How to Get Up to $25,000 in the Yahoo Data Breach Settlement (Apply by July 20th!)

Yahoo!’s data breach, which is considered one of the worst hacks in history, is actually worse than we thought.

They’ve settled on a $117.5 million class-action settlement and Yahoo users can file a claim to be a part of it. The deadline to file a claim is Monday, July 20

Who’s Eligible?

If you had a Yahoo account (this includes email, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, Yahoo Finance, Tumblr, or Flickr) between the dates of January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2016, then you’re eligible.

If you suffered significant out of pocket expenses as a result of the data breach, you can qualify for up to $25,000 in reimbursement. However, most users will likely qualify for one of the lesser settlements. 

You’ll be able to choose between 2 free years of credit monitoring services by AllClear ID or up to $358. In order to get the cash though, you have to verify that you already have credit monitoring and the amount could be much less depending on how many claims are submitted. 

Since this is a high-profile settlement, it’s more likely that the number of claims would be high so if you don’t already have credit monitoring, we suggest you choose that route!

So what exactly happened with the hack?

It was in August 2013 that Yahoo users’ information was affected. The database was breached and approximately 3 billion accounts were recorded, such as names, email addresses, birthdays, passwords, and security questions and answers. 

However, it wasn’t until 2016 that the breach was made public and initially, they had said only one million accounts were affected. 

Yikes.

The deadline to submit a claim is July 20, 2020.

See Also: How Long You Should Keep Financial Documents