What happened?’
In September of 2017, Equifax announced a data breach that exposed the personal information of 147 million people. The company has agreed to a global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 U.S. states and territories.
Does this affect me?
The settlement includes up to $425 million to help people affected by the data breach. If you aren’t sure if you were affected, click here to file a claim online to see if you were affected.
I was affected, so now what?
You can file a claim by clicking here and follow the instructions. There are a few ways you can be compensated:
- Equifax will provide credit monitoring on all three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) for 4 years, and then another 6 years on Equifax only
- If you already have credit monitoring (Lifelock™, etc.), then you can make a claim for $125. The option will be provided for you on the website.
- You may be eligible for reimbursement and cash payments up to $20,000 for:
- time you spent protecting your identity or recovering from identity theft, up to 20 hours at $25 per hour
- money you spent protecting your identity or recovering from identity theft, like the cost of freezing or unfreezing your credit report or unauthorized charges to your accounts
- up to 25% of the cost of Equifax credit monitoring or identity protection products you bought between September 7, 2016 and September 7, 2017
- If someone has stolen your identify, you are eligible for free identity restoration services for a minimum of 7 years
At Phase 3 we are here to help you weather any financial season, especially the storm of identity theft.
