Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2019 10:37:17 GMT -5
Equifax exposed people's names, addresses, social security numbers, etc. and now has reached a settlement. It's more complicated than the two choices I contemplated, which the link describes. The complexity comes in with actually having to deal with identity theft, which I haven't. Here's the link. There is a way to find out if your info was compromised; mine was. However, nothing has happened . . . yet. My choices were as follows: - 4 years of free credit monitoring by the 3 major bureaus and then an additional 6 years of free monitoring by Equifax.
- $125 cash if I already have credit monitoring and certify that I will have it for at least 6 months.
I went back and forth because I actually do have some sort of free credit monitoring from someone else's breach. I have no idea how much longer it lasts.
After overthinking it, I finally went with the credit monitoring, anyway. Obviously, I'm not asking for advice since it is already done. But I was just curious as to which you guys would have chosen.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jul 25, 2019 10:41:14 GMT -5
thanks for the link, I am also affected by this. I didn't have identity theft, either, but my info is still out there and as such, everything is now frozen unless I need it.
to answer your question, though, I'm not sure yet. I would guess the credit monitoring would be the way to go, but I need to read the details. sounds like I have some time, though.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 25, 2019 10:50:16 GMT -5
Thank you for this. I was also affected by this breach. No identity theft but information is out there and frozen, but still....
I need to read more before I decide what to do.
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msventoux
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Post by msventoux on Jul 25, 2019 19:21:59 GMT -5
I need to read up on it a bit more, but I’m leaning towards taking the money. I already have monitoring from another breach and have intermittently for a few years. I suspect there will continue to be breaches that offer monitoring as a result.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 26, 2019 6:50:39 GMT -5
I filed a claim last night and took the money.
I have monitoring from another breach and breaches keep happening.
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Jul 26, 2019 10:59:31 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this, @bamafan1954. I opted for credit monitoring for myself and DH.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2019 12:09:10 GMT -5
Took the monitoring, also just put a freeze at Equifax, Transunion and Experian.
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MN-Investor
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Post by MN-Investor on Jul 26, 2019 14:47:49 GMT -5
It looks like I'm affected but not my recently deceased husband. I'll opt for the credit monitoring since I don't have that otherwise.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on Jul 26, 2019 15:08:34 GMT -5
Thanks! I took the money Now I want to freeze accounts Anyone know how to do this? Does it cost? How much?
There’s been so many hacks of store accounts etc
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Jul 26, 2019 15:14:10 GMT -5
Thanks! I took the money Now I want to freeze accounts Anyone know how to do this? Does it cost? How much? There’s been so many hacks of store accounts etc equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/experian.com/freezewww.transunion.com/credit-freezeYesterday when I found this thread I checked and I was one of the lucky ones impacted. Went to freeze my credit through the 3 bureaus and one of them didn't like my answers so they told me I had to mail in the request. That kind of freaked me out because they always ask you like one random questions but the site asked me two and I know I got the third one right. Ran my credit report and everything checked out while I sent the certified request to freeze through the last one. I took the money since I already have monitoring that actually renewed in the last month.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on Jul 26, 2019 15:48:41 GMT -5
Thank you Thought I could go to my bank ( all accounts plus cc’s) but said not here! So need to go to each site, ok Our homeowners insurance has credit monitoring with no added charge
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 26, 2019 16:17:10 GMT -5
I froze all my credit when the Equifax breach happened. At that time, I did have to pay for all but Equifax.
I think the law has changed and it's now free to freeze and unfreeze.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Jul 26, 2019 16:32:21 GMT -5
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Jul 27, 2019 9:18:35 GMT -5
Well, I checked and both DH and I are affected. I realize that we already have free credit monitoring through one of our credit cards.
After reading the boglehead thread on the topic, I’ve decided to claim the $125, but also claim $25/hr for the time spent investigating the issue and freezing all three accounts. At least 3 hrs.
Edited to add: Spent about 20 minutes fiilng a claim online for myself and DH. Filed for the $125 plus 5 hours of my time at $25/hr. (Investigating the issue, learning how our information might have been affected, learning how to freeze accounts, actually freezing accounts at all the agencies, then later unfreezing temporarily then re-freezing. In addition, some time spent on the phone with one of the agencies)
So a total of $250 each
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Jul 27, 2019 15:50:26 GMT -5
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Jul 27, 2019 15:57:39 GMT -5
They managed to miss spilling their guts about me, and I don't mind. $125 or $0.21 doesn't matter to me personally since I won't get a penny but somehow it seems wrong to me that they get away with not paying full penalties to each and every person affected. JMO
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2019 16:32:11 GMT -5
I just discovered that DH is paying $110 a year for Experian's monitoring. It started as free monitoring from AAA, and he renewed it.
