Back in 2017, the credit reporting agency Equifax allowed a data breach that exposed the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.
This week, they settled with the Federal Trade Commission for a cool $700 million—$380 million of which will be paid to effected Americans as restitution. That shakes out to at least $125 for everyone affected.
If your information was exposed in the #Equifax #databreach, you can now file a claim at https://t.co/uGo5UNvipC
— FTC (@FTC) July 25, 2019
However, claiming the $125 can be a little tedious. First, you need to go to this website and give your last name and last six digits of your Social Security number to see if you are eligible. If you are, then you’ll be directed to fill out a short form to file a claim. On the claim form you can request your $125—or free credit monitoring. And in order to get the money, you have to have a credit monitoring service and keep it for at least six months after filing the claim.
Fortunately, the folks at The Verge have figured out a way to get the money even if you don’t currently have monitoring though. They note that you can first sign up for a free service like Credit Karma, use a credit monitoring service if it’s offered by your current credit card company or use a paid one.
Also, if your identity has been stolen because of the breach or you have spent a significant amount of time trying to fight credit fraud, the forms will walk you through the process of claiming even more money.
