On Q Financial, an Arizona-based mortgage lender, has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over a data breach that exposed customers’ names and Social Security numbers. A court-authorized settlement website is now taking claims from the roughly 211,650 people whose information may have been compromised, and the window to file closes in six weeks. Anyone who received a breach notice from the company has two different ways to collect, and the amount depends on which one they pick.
The $1.25 Million Fund Behind the Feathers Settlement
The case, styled Feathers et al. v. On Q Financial, LLC, was filed in Maricopa County Superior Court and reached a proposed settlement that received preliminary court approval earlier this year. Court records describe a data security incident on or around February 20, 2024, in which unauthorized parties gained access to files containing customer names and Social Security numbers. On Q Financial, which originates residential mortgages, has not admitted wrongdoing, and the lawsuit named the company as the sole defendant. The settlement resolves the litigation without a trial, which is the outcome in most data-breach class actions once a company decides the cost of proving individual damages in court would outweigh a negotiated fund.
The settlement fund totals $1.25 million, an amount meant to cover cash payments to class members, up to a year of credit monitoring, administrative costs and attorneys’ fees. Kroll Settlement Administration runs the official case website and mails or emails notices to everyone the company identified as a member of the class. The site is the only authorized place to file a claim online, and it lists three separate dates tied to three different choices a class member can make.
According to the settlement’s public case filings, roughly 211,650 people are covered by the class, all of whom were notified that their private information may have been exposed in the breach. Anyone who did not receive a notice but believes their information was compromised can still contact the settlement administrator directly to check their status before the claim period ends.
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Two Payment Tracks: Documented Losses and a Flat Cash Option
Class members choosing the documented-loss track can seek up to $5,000 to cover verified expenses tied to the breach, including credit monitoring purchased since the February 2024 incident, losses from identity theft or fraud, and time spent resolving problems the breach caused. That track requires proof: bank statements, receipts or other records showing the loss actually happened and connects to the breach.
A second option skips the paperwork. Every class member can instead request an alternative cash payment, currently estimated at about $50, with no documentation required at all. That figure is not fixed; the settlement divides the fund on a pro-rata basis, so the final per-person amount can rise or fall depending on how many people file valid claims before the deadline. Class members can choose only one of the two cash options, but everyone, regardless of which they pick, can also request a year of credit monitoring and identity-theft insurance at no added cost.
Filing early does not speed up payment. The settlement still needs a court’s final sign-off, and that will not happen until after a final approval hearing scheduled for November 16, 2026. Kroll will not begin sending payments until that hearing concludes and any objections or appeals are resolved, a process that in comparable data-breach settlements has taken several additional months beyond the claim deadline itself.
How to Tell a Real Settlement Notice From a Copycat
Data-breach settlements attract scammers who build lookalike websites or send fake claim-form emails demanding a processing fee, a gift card or banking details upfront before a payment can supposedly be released. The authorized Feathers settlement site never charges a fee to file a claim, and it directs every question through Kroll Settlement Administration’s published phone line and mailing address rather than a personal email account or text message.
Anyone contacted about the On Q Financial case can independently verify it by searching the Maricopa County Superior Court docket number printed on the official notice, case number CV2025-037770, rather than clicking a link inside an unsolicited message. The same caution applies to the opt-out and objection deadlines, both set for September 28, 2026, a full month before the claim deadline; missing that earlier date only matters for someone who wants to sue separately or object to the settlement terms, not for someone simply filing a claim. Objecting to the settlement does not disqualify a class member from also filing a claim, since the two processes run independently of each other.
The claim window closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on October 28, 2026, whether the form is submitted online or postmarked by mail, and Kroll has stated that late submissions will not be accepted regardless of the reason given. For the roughly 211,650 people who received a breach notice, that single date now determines whether a mortgage lender’s 2024 data lapse turns into a check or just another notice that went unread.
Checking Whether Another Settlement Already Applies
On Q Financial is one settlement moving through claims administration at any given moment, alongside dozens of others covering retail data breaches, product defects and billing disputes. Most eligible people never file, often because a notice arrives by email or postcard and gets mistaken for spam, or because the claim window closes before anyone acts on it.
The Settlement & Consumer Refund Tracker is an 11-page tracker that keeps a current list of open settlements alongside the 4 scam-proof rules for telling a real notice from a fake one, plus a step-by-step filing guide.
See the current list of open settlements: The Settlement & Consumer Refund Tracker.
This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
