Equifax Data Breach Settlement: Get Free Credit Monitoring Or $125 If You Already Have Monitoring

[Miffy]

And filing for a claim requires you provide them MORE personal info........ummm for $.12...........no thanks !!!!

That was my feeling, although I thought that even for $125, did I really want to give Equifax more information about myself? It's like asking to have my information stolen again. No thanks.

 

[Jimsig]

And filing for a claim requires you provide them MORE personal info........ummm for $.12...........no thanks !!!!

That was my feeling, although I thought that even for $125, did I really want to give Equifax more information about myself? It's like asking to have my information stolen again. No thanks.

The info they are asking for is basic and they already have anyway, they are using it to verify that it's you so you are not really giving them more info. Also I believe with the exception of the email and maybe phone number they rest of the info you are giving is pretty much public record or can be looked up easy enough. Do a quick Google search on yourself and you will see what's out there, it's much more info than what you are giving Equifax. If you have a mortgage look up that record on you Counties Registery Of Deeds.

 

[_19disnA]

They do not have my email or phone #. I imagine what they will do is sell that to someone else to help pay off the settlement.....LOL. Then you will get a whole new set of robo-call ads or spam email..........ummmm no thanks.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Between Credit Karma and Experian everyone should be monitoring their credit and their family's credit for free already. If you aren't...

Credit Karma to monitor Equifax and TransUnion. Ignore the FAKO score ("fake" FICO, they use a weird calculation banks and cc companies don't use so don't freak out about your "score"), turn on alerts and you'll get an alert every time your credit is hard-pulled or a new credit account is set up for EQ and TU. You will also get alerts when you pay your cc sometimes so that's annoying but worth it for the other alerts.

For Experian you can sign up with them for free to watch your EX account yourself with alerts, they have an app. (They'll keep trying to get you to pay, don't) like with Credit Karma you'll get alerts when your credit is hard hit and accounts are opened/closed.

I've found both very quick to notify me when hard pulls occur and account openings/closings hit my credit reports.

 

[Alynw]

For what it's worth...I checked mine and husband's information (his information was compromised). Then I checked our four children (ages 9 - 19) and two of their names came up as compromised, too. Nope, they don't have credit cards.

iit would prob scare us all if we actually knew the amount of info collected on us..even though ur kids dont have cc, their info couldve still been compromised...kids names, bday, ss number are all on ur taxes, school records, beneficiaries, health insurance, etc...so if it says ur kids info has been compromised, id take it serious and get some kind of monoriting for them.

 

[runwad]

I wouldn't fool around with monitoring, I'd just plain freeze my credit and I have, and my kids.

2 of my kids were involved in the Anthem hack, they were still minors and their credit was frozen for free (we had to pay to freeze and unfreeze up until a year ago) until they reached 18. And then we refroze them.

I'm tired of dealing with all these hacks, and I surely don't want to deal with identity theft. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in now and we will have to get used to calling and unfreezing and refreezing when we need any type of credit or loans. It really is a painless process to unfreeze and refreeze. Although we still get our free credit reports yearly from all 3 bureaus to make sure all is well.

 

[MillauFr]

They do not have my email or phone #. I imagine what they will do is sell that to someone else to help pay off the settlement.....LOL. Then you will get a whole new set of robo-call ads or spam email..........ummmm no thanks.

They already have your info anyway. No need not to take the money. Even the hackers already have all of your personal information.

 

[MillauFr]

I wouldn't fool around with monitoring, I'd just plain freeze my credit and I have, and my kids.

That is a huge hassle. Just get the monitoring and will be notified if anyone tries to open an account using your social security number. Most the time now days the scammers just open accounts using fake social security numbers and names.

 

[Searc]

Between Credit Karma and Experian everyone should be monitoring their credit and their family's credit for free already. If you aren't...

Credit Karma to monitor Equifax and TransUnion. Ignore the FAKO score ("fake" FICO, they use a weird calculation banks and cc companies don't use so don't freak out about your "score"), turn on alerts and you'll get an alert every time your credit is hard-pulled or a new credit account is set up for EQ and TU. You will also get alerts when you pay your cc sometimes so that's annoying but worth it for the other alerts.

For Experian you can sign up with them for free to watch your EX account yourself with alerts, they have an app. (They'll keep trying to get you to pay, don't) like with Credit Karma you'll get alerts when your credit is hard hit and accounts are opened/closed.

I've found both very quick to notify me when hard pulls occur and account openings/closings hit my credit reports.

Or freeze your credit then you don't need to mess around with any of that nonsense.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Or freeze your credit then you don't need to mess around with any of that nonsense.

Freezing your credit is an option for anyone who does not have an active financial life but the topic at hand is monitoring of credit as you must certify you have credit monitoring to be eligible for cash payment for this settlement.

And my advise is not nonsense, I stand by it and hope it helps anyone looking for ways to monitor their own credit.

 

[afan]

Freezing your credit is an option for anyone who does not have an active financial life but the topic at hand is monitoring of credit as you must certify you have credit monitoring to be eligible for cash payment for this settlement.

And my advise is not nonsense, I stand by it and hope it helps anyone looking for ways to monitor their own credit.

Or you do both like I do because I already had monitoring when someone tried to open a card, thanks equifax! I unfroze it to apply for 48 hours so the monitoring will still catch anything in that time period.

I got an email from credit karma today that they'd found my info in another breach. I haven't logged on to see what it's for yet. Probably just something with my email and password I use for non important stuff.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... I got an email from credit karma today that they'd found my info in another breach. I haven't logged on to see what it's for yet. Probably just something with my email and password I use for non important stuff.

Was it the Capitol One breach? (Here we go again...) Massive data breach hits Capital One

 

[Searc]

Freezing your credit is an option for anyone who does not have an active financial life but the topic at hand is monitoring of credit as you must certify you have credit monitoring to be eligible for cash payment for this settlement.

And my advise is not nonsense, I stand by it and hope it helps anyone looking for ways to monitor their own credit.

LOL It takes one 5 minute phone call to unlock it, which is what we do any time we need it unfrozen. Freezing your credit is the safest option for protecting yourself.

 

[Jimsig]

...Then I checked our four children (ages 9 - 19) and two of their names came up as compromised, too. Nope, they don't have credit cards.

Thanks for the reminder. I just checked my for my daughter and it says she is ok. It can be more than just credit cards.

Things like student loans, or maybe even just applying for loans could have put them at risk. It's a number of things that it could be.

 

[Tink-aholic]

Apparently, they massively underestimated the number of people who would request the money; I guess they thought most of us would choose the free credit-monitoring. There isn't enough money to go around for everyone who applied, and it looks like we will all only get a pittance.

They allocated something like $50M for cash settlements and over $410M for credit monitoring (which is a company Equifax owns).

I wonder what happens to all that money allocated for credit monitoring if people don't choose it?

 

[Dakota731]

Yep not enough money to go around so as usual only the lawyers are getting richer!