I just got another one.
*“To claim your $26, provide proof that you owned Acme Common Stock on July 17th, 2013. Fill out the 3 page application and… Accurate claims processing takes a significant amount of time…” *
Has anyone ever successfully completed this process–or even bothered to try?
Yes, several times. Sometimes you’re auto enrolled and would need to opt out to not get paid.
Yep, few times. Got a payout everytime, the most was $122. most were less then $30.
Every chance I get! Got $400 once. That was amazing.
Every single time. I’ve gotten over $100 every time but one, and the one time it was less than $100, it was $0.02. Which was funny because it was a paper check. I just framed it and it hangs on my wall.
Wife and I both got a couple of dollars from the equifax settlement where millions of people had their private info leaked. I feel like it was 20 something?
There have been others for tiny amounts. Being an AT&T user when they got sued for throttling “unlimited” data a few years back (they still but now they disclose it so it’s fine). Lots of times the biggest ones that affect a ton of people can be a big dollar amount but so many users it ends up being tiny checks for each person who claims. I have seen some where the postage is more than the check is for. Gotta love lawyers…
My biggest one was from getting “Equifaxed”. The credit bureaus were still charging to freeze your credit when I did mine. They later made it no charge. I still leave mine frozen and only do temporary windows when I’m going to apply for something. I was also part of the OPM breach. I’ve had other breaches get my email or whatever, but OPM and Equifax were the 2 that I worry about (and I’m a CPA).
I also sign up for all the class actions that I’m eligible for. Why not? They already have all of my details because they know I’m part of the class. It would take something pretty egregious for me to opt out so I can sue the company individually.
I have mixed emotions about the attorneys that do this work, but they are holding large companies accountable for shenanigans, and deserve to be compensated for their time and expertise. But it always does sound excessive doesn’t it, the amount of the settlement that gets earmarked to cover fees?
I got around $80 recently for something. I used to not file because I always hear that you get like four dollars. But someone convinced me to always file because the company gets to keep what isn’t claimed.
I don’t believe the company being sued gets to keep the money, but how I think it works is:
Company is sued. Judgement happens for $X million, they pay that to the settlement fund. The lawyers take their fee for working the case. The remaining money is then split among those affected by the company’s actions.
So the reason you should claim it is because you’re losing out on your share. But if you (and others) don’t, those that do get a larger share.
The idea here is that you only file if you were affected by the actions. The payout is your damages from those actions.
I got $250 a few weeks ago over the airbag settlement. That’s the most I’ve ever gotten, although I think the optical drive price fixing settlement had a pretty good amount too.
I got about $150 from DeVry university being sued for false advertising.
That really helped make a dent in the thirty-fucking-thousand they stole from me, with no degree to show for.
Nah. I don’t trust that it is not a scam.
Yeah, whenever they come up.
Yeah, I have a check from Yahoo I keep meaning to deposit ($60ish.) Got $50something from Uber when it was over treating workers as employees. They settled and I’m now blacklisted from driving, but they won’t explicitly explain why. The rest were a few dollars or some stupid service like credit monitoring (looking at you, Equifax.)
I’ve had a couple times I thought about it when I was genuinely annoyed at whatever behavior, and a couple times I thought about doing the opposite and going through whatever the process is to say “this lawsuit is horseshit”.
Ultimately I haven’t done either though.
Every now and then I browse https://topclassactions.com/category/lawsuit-settlements/open-lawsuit-settlements/ to see if there is anything I qualify for. Most are $5-$10 things. But they give you these virtual gift cards with the money on them, and you cannot combine them all into one card. So now I have a bunch of these cards with $2-7 on them, and I can’t use them because there’s not enough on any card to buy anything.
Use them to buy gift cards to places that you actually want to use, but this only works if you are able to choose your own amount.
Example: you can reload Amazon “gift card balance” with a credit card and choose how much to add. Do so with one $5 card, then do the next. I believe Steam, etc have similar functions, basically anything with a “wallet”.
I got like $550 from the Illinois Facebook biometrics lawsuit, largest I ever got. Helped find my new pellet grill.
But most of them are a couple bucks. It only takes a couple minutes of my time usually, so I might as well get that “free” money.
My favorite one was Red Bull’s “wings” lawsuit. Had the option of getting a small dollar amount or a 4 pack of Red Bulls (which I loved the irony). The 4 pack was greater value than the cash, so I took that.
Yes, for >$200.00 each time. It’s nice to live in a place with strong privacy laws.
