Affected by the Equifax Breach? File a Claim NOW.
Were you affected by the 2017 Equifax Data Breach?
Through January 22, 2020, head over to the Federal Trade Commission where you can now file a claim as part of the Equifax Data Breach Settlement. As a reminder – this data breach exposed the personal information of over 140 million people including many Hip2Save readers!
Note that claims must be filed by January 22, 2020.
Not sure if your information was exposed? Use this look-up tool!
Head over here to check your eligibility for the Equifax Data Breach Settlement. You will simply need to enter in your last name as well as the last six digits of your Social Security Number to confirm your eligibility.
As a result of this data breach, Equifax has agreed to a global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 U.S. states and territories and this settlement includes up to $425 million to help anyone affected by the data breach!
If you were affected, you can file a claim for:
- Free Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection Services OR $125 – up to 10 years of free credit monitoring OR
$125 if you decide not to enroll because you already have credit monitoring(no longer an option) - Cash Payments (capped at $20,000 per person) – for expenses you paid as a result of the breach, like losses from unauthorized charges to your accounts, the cost of credit monitoring etc
- Free Help Recovering from Identity Theft
- Free Credit Reports for all U.S. consumers – starting in 2020, get 6 additional free credit reports per year for 7 years from the Equifax website.
Note that the settlement administrator will not send out any claim benefits until they are allowed to do so by the court, which will be January 23, 2020, at the earliest.
Did you know that you can freeze your credit for Free?
(Thanks, pokpok!)
My husband and I both were affected by this data breach! Thank you so much for the information! ; )
Darn! You’re very welcome, Lisa Chen!
140 million people affected by their breach, $125 or 10 years monitoring is the compensation offer. Doesn’t seem fair.
Re: 10 years of free monitoring
So if you take this option you are trusting that Equifax will now actually do the job you paid them to do before they allowed the breach in the first place and sat on the news not informing their customers while their top people had time to sell their stock and protect their own financial well being.
That’s what I was thinking too. They should have done both the money and the credit monitoring.
My husband and I were both affected 🙁 Thank you for this information.
Oh bummer! You’re SO welcome, Missy.
😕 I was affected, my husband was not. Thank you for posting.
You’re welcome!
I had no idea I had been affected until H2S posted! Crazy! Thank you for the info!
So sorry to hear that. You’re very welcome, Laurie! Glad to help!
Thank you for posting, I was affected. Do you know when the breach happened?
You’re so welcome, Pixi! It looks like this happened from mid May through July 2017 – https://hip2save.com/2017/09/08/equifax-announces-huge-security-breach/
Hope that helps!
Thank you so much!
You’re very welcome!
Like Laurie, I had no idea my credit info had been affected. At least we’ll get the free credit monitoring for six years or so. That should be helpful. Thanks so much for keeping us informed!
You’re welcome! 🙌
People can go to annual credit report.com and get a free credit report from all three bureaus every year. That includes TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You can get this immediately online or you can have it mailed to you. There is an 800 number also, but I can’t remember it.
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action
If you’re a member of companies like Credit Sesame you also get free credit reports & monitoring. It’s also good to contact all 3 agencies & have a freeze put on your credit, along with your spouse’s AND your children’s (no matter their age). If you know you’re going to be making a big purchase like buying a car or home, you can call & have the freeze taken off for a few days.
You are very right, Gina G.! We’ve added a link in the post to help with that!
Thanks for the link.
I was affected I have had so many problems with my credit this past year!!! This must be why. I have froze all my credit and now see I was affected. Thank you so much!!!
Oh darn! So sorry to hear about that, Mandy! You’re very welcome!
I’m not sure if I have credit monitoring already included with one of my credit cards. I have credit karma but don’t know if that’s enough. I was affected but don’t know if I should take the money or the credit monitoring. Can anyone recommend what would be better?
Does it say anywhere when we will get the check? Would be so nice to get before vacation!
It will be a while. The settlement has not officially been approved.
The absolute EARLIEST is January 23, 2020
Wow, my whole family got breeched. This is so scary
Husband was affected i was not which explains why someone was able to open a store credit card under his name….is he able to take part in this lawsuit settlement what if something else comes up in the future.
Yey! Thanks for the recognition!!!
You are so welcome! We sure appreciate you sharing, pokpok!
I was affected and did not know. I checked for my mother and she was also affected.
I had no idea I was affected!! Does anyone know how to freeze their credit? Mine doesn’t seem to have changed because I have credit check on one of my credit cards
Contact the credit bureaus and ask them to freeze it or you can have them add a note that they have to call your number and verify its you requesting credit. I did that after my identity was stolen.
Laura, you can also create an online account with all 3 credit bureaus and select the option to freeze your credit. Hip2Save it would be a good idea to add this to the end of the article for those who don’t know.
