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.
$200 million in fines to the states and federal government. $300-$500 million to reimburse consumers for actual expenses they incurred. And $31 million to anyone otherwise affected.
They could have reduced the fines by 10% and doubled the pool for the general public. lol
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.
