chose the free credit monitoring instead of the cash payment, you won’t be getting a check—end of story. If you aren’t sure what you chose at the time, well, it’s not easy to find out. But the best way is to head toward the settlement site and track your claim (or check your email history).
Technically, Equifax Has a Loophole to Avoid Payment
Okay, with that done, let’s assume you met the deadline for claims and are waiting for cash payment. When will you be getting your check? Well, no one knows for sure. The payments are only required after all the lawsuits on this particular issue are wrapped up, and claims have been validated by an administrator. A lot of that has already happened, and since Equifax is settling, they can’t appeal the ruling. However, other claimants can appeal the settlements via their own legal channels and have done so – whether they wanted more money, or whatever reason they had, several appeals over the settlement appear active.
Those appeals are a big problem. Equifax can’t make any payments until they are settled, and there’s no timeline set for even beginning to resolve the appeals – appellate courts can be quite busy, and scheduling reviews like this can take time.
How long? Well
in the best-case scenario someone organizes all these appeals and gets them
withdrawn together or at least fast-tracked at a court, so it’s all resolved in
several months to a year. However, if the appeals go forward normally, it could
still be years before anyone sees a payment.
So, Will I Get $125 at Some Point?
Err…no. Sorry, but here's the final caveat: $125 is the maximum amount that could be paid to a claimant, and it's very unlikely that people will qualify for the full amount or get much at all. The problem is that this max $125 cap was set early on in the process. Now that it's clear how many valid claims are being made, the official word from the settlement website is that payments will be "substantially lowered" from whatever they would have been and that you can look forward to getting only "a small percentage" of your initial claim.
So yes, it’s bad news all round. But even if it’s just a few bucks, when the payment finally arrives, you’ll be getting an email about it at the address you used to register your claim, so don't delete that account just yet.