An Equifax class action settlement offers up to $600 to 37,000 consumers whose credit reports contained duplicate collection accounts reported in 2022, with claims due by September 1, 2026.
The $2.2 million settlement resolves allegations that Equifax violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by reporting the same collection account more than once on individual credit reports. The lawsuit stemmed from a claim by a Georgia woman, Bradberry, who discovered in 2022 that a $305 collection account appeared multiple times on her credit report, causing her credit scores to drop severely and leading to a declined mortgage application.
The credit reporting error was not isolated. According to court documents, the duplicate reporting affected approximately 37,000 consumers who received notification letters from Equifax in August or September 2022. Equifax has not admitted wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement, which received preliminary court approval on May 4, 2026.
Class members who file a valid claim can receive cash payments up to $600, though the exact amount each person receives will depend on the total number of valid claims submitted. All eligible consumers also automatically receive six months of free credit monitoring from Equifax, which includes coverage for out-of-pocket expenses related to identity theft.
To claim the payment, eligible consumers must submit a claim form by September 1, 2026. The claim form can be submitted online at DuplicateAccountFCRASettlement.com using the notice ID and PIN from the settlement letter they received, or printed and mailed to the settlement administrator. The deadline applies to both online and mailed submissions, which must be postmarked by September 1, 2026.
As part of the settlement, Equifax pledged to remove all duplicate collection accounts from affected consumers’ files and to avoid reporting the same collection account more than once on the same Equifax consumer report for a period of six months. A final settlement hearing is scheduled for October 6, 2026, after which payments will begin to be distributed to class members.
This settlement is separate from Equifax’s larger 2019 data breach settlement, which involved a $425 million consumer restitution fund for people affected by the 2017 breach that exposed personal information of millions of Americans. That settlement included payments for time spent dealing with the breach and identity theft monitoring, and concluded with final distributions in 2024 and 2025.
Sources
- Yahoo Finance — Settlement details, plaintiff story, claim deadline, and payment amounts
- ClassAction.org — Settlement agreement, preliminary approval date, class size, and settlement terms
- USA Today — Plaintiff details and duplicate account discovery
- Consumer Affairs — Settlement announcement and affected consumer count
