Equifax Breach Settlement: Additional Compensation Details

Written By: Lynda Tull, Associate Advisor

So you are thinking about or have submitted a claim for alternative reimbursement compensation instead of taking the free credit monitoring services.

Below is some additional information on the claims for additional cash compensation. Note that in order to have an eligible claim for these, the documentation required has to be traceable to the breach. This information is current as of the date of the writing and can be found on the settlement website.

Cash payments for time spent

  • In order to file this claim, you must have spent time:
  • Dealing with fraud, identity theft or other alleged misuse of your personal information or
  • Taking preventative measures (freezing or thawing your credit report, purchasing credit monitoring).

In both cases, it has to be traceable to the breach.

This may be reimbursed for $25 per hour with a max of 20 hours.

To claim reimbursement for more than 10 hours, you also have to provide reasonable documentation of fraud, identity theft or alleged misuse of your information that is traceable to the breach.

  • Examples may include a letter from the IRS, bank, or a filed police
    report

If you do not have the documentation necessary to prove the above requirement you can submit a claim for up to 10 hours based on the following:

  • Provide a description of the actions taken and time associated with the actions.
  • You must certify that the description is truthful.
  • This will be reimbursed in 15 minute increments with a minimum of 1 hour reimbursed per claim.

Depending on the number of valid claims submitted, the payments for time spent may likely be substantially lowered.

For this there are two deadlines to file eligible claims:

  • January 22, 2020 for time you have ALREADY spent due to the breach
  • January 22, 2024 for time you spend in the future as a result of the breach

Cash payments for unreimbursed out-of-pocket losses

  • You can file a claim for unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses for a maximum claim of $20,000. This includes the amount for claims under the time spent option.

You can submit a claim for expenses as follows:

  • Money spent on or after 9/7/2017 for:
  • Placing or removing security freezes on your credit report with any agency
  • Credit monitoring or identity theft protection

Unreimbursed costs, expenses, losses or charges you paid on or after 5/13/2017. These costs would be related to identity theft or fraud, falsified tax returns or alleged misuse of your personal information.

Other expenses related to your out-of-pocket loss such as notary charges, postage or mileage.

Professional fees that you incurred in relation to identity theft or falsified tax returns.

Up to 25% reimbursement for amount you paid to Equifax credit monitoring or other identity theft protection subscriptions between 9/7/16 and 9/7/17.

There still has to be a final hearing before any payments or benefits will be put into place. That
final hearing is set to take place on December 19, 2019 with compensations being sent out January 23, 2020 at the earliest. For more detailed information visit the settlement’s website
or the FTC’s website.

If you have any questions feel free to contact Lynda Tull at (607) 936-3785 or at [email protected]