Due to a settlement resulting from a class-action lawsuit, TU choose to offer pretty much anyone access to their free monitoring service, rather than having to pony up cash. It’s kinda like Microsoft donating “billions of dollars” in free software which costs them little in actual cash (what is the going rate for an electron these days?). However, this is going to cost TU millions of lost revenue. I can’t say I’m sorry.

According to MarketWatch:

Any consumer who had a credit card or a mortgage, auto or student loan, or other open credit account or credit line in the U.S. any time from 1987 to May 28 this year will be able to choose from two free TransUnion services for a limited time. The settlement is the result of a class action lawsuit charging that TransUnion violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it sold consumer information to businesses for their targeted marketing efforts. The law allows selling publicly available information but not private data.

Your Options:

1. Six months of TransUnion’s credit-monitoring service for free, giving consumers unlimited access to their credit reports and scores, and email notifications when changes occur on their credit reports. The settlement values this service at $59.75.

2. Nine months of the credit-monitoring service, plus access to the credit scores used in insurance decisions, and TransUnion’s mortgage simulator service, by which consumers can see how their credit score affects their mortgage rate. Value: $115.50.

3. Cash Settlement is also an option, but any such payments won’t be made for two years — and they’ll be paid only if there’s money left after any other “post-settlement claims” have been paid out of a $75 million fund set up by TransUnion for the purpose. In other words, I wouldn’t hold out much hope of getting anything from this.

Consumers who choose the first option sacrifice their right to enter a class-action claim against TransUnion, though they might still bring an individual case, while those who choose the second option sacrifice any further legal claims of any kind in the matter. Consumers will not need to provide a credit card to sign up for either service, and both services will simply end — that is, TransUnion will not automatically sign people up for a paid service, according to the settlement agreement.

Note: They are not taking free orders yet - the settlement still needs to be approved by the court. Stay Tuned!

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