Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 459 posts

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#101

Post by throwawaycert »

brazzledazzle wrote: post #97
throwawaycert wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large financial organizations have teams of analysts whose entire job is to relate consumer information, such as credit scores, to statistical outcomes. If the credit scores weren't giving them useful information, that would show up rather quickly.

I’m suddenly reminded of the ratings used to fuel the subprime mortgage crisis.

That was something subtly different. The banks more or less knew they were taking poor risks, the problem is it wasn't their risk to take. They quietly packaged these bad mortgages along with others and resold the mess to less sophisticated investors (like pension plans). Then the bubble burst, the well dried up, and banks started collapsing. It wasn't a mismanagement of risk, it was criminal fraud writ large.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#102

Post by paulgb »

irrational wrote: post #91

So, Equifax is being fined millions of dollars which will be used to pay for credit monitoring services from... Equifax? Isn't the fine money just going back into Equifax's coffers?

They are paying their competitor, Experian, to provide the first four years of credit monitoring. They then provide an extra six years of credit monitoring themselves, but they do not get paid anything from the settlement fund for this.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#103

Post by idighkwjt »

greedo wrote: post #53
deckard1 wrote: post #49

We're all supposed to take it as just a fact of life now that we need a monitoring service for a service none of us opted in to. And who runs these monitoring services? Why of course, it's the credit reporting companies! Who else would it be. So not only do they know when fraud is happening to you, but they will happily ruin your life while knowing and charge you for the privilege of knowing this is happening to you.…

Unfortunately, most of us did opt in. If you look at the credit agreements we sign when we buy cars, open credit accounts, enter into a mortgage, we give the lender the privilege to share our data with these credit reporting companies.

We may have agreed to allow a financier share our data with Equifax, but did not agree that those Equifax etc could be negligent in their handling/ release of it.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#104

Post by jameslevy »

noodlesUK wrote: post #6

Surely the FTC and Equifax saw this coming? 150m people were included in the breach. Only 31m USD was allocated to give anyone who claimed 125 USD? How on earth did they do this math?

Why does it even matter how much they allocated? If I allocate $10 to pay my rent, that doesn't mean my rent check will need to be adjusted.

They need to allocate more, and if it puts them into bankruptcy (it won't), there are legal processes for handling their liabilities.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#105

Post by danharaj »

freetobesmart wrote: post #100
deckard1 wrote: post #49

We're all supposed to take it as just a fact of life now that we need a monitoring service for a service none of us opted in to. And who runs these monitoring services? Why of course, it's the credit reporting companies! Who else would it be. So not only do they know when fraud is happening to you, but they will happily ruin your life while knowing and charge you for the privilege of knowing this is happening to you.…

there is no such thing a good credit unless someone can verify it. I can give all of my current credit cards in a background check, but what about the past ones I defaulted on??? Are you saying credit scores should not exist? Is it because you are a fraud that defaults alot and likes to steal money?

The honest don't like being treated like thieves.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#106

Post by harryh »

munk-a wrote: post #73
harryh wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, of you opt out of a class action settlement you reserve the right to sue in the future. That being said, it would be expensive to go it alone. Some parties have had success in small claims court though (there have been previous HN comment threads on this).

Also a question for anyone law aware - Is it possible to pursue a second class action suite against Equifax as a group separate from the initial suite with the assumption that the initial suite was negotiated in bad faith?

Given that it's extremely likely that the number of people who opt out will be quite small, it's hard to imagine such an undertaking getting off the ground.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#107

Post by unreal37 »

irrational wrote: post #91

So, Equifax is being fined millions of dollars which will be used to pay for credit monitoring services from... Equifax? Isn't the fine money just going back into Equifax's coffers?

No, their settlement with the FTC calls for a $31 million CASH pool of money to pay out to people affected. This is not for "paying" for credit monitoring.

Let's assume 20 million people have already made a claim against that $31 million. So they expect checks to be about $1.

So they're offering 10 years of credit monitoring instead of getting a check for $1 without credit monitoring.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#108

Post by paulgb »

ma2rten wrote: post #32
noodlesUK wrote: post #6

Surely the FTC and Equifax saw this coming? 150m people were included in the breach. Only 31m USD was allocated to give anyone who claimed 125 USD? How on earth did they do this math?

Probably they assumed that most people don't have credit monitoring yet and only a few people would go for the $125 option.

My guess is they start asking people who already signed up for the $125 for the proof of their credit monitoring. The settlement agreement and the terms we agreed to when accepting the $125 allowed them to do this, and they would probably see the number of claims go down.

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#109

Post by unreal37 »

ohyes wrote: post #65
noodlesUK wrote: post #6

Surely the FTC and Equifax saw this coming? 150m people were included in the breach. Only 31m USD was allocated to give anyone who claimed 125 USD? How on earth did they do this math?

They’re coincidentally offering a $125/year service that does the thing that you have to sign up for to get reimbursed the $125 dollars. So basically they’re not offering $125, they’re offering a year of free credit monitoring service. So yeah, $31 million, but they intend to recoup all if not most of it in fees, and then make money the year after when people forget to cancel.

Any evidence that this "10 years" of credit monitoring automatically renews at $125/year?

Re: Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

#110

Post by irrational »

paulgb wrote: post #102
irrational wrote: post #91

So, Equifax is being fined millions of dollars which will be used to pay for credit monitoring services from... Equifax? Isn't the fine money just going back into Equifax's coffers?

They are paying their competitor, Experian, to provide the first four years of credit monitoring. They then provide an extra six years of credit monitoring themselves, but they do not get paid anything from the settlement fund for this.

If that is true, then where is the other 90+ million dollars going? Has Experian already been written a check for 90+ million dollars?
Post reply on HN