A federal judge gave final approval on Oct. 9 to 700Credit’s $17.5 million data-breach settlement, 17 days after the claim period closed on Sept. 22. People who filed in time are now waiting for money, but no payment date has been published. The claim period is over, so the open question is how long payments take.
Judge Robert J. White of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan signed the final judgment in In re 700Credit Data Security Litigation, No. 25-cv-13747. The settlement website says the hearing was held Oct. 7 and the final approval order was entered Oct. 9. The case covers about 5.8 million people whose information was exposed, according to the ClaimDepot listing.
Claimants chose between a documented-loss payment of up to $2,500 and an alternative cash payment, estimated at $50. Both are subject to a pro rata adjustment based on all claims received. A person who filed by Sept. 22 is waiting on an amount that has not yet been calculated.
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Why approval does not mean a check yet
Payments depend on the settlement’s effective date, which the order uses without defining, according to a docket summary of the order. The settlement website lists no payment date. The long-form notice says benefits are paid only after the court approves the deal and it becomes final.
The effective date normally turns on whether anyone appeals. The federal appeal window runs 30 days from entry of judgment, into early November. As of Oct. 13, no notice of appeal appeared on the public docket, though that record can lag.
ClaimDepot’s tracker estimates payments about 75 days after final approval, which would be about Dec. 23. That is the tracker’s estimate, and the administrator has not confirmed it. The official site gives no schedule.
What the order decided
The court overruled four objections, three of them timely and one late, and 66 class members opted out, according to the docket summary. Class counsel received one third of the fund, stated as $5,833,333, plus $107,710.27 in litigation costs. The long notice said counsel would seek up to one third, and class representatives up to $3,000 each.
The remaining money is the net fund, which pays credit monitoring first and then cash payments. The notice says Cash A, the documented-loss payments, gets first priority. Both cash amounts are adjusted up or down once the valid claims are counted.
The fee award takes a visible bite. One third of $17.5 million is $5,833,333, which leaves about $11.7 million before the $107,710.27 in costs, administration and credit monitoring come out. What remains is what claimants share.
Neither the settlement site nor the summary of the order gives a count of claims filed. Without that number, no figure beyond the $50 estimate for the flat payment can be worked out. The final per-person amount is set after the administrator tallies valid claims.
Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions administers the distribution. Checks carry a 180-day negotiation period, and money left over goes to the Judson Center, Inc. as a cy pres award 20 days after that period ends. Cy pres means leftover money goes to a named recipient instead of back to the company.
What the 700Credit breach exposed
700Credit, a vendor to car dealerships, became aware of suspicious activity in its web application around Oct. 25, 2025. The long notice says cybercriminals used compromised credentials to reach the company’s 700Dealer.com application. The information exposed included names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
Patricia Young filed the first lawsuit Nov. 24, 2025, and 21 cases were eventually consolidated. The parties reached a settlement in April 2026, and the court granted preliminary approval June 4, 2026. 700Credit denies liability, and the court has made no finding against it.
The order dismissed the consolidated case with prejudice. The class is all living people in the United States who were sent a notice that their information may have been affected. Anyone who did not opt out by Sept. 8 gave up the right to sue 700Credit and the other released parties over the incident.
The notice also lists a change on 700Credit’s side. The company has already added security measures, which the settlement counts as part of the relief.
What class members can still do
The credit monitoring is the one benefit that does not need a claim. The notice offers two years free, with an activation code printed on the letter, and says activation begins only after final approval. That approval came Oct. 9, so people who kept the letter can use the code now.
A claim cannot be added now. The administrator’s site lists the claim deadline as Sept. 22 and the opt-out and objection deadline as Sept. 8, and both are closed. The settlement phone line, 1-877-502-7785, is for questions about a claim already filed.
Claimants who have moved since filing should ask the administrator how to update an address. The administrator is the 700Credit Data Breach Litigation Settlement Administrator, PO Box 4109, Portland, OR 97208-4109. The open question for a filer is when the effective date lands.
Filed a 700Credit claim and waiting on the check?
Final approval does not put money in an account. Payment waits on the effective date and any appeal, the check carries a 180-day window to cash, and a claimant who moved or lost track of the filing can watch that window run out.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker for exactly this stretch, plus a guide to getting an expired or uncashed settlement check reissued. The log records what was filed, when, and what was promised, so a check that arrives months later can be matched to the claim.
Track the 700Credit payment with a claim log and check reissue guide →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