His SSN was compromised so I am going to sign him up for the free monitoring and get rid of the auto-renew on this one. Ten years of monitoring is like $1000 using the cost of Equifax's.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2019 0:00:28 GMT -5
I signed up for the cash, but I don't expect to actually see it.
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trippypea
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Post by trippypea on Jul 28, 2019 10:20:16 GMT -5
Both DH and I were affected by the breach. I immediately signed up for the free year of credit monitoring that was offered at the time and then froze our accounts. Frankly, I don't see the point of credit monitoring when the businesses doing the monitoring are the businesses who are losing your data, so I didn't renew after the free year (nothing like paying a company to do what they should have been doing in the first place, guarding the data you trust them with). So I wasn't eligible for the $125 for current credit monitoring, but I did submit a claim for time wasted signing up for everything and the cost to do so. It wasn't a lot, but the least they can do is pay it back. Only $31 million is earmarked for payments. That's only 248,000 $125 payments.
Nearly half the country was affected by the breach, 147 million. The majority of them probably never even checked in the first place to see if they were affected, and of the ones who did, most probably didn't pay for monitoring after the free year was up. Even so, I would imagine there will be more than 248,000 people submitting claims for $125, not to mention the people either/also submitting claims for time spent.
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Ryan
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Post by Ryan on Jul 29, 2019 10:08:49 GMT -5
I signed up for the pymts. I already have my credit froze, so the monitoring wouldn't do me any good.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Jul 29, 2019 22:05:32 GMT -5
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on Jul 31, 2019 0:03:55 GMT -5
We have identity theft protection coverage/monitoring from Zander (family plan covers us both). My credit is frozen. My wonderful DH's credit is frozen. We opted for the cash ... whatever it will be.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 6:47:33 GMT -5
On a whim, I checked the kids socials and one of them was affected somehow. I signed him up for the 10 years of monitoring.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Jul 31, 2019 7:01:39 GMT -5
I froze my credit some time ago, need to do hubs also
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Aug 1, 2019 7:55:14 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2019 7:57:27 GMT -5
Yeah. I've heard pennies. I think I'm going to go in and change mine to the 10 years of monitoring. At least I'll get that...maybe.
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geenamercile
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Post by geenamercile on Aug 1, 2019 21:57:35 GMT -5
I wonder what fund the postage for all of those penny checks will come from?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2019 7:45:08 GMT -5
After reading so many observations about the likely cash refunds I went back and filed a new claim for the credit monitoring instead of the cash. I hope they ignore the earlier claim.
I wouldn't be surprised if my late husband's info had also been hacked (he died in 2016) but haven't bothered to file a claim. I reported his death to all 3 credit bureaus so monitoring isn't likely to turn up much activity.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2019 7:56:46 GMT -5
After reading so many observations about the likely cash refunds I went back and filed a new claim for the credit monitoring instead of the cash. I hope they ignore the earlier claim. I wouldn't be surprised if my late husband's info had also been hacked (he died in 2016) but haven't bothered to file a claim. I reported his death to all 3 credit bureaus so monitoring isn't likely to turn up much activity. They changed their claim page saying the cash settlement would probably be minimal and if anyone wanted to change theirs they could.
6. I want to change my claim to get free credit monitoring instead of a cash payment. Can I do that?
Yes. The settlement administrator will be sending an email to people who already submitted a claim for the alternative cash payment. In that email, you will have the option to:
1) provide additional information OR
2) switch to free credit monitoring.
We will update this page with more information after the email goes out.
You also can send an email to info@EquifaxBreachSettlement.com to make a change to your claim.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Aug 2, 2019 8:01:15 GMT -5
I should have probably spent more time on my DH's claim. He did get his identity stolen last fall. I really don't know whether to blame OPM or Equifax. We've always assumed it was OPM. His stuff is frozen and there's a fraud alert on his account.
It's a hassle since we still need stuff. It either has to go in my name only or you have to see if they know who they use. He unlocked 2 of 3 when we bought my car. I think not unlocking the third cost us more favorable terms because he left the one Chase used frozen. And they would have been better without his name on it but hopefully this helps improve his score.
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