Equifax's $30 Million Hard-Inquiry Settlement: Claims Due November 29

"Inquiries are a factual record of file access. If you believe this was unauthorized, please contact the creditor."

If you ever mailed Equifax a letter disputing a hard inquiry and got that sentence back, you have read the document at the centre of four lawsuits. Equifax has agreed to a $30,000,000 fund to settle them. About three million people are in the class, the claim form is due November 29, 2026, and the court has so far given preliminary approval only.

The lead case is Hines v. Equifax Information Services LLC, No. 1:19-cv-06701, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The notice lists three more against the same defendant: Rivera, No. 1:18-cv-04639 (N.D. Ga.); Oblack, No. 3:25-cv-01997 (D.N.J.); and Neubauer, filed as No. 3:23-cv-01275 (D. Or.) and now pending as No. 1:24-cv-04615 (N.D. Ga.).

The claims rest on sections 1681i(a)(1) and 1681i(a)(2) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), plus similar New York and New Jersey laws.

All of that is allegation, and the notice says Equifax "has denied and continues to deny" it. The notice also says no court in any of the four cases has decided whether Equifax violated the law. Hines and Rivera were allowed to proceed as class actions, procedural rulings that give the Certified Group its name; Oblack and Neubauer had not reached that point.

The Certified Group is people for whom those records reflect three things. Equifax received a mailed letter disputing one or more hard inquiries between October 4, 2016 and March 27, 2026. Equifax coded the dispute "not mine" (001) or "unauthorized" (383). And Equifax sent the person a document containing "Cons Comm 664," which the agreement describes only as a statement that "inquiries are a factual record of file access." The definition names a mailed letter and says nothing about online or phone disputes.

The New York Subclass sits inside the Certified Group: people with a New York address who were sent that document, in response to a mailed dispute coded 001 or 383, between November 27, 2017 and September 10, 2024.

The General Dispute Group is the other branch: people for whom Equifax's records reflect one or more disputes of a hard inquiry received between August 31, 2021 and March 27, 2026. That branch names no method of dispute.

The notice counts approximately three million class members: approximately one million in the Certified Group, approximately 35,000 in the New York Subclass, and the rest, roughly two million by subtraction, in the General Dispute Group.

The agreement makes Equifax's records the test, and the Certified Group turns partly on how Equifax coded a dispute. Having once disputed an inquiry with Equifax does not by itself make anyone a class member. The website says: "If you received notice, according to Equifax's records, you are a member of the Settlement Class."

The court ordered notice sent by September 30, 2026. Under the agreement it goes by email first and by first-class mail where email fails. Each notice carries a Claim Number and PIN, and the website says logging in with them shows which group you are in.

Every group has to file a claim. The notice says all Settlement Class Members "must submit a valid claim form to receive a payment," and that a person who does nothing receives no benefits and gives up the right to sue Equifax for the claims the settlement resolves.

The form has no field for an attachment and no instruction to send documents. What it requires is the signature under penalty of perjury, which is the reason to check a box only when it is true. The agreement says the administrator "shall disallow any claim that does not include the required attestation of harm," and that its determination on validity "is final."

The agreement says claims "must be submitted electronically via the Settlement Website using the unique identifier and access code" from the notice, with a paper version for a class member who validates their identity with those codes. The posted form also lists mail, to the administrator's P.O. box in West Point, Pennsylvania, and email.

The deadline is November 29, 2026, a Sunday. The posted form "must be returned no later than November 29, 2026," and the online page says "submitted" where the form says "returned." None of the documents says whether a mailed form has to be postmarked or received by that date, or gives a cut-off hour or time zone for the online form. The agreement tells the administrator to disallow an untimely claim. It may allow one only with the written agreement of lead class counsel and Equifax's counsel, and only if that will not materially delay payments, so the question is one for the administrator.

Everything is paid from the $30,000,000, and the notice lists what comes out: attorneys' fees of up to $10,000,000, one-third of the fund; up to $260,000 in litigation expenses; service awards to the four named plaintiffs of up to $60,000 in total; and administration costs. Class counsel's fee application is due October 20, 2026 under the court's order, and the court decides what to award.

The net is divided pro rata by points, per claimant. Under the agreement a claimant in the Certified Group receives 3 points, one who is also in the New York Subclass receives 4, and every other claimant receives 1. Each point is worth the net divided by the total points of everyone who files a valid claim. The formula has no term for how many inquiries or letters a person had.

The notice gives the reason for the uneven points: members of the classes certified in Hines and Rivera "are in a stronger position if the cases were to go forward," and the New York Subclass has "an additional claim that other Settlement Class Members do not."

The dollar figures are estimates, and the notice attributes them: "Class Counsel estimates" approximately $300 for claimants in the Certified Group, $100 in the General Dispute Group and $400 in the New York Subclass, "based upon typical claims rates for similar cases." The same paragraph says the actual amounts "will depend on the actual claims rates in this case and may be lower or higher."

Those estimates are exactly $100 a point, and $18,180,000 divided by $100 is 181,800 points, the claimed total they imply.

If every class member filed, the notice's approximate counts give 965,000 people at 3 points, 35,000 at 4 and 2,000,000 at 1. That is 5,035,000 points, or about $3.61 a point: roughly $10.83, $14.44 and $3.61 per person. The $100 figure therefore corresponds to about 3.6 percent of possible points being claimed. Both calculations are mine, no document states them, and neither is a prediction.

