The bureau of credit... Sounds like a government agency. It's not. It's Equifax, the for-profit company best known for exposing over 147M Americans' sensitive personal information. Yesterday, it settled a bunch of lawsuits and investigations, offering victims some free stuff:
- $25/hour: If you spent time with credit card customer service or learning how to manage a password manager, you can bill Equifax for it — up to $20K.
- 10 years: Free credit monitoring service for a decade, which is worth ~$10/month.
- $7B: That's the max amount Equifax could end up paying if all 147M victims take action (the company only expects 7M to make claims — FYI, you can learn more at equifaxbreachsettlement.com).
Your money history matters... Three companies keep track of Americans' money reputation — your credit score. If they make a mistake, you could suffer from high interest rates, a problem that's tough to correct. So far though, the data that Equifax failed to protect hasn't shown up on the black markets where stolen data is typically sold.
Equifax has pretty much recovered... The Atlanta-based company's stock price dropped from $145 to $93 in the two weeks after reports that its data door was left open. But shares have climbed back to $138 (as of Monday). Equifax was driving irresponsibly with a baby on board (your data), but politicians haven't done much new regulating to make sure it won't happen again.