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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

#141

Post by Lownin »

harryh wrote: post #132
mceachen wrote: post #131

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.

We're told from an early age that we need to be college educated to be economically viable in the world of today and tomorrow. This may or may not be true, but public schools put a non-trivial amount of effort into convincing us it is. Most of us need loans to go to college. To me, this feels like a form of coercion to enter the credit system, either by way of economic realities, or heavy marketing to young people who are not equipped to defend against it.

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

#142

Post by nostrademons »

throwawaycert wrote: post #60
codernyc16 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a recent 30 day delinquent payment reduce my credit score by 80 points. And this was because the letter in the mail was mid-delivered. Not that the credit card issuer, nor the credit agencies give two shits. This was after about 5 hours of calls ping-ponging between the two.

Credit scores change constantly. What your 80 point drop told creditors is "This person might not have enough money to pay their bills, or is careless or forgetful.". You are perceived as higher risk because, statistically, you are a higher risk. Those of us who maintain excellent credit do it in part by making sure our money gets where it's supposed to. I check online to make sure payments post, or hand in payments…

I was surprised how much they change constantly, for silly things like how much balance you have on your credit cards.

My wife & I both have excellent credit scores, and we pay all of our bills in full every month. Nevertheless, I've noticed a ~50 point swing in credit scores from month-to-month, all dependent on whether airline tickets, furniture, or charitable contributions happened to make it onto this month's bill. Our debt-to-liquid-assets ratio is something like 0.1%, so there's never any real risk of not having money to pay it off, but of course the credit bureaus don't have information about our assets, so they evaluate us against what other people our age have, which (being Millenials) is not very much.

Knowing how the system works, we can take steps to game it, like not putting any major purchases on credit card in the 3-6 months before getting a mortgage. But still, it's slightly ridiculous that something that's supposed to measure your creditworthiness can swing so much over short time periods.

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

#143

Post by eblanshey »

lioeters wrote: post #128
harryh wrote: post #44

My understanding was that the equifax settlement was for 6-700 million, yet this page indicates that there is only 31 million set aside to cover cash payouts to class members. I'm curious about where the rest of the money went. Does anyone know?

According to the New York Times: "Almost half the settlement — $300 million — will go toward American consumers who were harmed by the breach, according to settlement documents filed in federal court in Atlanta. The company also agreed to pay $275 million in fines to end investigations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Ric…

> The company also agreed to pay $275 million in fines to end investigations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Equifax's mess-up did damage to American citizens by exposing their information. Why isn't most, if not all, of the money going to them? "Fines to end investigations" just sounds like a bribe -- the government itself wasn't affected by this, and yet they are being paid as much as the people who were affected -- more so considering only the 31 million pot.

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

#144

Post by fletchowns »

mindcrime wrote: post #87
fletchowns wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we have the government keep track of credit history?

Dear god, no. However bad Equifax is, the government would be even worse. As the old saying goes "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.".

What sort of ways do you think it would be worse?

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

#145

Post by harimau777 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #121
lakjdsflajk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I guess you could take it further and say we all opted-in to be screwed over in various ways throughout life when we were born too. Doesn't mean we shouldn't fight back against it.

> you could take it further and say we all opted-in to be screwed over in various ways throughout life when we were born too This is already a widely accepted theory usually called the "Social Contract".

It seems to me that social contract theory is only valid if one can choose which society to live in or opt out of living in society. However, neither of those are the case in the modern world since there is no unclaimed land and immigration laws prevent people from changing societies.

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

#146

Post by Sebb767 »

mceachen wrote: post #131
greedo wrote: 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.

It's even worse: On several occasions I didn't sign a contract or an addendum because I had questions about it and the other party didn't even check whether I actually signed it. So, even if you don't sign the agreement there's a good chance that your data is sent anyway because nobody checks for that.

Of course that could be grounds for a litigation, but at that point the data is already gone and, other than being a PITA, suing wouldn't really be worthwhile as that hardly counts as damages.

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

#147

Post by mikeash »

throwawaycert wrote: post #60
codernyc16 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a recent 30 day delinquent payment reduce my credit score by 80 points. And this was because the letter in the mail was mid-delivered. Not that the credit card issuer, nor the credit agencies give two shits. This was after about 5 hours of calls ping-ponging between the two.

Credit scores change constantly. What your 80 point drop told creditors is "This person might not have enough money to pay their bills, or is careless or forgetful.". You are perceived as higher risk because, statistically, you are a higher risk. Those of us who maintain excellent credit do it in part by making sure our money gets where it's supposed to. I check online to make sure payments post, or hand in payments…

Foisting responsibility onto customers with more important things to worry about, rather than into organizations whose only purpose is to keep track of these things?

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

#148

Post by bradleyjg »

elliekelly wrote: post #94
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?

This seems to be a more frequent occurrence in the last few years with class action settlements going “viral” for lack of a better word. I believe it’s called dilution of class. In theory I think the judge is supposed to consider the number of class members & their estimated recovery before granting final approval but I suspect by that point nobody cares.

Judges so rarely reject class settlements that treating them as a check on collusion between class attorneys and defendants is a joke.

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

#149

Post by mikeash »

adrr wrote: post #85
zonidjan wrote: post #59

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.

If you could build a better algorithm to do underwriting, you could make billions. Companies try all the time like zest finance.

Better for whom?

I’m sure the existing credit bureaus are great for the people who give them money. They sure suck for the rest of us, though. Fortunately for them, we get zero say.

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

#150

Post by throwawaycert »

mikeash wrote: post #147
throwawaycert wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit scores change constantly. What your 80 point drop told creditors is "This person might not have enough money to pay their bills, or is careless or forgetful.". You are perceived as higher risk because, statistically, you are a higher risk. Those of us who maintain excellent credit do it in part by making sure our money gets where it's supposed to. I check online to make sure payments post, or hand in payments…

Foisting responsibility onto customers with more important things to worry about, rather than into organizations whose only purpose is to keep track of these things?

It is not my job to go out and manage my customer's finances and take their credit cards or write myself checks from their accounts, and I'd be quite rightly arrested for theft if I tried.
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