November 20, 2026, a Friday, is the deadline both to exclude yourself and to object, and the two do opposite things. Opting out is a written request mailed to the administrator with your contact details, a statement that you want to be excluded and the unique identifier from your notice. The notice says it must be submitted no later than that date, and the agreement's own rule is a postmark. You take no money and keep your right to sue Equifax over these claims.

Objecting means staying in and telling the court what is wrong with the deal, through the CM/ECF filing system or a letter to the Clerk of Court, with a copy to the administrator.

November 26, 2026 matters only to an objector who wants to speak at the hearing: a Notice of Intention to Appear must be "received no later than November 26, 2026." That Thursday is Thanksgiving Day.

November 29, 2026 is the claim deadline, nine days after the opt-out date and 60 days after September 30, which is how the agreement sets it.

The notice says payments "will be sent only after the Court grants Final Approval to the Settlement and after any appeals are resolved."

This settlement provides money. I read the agreement and found no term requiring Equifax to handle inquiry disputes differently. Its section on the fund calls the two installment payments Equifax's "sole financial obligation."

The agreement has no term saying Equifax has stopped sending the letter or changed its procedure, and none removing an inquiry from anyone's report. Nor is it a finding against Equifax: the company denies wrongdoing, and no court has ruled that it broke the law. The release covers claims "relating to hard inquiry disputes."

Having no notice and an unfamiliar inquiry on your Equifax report right now does not by itself settle whether you are in the class, and the administrator is the one to ask. For anyone outside it, what remains is the statute.

Whether a hard inquiry is an "item of information" that triggers all of that is the question these lawsuits put to the courts, and the settlement leaves it unanswered. So I will not tell you a bureau must investigate an inquiry dispute, only what two published pages say. Results vary from one file and one dispute to the next.

A valid claim submitted by November 29, 2026, with a true box checked, is eligible for a pro rata payment after final approval and any appeals. An exclusion request by November 20, 2026 keeps the right to sue and gives up the money, and doing nothing gives up both. Someone with no notice who fits neither definition is left with the statute's dispute process.

This settlement concerns one sentence in a form letter. Nobody has decided whether that sentence was lawful, and the agreement has no term requiring it to change. The court takes up final approval on December 10, 2026.

1. Who is included in the Equifax hard-inquiry dispute settlement?

The class is persons residing in the United States and its Territories who fall into one of two groups according to Equifax's records. The Certified Group covers people whose mailed letter disputing one or more hard inquiries Equifax received between October 4, 2016 and March 27, 2026, whose dispute Equifax coded "not mine" (001) or "unauthorized" (383), and to whom Equifax sent a document containing "Cons Comm 664." The General Dispute Group covers people for whom Equifax's records reflect a hard-inquiry dispute received between August 31, 2021 and March 27, 2026. The Claim Number and PIN on the notice show which group you are in, and the claim page tells anyone without a notice who believes they belong to contact the administrator.

2. How much does the Equifax inquiry settlement pay?

There is no set amount. Payment is pro rata by points per claimant: 3 for the Certified Group, 4 for Certified Group members in the New York Subclass and 1 for everyone else. The notice says class counsel estimates approximately $300, $400 and $100, which is $100 a point, based on typical claims rates for similar cases, and that actual amounts may be lower or higher.

3. Do I have to file a claim, or is anyone paid automatically?

Nobody is paid automatically. The notice says all class members must submit a valid claim form to receive a payment. A person who does nothing receives no benefits from the settlement and gives up the right to sue Equifax for the claims it resolves.

4. What does the claim form require?

It asks for no documents, and it is sworn. The posted form says you must complete all parts, check at least one of the two boxes in Section II, and sign under oath. One box covers an economic loss, a loss of privacy, or other negative consequences based on Equifax's handling of your dispute. The other covers a credit denial where one reason was an inquiry you had disputed with Equifax. Under the agreement a claim without the attestation of harm is disallowed, and the administrator's determination is final.

5. What are the deadlines in the Equifax hard-inquiry settlement?

The dates are November 20, 2026 to opt out or object, November 26, 2026 for a Notice of Intention to Appear to be received if you objected and want to speak, and November 29, 2026 for the claim form. The documents do not say whether a mailed claim form must be postmarked or received by November 29. The final approval hearing is scheduled for December 10, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. The court's order says Zoom, and the notice lists the Brooklyn courthouse and says the hearing may be virtual or moved without additional notice.

6. Does the settlement remove the hard inquiry or change how Equifax handles disputes?

The agreement contains no term doing either; what it provides is a fund of money. Equifax denies wrongdoing, no court has decided whether it violated the law, and the settlement has preliminary approval only.

7. Is this the same as the Equifax duplicate-collection settlement?

No. That is a separate case with a different class. This settlement is Hines v. Equifax Information Services LLC, No. 1:19-cv-06701, in the Eastern District of New York, and it resolves four lawsuits about disputes of hard inquiries: Hines, Rivera, Oblack and Neubauer.

8. What if I am not in the class but have an unauthorized hard inquiry now?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that when a consumer disputes any item of information in their file directly with a bureau, the bureau must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation free of charge within 30 days, or up to 15 days more if the consumer sends relevant information during those 30 days, and notify the source within 5 business days. It may end a reinvestigation if it reasonably determines that the dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. Whether that duty reaches hard inquiries is what these lawsuits argued and no court decided. Equifax's own article says to contact the company associated with an unauthorized hard inquiry, and that one resulting from fraud can be disputed with Equifax. The CFPB's general page on errors says to dispute in writing and that you can also submit a complaint with the CFPB.

9. Where is the official settlement website and who runs it?