What You Need To Know About The TransUnion Class Action Settlement

TransUnion is in some serious hot water. They violated the terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act when they sold the personal information and records of consumers (us!) to businesses hoping to target people in a certain credit range.

They have reached a settlement agreement, and pretty much everyone is set to get something out of it.

Here’s the skinny:

If you carried a credit card, mortgage, student loan, or auto loan between the years of 1987 to May 28, 2008, then you are eligible to get something out of the settlement.

Here’s the settlement offer:

• You can get six month’s of free credit monitoring from TrueCredit (TransUnion’s credit monitoring service) This includes your TransUnion credit report and score only. Value: $59.75.
• You can choose nine months of free credit monitoring. This includes your TransUnion credit report, the credit scores used by insurance companies, and TransUnion’s “Mortgage Simulator” service. The Mortgage simulator shows you how your credit score impacts your mortgage. Value: $115.50
• You can choose a cash settlement. Cash settlements will not be paid out for at least two years. If you sign up to receive a cash settlement, you will only be paid if there is money left in the $75 million dollar settlement pool after they calculate the value of all the credit monitoring services that were given to consumers as part of the settlement.

My personal take on this?

By themselves, your Transunion credit report and score mean very little. To get a full picture of your credit rating, at the very least you need to view your credit reports and scores from all three bureaus plus your FICO score. As far as the Mortgage simulator calculator, there are similar tools available for free online.

Personally, I’ll sign up for the cash settlement, and be happy if I receive it. However, if you have never monitored your credit report, and would like a free way to try it out, then it may be a good way for you to decide if credit monitoring is right for you.

You can register to take part in the settlement at the official site.

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Keep Reading:

• Which Credit Monitoring Service Should I Use?
• Does Having A Checking or Savings Account Affect Your Credit Score?
• Does Having Too Many Credit Cards Hurt Your Score?

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