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

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

#131
post #53

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.

Is a Standard Car Dealership or Mortgage Lender going to support you redlining an agreement, crossing out the sections you don't like (which include oversharing every and all morsel of data they can fetch from you)? No. The salesperson/CSR is going to be confused, and not even know how to proceed.

In none of these cases did I opt in. And I decidedly couldn't opt-out.

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

#132
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is a Standard Car Dealership or Mortgage Lender going to support you redlining an agreement, crossing out the sections you don't like (which include oversharing every and all morsel of data they can fetch from you)? No. The salesperson/CSR is going to be confused, and not even know how to proceed. In none of these cases did I opt in. And I decidedly couldn't opt-out.

Yes, if you want to borrow money, the person loaning you money is generally going to insist that you opt into the system that helps them understand if you are a good credit risk or not.

That's not an unfair request on their part.

Don't want to participate? Then don't ask for a loan.

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

#133
Forget the $31 million. Just make equifax 1) pay 100% of all damages that result (or potentially result if it's not clear) from the hack 2) cover the entire cost of switching to a more secure system, including developing the system, issuing all americans with a smartcode token or something, etc., without receiving any payment for it or profit.

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

#134
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FWIW Credit Karma just sent out an email that they qualify as a credit monitoring service for this purpose. I would guess the kind of person who is paying enough attention and was willing to spend the few minutes it takes to sign up for this settlement right away, is also using some kind of service like Credit Karma (or Mint might qualify now as well). So a lot of these people might actually have it covered.

I think even if people are covered, they may be counting on people finding it exhausting to jump through yet another hoop. Maybe they’ll even make us fax it :/

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

#135
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a Standard Car Dealership or Mortgage Lender going to support you redlining an agreement, crossing out the sections you don't like (which include oversharing every and all morsel of data they can fetch from you)? No. The salesperson/CSR is going to be confused, and not even know how to proceed. In none of these cases did I opt in. And I decidedly couldn't opt-out.

Yes, if you want to borrow money, the person loaning you money is generally going to insist that you opt into the system that helps them understand if you are a good credit risk or not. That's not an unfair request on their part. Don't want to participate? Then don't ask for a loan.

Just be rich!

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

#136
> The public response to the settlement has been overwhelming. Millions of people have visited this site in just the first week. Because the total amount available for these alternative payments is $31 million, each person who takes the money option is going to get a very small amount. Nowhere near the $125 they could have gotten if there hadn’t been such an enormous number of claims filed.

[1] https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/eq...

What a joke.

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

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does when millions of people have similar anecdotes, and when the system is literally set up for it. Places can report whatever they want to. And you can dispute it, but the person who report it will just say "no, we're right" and it'll stay up.

This I've been fighting with Equifax and TransUnion for 5 years to remove 30 year old reports on my credit history (which are clearly not me because im less than 25 years old)

This is amazing. How are you running into trouble with this for 5 years? What is their counterargument?

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

#138

well.. when individuals lose a court battle, they owe the winning party money from their future earnings, in case their current balance does not cover the sum owed. Why don't they make companies do that. It would only seem fair for the amount of damage they did :|

Because they would just go out of business and the debt would disappear.

I would be quite fine with them going out of business -- I never chose to do business with them.

Other businesses would pay a lot of more attention if this were to happen a few times.

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