A Judge Approved the Largest Credit-Reporting Settlement on Record — $100 Million for 4 Million People. There Is Nothing to File Yet

The allegation is narrow in time and wide in consequence. Between March 17 and April 6, 2022, Equifax is alleged to have miscalculated and misreported credit scores for consumers who were applying for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. Some scores came back more than 20 points lower than they should have been. Roughly 4 million people are covered.

A score error of that size at exactly the moment someone is being underwritten is not an abstraction: it is the difference between an approval and a denial, or between one interest rate and a worse one, locked in for the life of a loan. That is the theory of harm behind In re: Equifax Fair Credit Reporting Act Litigation, Case No. 1:22-cv-03072, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

On August 17, 2026, Judge Leigh Martin May granted preliminary approval to the $100 million settlement. Class counsel describe it as the largest settlement in history related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Preliminary approval is permission to proceed, not a decision that the deal is fair and not an instruction to pay anyone. It is the point at which the court allows notice to go out to the class and a claims process to be built. The final approval hearing is scheduled for January 22, 2027. As of today there is no published claim deadline, no claim form and no official settlement website for this case. Anyone presenting one right now is ahead of the court.

This is the single most useful thing to know if you were denied credit in spring 2022 and are reading about a $100 million settlement: the correct action today is to wait for a notice, not to hunt for a form. Our Equifax credit score error settlement page tracks the docket and will carry the claim mechanics when the administrator publishes them.

There are two open Equifax matters in 2026 and they are unrelated, which is producing real confusion in search traffic. The second is Bradberry v. Equifax Information Services LLC, a $2.2 million settlement covering roughly 37,000 people over an entirely different practice: listing identical collection accounts more than once on the same credit file.

That one is live and nearly over. Eligible consumers can receive up to $600 plus six months of credit monitoring, and the claim deadline is September 1, 2026 — days from now — through the official portal at DuplicateAccountFCRASettlement.com, using the Notice ID beginning “EQB” and PIN from the mailed notice. Its final approval hearing is October 6, 2026. Full mechanics are on our Equifax FCRA duplicate-account settlement page.

Two settlements, two sizes, two schedules: the $2.2 million duplicate-reporting case is claimable now and closes September 1; the $100 million credit-score case is not claimable at all yet. Filing for one has no effect on the other.

A gap between an approved settlement and a working claims process is the most reliable window for settlement scams, because the news coverage is real and the official channel does not exist yet to contradict anyone. For the $100 million case there is nothing to submit, no fee to pay and no “early filing” advantage — administrators notify class members, and notice in a case this size will come from records Equifax already holds.

Nobody legitimate needs your online banking login, a payment, or a Social Security number typed into a link from a text message to “secure your place” in a settlement. If you want to check your own exposure in the meantime, pulling your credit reports is free and unrelated to any settlement. For comparison across the sector, see our TransUnion FCRA settlement coverage.