I have an added a link to that, Lucy! Thanks for the suggestion!
Says mine was breached. At least I might be 125.00 out of the deal. I think they got my kholes card. I got a 100.00 charge I didn’t recognize. Caught it. It got removed immediacy and they sent me a new card. Not too difficult. 🤷🏼♂️
My husband and I were both affected. Sending the link to my parents for them to check. ☹️
Great idea, Allison M.!
Anyone know if the credit monitoring is a wiser choice over the cash option? Currently do not have credit monitor.
I just want to thank you so much for posting this. I had read about this before but I had no idea how to ck to see if our names were affected. My husband’s and mine were. I filled out the info for the credit monitoring. Thank you so much!
Anyone else see the irony that you have to enter the last 6 digits of your social, year of dob, full name, & address to get this? Not saying you shouldn’t – just find it ironic.
I thought that as well…kinda weird. BUT, the website is linked directly from the Federal Trade Commission government website so I think it is safe.
My family was affected by this. When I read it. It’s only offering 6 months of credit monitoring. How are people getting 7 or 10 years ? How do I find out what was else was compromised.? I know both of my debt cards were.
My husband was and I submitted the form for him. No to the credit monitoring, I submitted for the check instead.
discover does free credit monitoring..so check is better !
My husband and i are both affected and had no idea! We both have credit monitoring thru his job and our credit cards. And they haven’t reported anything (yet). Does that mean the hackers have my info but haven’t done anything yet to hurt my credit worthiness or open an account?
I checked this morning and was affected by the breach. Does this possibly just mean my information was exposed and not necessarily being used yet? I froze my credit a while back and it was not free at the time.
Also FYI… if you were effected and had to spend time repairing the credit issues… they have to pay you 25.00 an hour. Also you can claim up to 10.00 hours without having to show proof. I only spent about 2 hours but I did claim it. You can claim up to 20.00 hours at 25.00 an hour but you have to show documentation, proof, and explanations of time spent. Still if you got it and where effected at least you will get paid 25.00 an hour for your time.
WOW, my husband AND myself were both affected! I also heard on one of the news stations that even children could have been compromised as well. Thanks for sharing the link!
You’re very welcome!
My 16 year old daughter was!
It’s too late for everyone involved!!! They sat on this and did nothing! And now they release a link for us to check if we were involved??? Crazy!!!
Would you rather continue for them to do nothing?
Honestly, unless you only use cash for everything, your information has probably been compromised somewhere. From emails to card numbers, hacks and breaches are unfortunately common these days.
This was announced when it first happened. It was all over the news.
After I saw this, I immediately froze all of my credit accounts and only unfroze them when I needed to aka buying a car or refinancing my student loan. If you have a Discover card, they offer free credit monitoring!
Froze mine, my husband’s & my son’s credit.
I am confused… I haven’t used this company before, but for curiosity, I check my name and Ss and I was affected… how this happened??
If you have credit, used credit, have a ssn you were probably affected.
GUYS DO NOT FORGET TO CHECK YOUR KIDS!!
Not sure if this is happening to anyone else but my data was compromised and now I’m getting a lot of scammers calling, telling me my SSN will be suspended. DONT FALL FOR THESE SCAMS! If the SSA needs to contact you, they will send you something in the mail.
Thank you Hip2Save!! I heard story half listened years ago and skimmed news on it but really didnt think applied me and not me attitude. You presented on your site basic and saw the check affected button and thought doubt it but what the heck! I ran me and my spouse and I was affected by the breach(he wasn’t). I never hired their service, no collections in past ever, no judgements, no identity theft- did have someone try in april to use credit card number in another country but reversed without me even calling my cc company caught before i did (I did request new card and cancelled). nothing unusual! SO BOY WAS I SHOCKED TO KNOW I WAS AFFECTED!! Huge thanks HIP2SAVE for doing the article in a simplified and easy layout that made me say what the heck when i passed over on new sites!
Super glad to hear how helpful this was! You’re very welcome!
$125 is only a suggested amount to be claimed, as opposed to opt in to the 7 year credit monitoring. 147 million people were affected in this Equifax breach. The exact amount that Equifax will pay out has not been determined. It will depend on how many people will submit a claim.
I would like to know how this happened.
Hi All. I have a query. I checked and found that my data was affected by this breach and I didn’t know this. I have been using only credit karma as free service since 2014 after I opened my first credit card. Recently I bought a new car on loan. Now if I want to get benefit of this settlement. What option I should select without showing any documents because I don’t have any? Should I go for free credit monitoring service given by them …will that be worth ? Or should I go for $25 spend per hour option (max we can submit 10hours without documents proof) . Please advice ! I am new here in USA and have not much idea about this.