Fidelity Had a Data Breach in 2024. The Settlement Got Final Approval Yesterday. You Have Until July 27 to Claim.
On August 17-19, 2024, unauthorized third parties accessed Fidelity Investments customer accounts and obtained financial account numbers and routing numbers. Fidelity settled the class action for $2.5 million. The settlement received final court approval on July 9, 2026. If you received a Fidelity breach notification, you can claim up to $5,000 for documented losses, or a flat cash payment with no receipts required. The deadline is July 27, 2026.
Claim deadline: July 27, 2026 — 17 days left
File at fidelitydatasettlement.com or through the Payout app. Final court approval granted July 9, 2026.
What settlements can you actually claim?
The Fidelity settlement is one of dozens of active cases right now. These are real open settlements on Payout, with fund sizes and current claim counts:
YouTube Privacy Settlement
Cash App Referral Texts
Waffle Recall (TreeHouse Foods)
Poppi Soda False Advertising
Krispy Kreme Data Breach
Michael Kors Outlet Pricing
Vending Machine Overcharges
Beef Price-Fixing (Tyson & Cargill)
These are just 8 of 97 active settlements. New ones are added regularly.
What happened in the Fidelity breach
Between August 17 and 19, 2024, unauthorized third parties broke into Fidelity Investments systems and accessed customer accounts. The data compromised included financial account numbers and routing numbers. Fidelity notified customers it believed were affected and disclosed the incident.
Financial account numbers and routing numbers matter. A routing number identifies the bank; an account number identifies your specific account. Together they are exactly what someone needs to initiate ACH transfers, set up electronic payments, or commit check fraud without your knowledge. The exposure was not abstract.
In r/fidelityinvestments, users posted concerns after breach notifications arrived, noting that once this kind of account data is out, an attacker potentially has enough to pass identity verification questions with financial institutions. The settlement notification emails that followed also generated confusion in the same community, with some users questioning whether the class action notice was legitimate. It is.
A class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The proposed $2.5 million settlement went through preliminary approval and received final court approval on July 9, 2026. Fidelity denied wrongdoing. The claim window opened immediately after approval.
Who qualifies?
The settlement class covers Fidelity customers whose data was exposed in the August 2024 breach. You qualify if all three of the following apply:
If you are a Fidelity customer but did not receive a breach notification, you may still be a class member. Check fidelitydatasettlement.com or call the settlement administrator to confirm whether your information was included in the affected records.
How much can you claim?
This settlement has two compensation tiers. You choose one when you file. There is also an automatic benefit for all class members that requires no claim at all.
Tier 1: Up to $5,000 (documented losses)
If the breach caused you real, out-of-pocket costs, you can claim reimbursement up to $5,000. Qualifying expenses include:
- •Credit monitoring or identity protection services you paid for out of pocket
- •Professional fees for identity theft resolution or financial services
- •Unauthorized charges on financial accounts tied to the breach
- •Up to 10 hours of your own time at $25 per hour for breach-related remediation
Receipts, bank statements, or invoices are required to support Tier 1 claims.
Tier 2: Flat cash payment (no receipts required)
If you did not incur specific documented losses, or prefer a simpler process, you can claim a flat pro-rata cash payment with no documentation. The exact amount depends on how many valid claims are filed against the remaining fund after Tier 1 payouts are made. California residents also receive an additional $50 CCPA supplemental payment on top of the pro-rata share.
Automatic benefit: Two years of free identity theft protection
All settlement class members receive two years of complimentary identity theft protection, automatically enrolled. No claim form is required for this benefit. It activates for everyone who does not exclude themselves from the settlement.
Payout is a settlement-discovery app, not a law firm. It does not guarantee eligibility, approval, or specific payment amounts. Final payment amounts are determined solely by the settlement administrator based on total valid claims filed.
How to file your Fidelity settlement claim
The flat cash payment takes about 5 minutes. Documented-loss claims take longer depending on how much documentation you are gathering:
Confirm you are a class member
Check whether you received a data breach notification from Fidelity about the August 2024 security incident. If you did, you are almost certainly part of the settlement class. You can also visit fidelitydatasettlement.com to confirm your status.
Choose your compensation tier
Tier 1: claim up to $5,000 for documented out-of-pocket losses tied to the breach (credit monitoring costs, professional fees, unauthorized charges, up to 10 hours of your time at $25/hour). Tier 2: flat pro-rata cash payment with no documentation — just attest you are a class member and submit.
Gather documentation if claiming Tier 1
Relevant documents include receipts for credit monitoring or identity protection services you paid for, bank statements showing unauthorized charges, professional service invoices, or records of time you spent resolving breach-related issues. You do not need these for the flat cash payment.
Submit your claim at fidelitydatasettlement.com
Complete the online claim form before July 27, 2026. You can also call the settlement administrator at the number listed on the site, or file by mail postmarked by July 27.
Save your confirmation
Screenshot or save your claim confirmation number. Two years of free identity theft protection are automatic for all class members. Cash payments distribute after all claims are reviewed, typically 6 to 18 months after the deadline.
For a full walkthrough of how class action claims work in general, see how to file a class action settlement claim.
See if you qualify in 2 minutes
Payout tracks active settlements, sends deadline alerts, and walks you through filing from your phone. Free to download, free to file. The Fidelity settlement is live on the app right now.
Why most eligible Fidelity customers have not filed yet
The settlement got final approval yesterday. That means the claim window is brand new as of July 9, 2026. Most people affected by the August 2024 breach received a notification email at the time, saw that it involved a third-party data incident, and moved on. Settlement notices that arrive later often look like phishing, and the pattern in r/fidelityinvestments bears this out: users posted asking whether the settlement email they received was legitimate.
The answer is yes. The email is real. The site fidelitydatasettlement.com is the official, court-appointed settlement administrator. The case is No. 1:24-CV-12601-LTS and can be verified at pacer.gov.
Data breach settlements typically have lower participation than subscription or product settlements because the harm is less visible. You did not get a wrong product or an unexpected charge. You got a risk. Most people do not translate “my account numbers were accessed” into “I should file a settlement claim.” The money is still there.
If you paid for credit monitoring, spent time dealing with the breach, or had any unauthorized activity on financial accounts, this is the window to get that back. If you did not, the flat cash payment requires nothing but filling out a form. The deadline is July 27.
Is the Fidelity settlement legit?
Yes. This is a federal court-supervised class action settlement. Case No. 1:24-CV-12601-LTS in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Final approval was granted on July 9, 2026.
The official site is fidelitydatasettlement.com. To file the flat cash payment, you do not need to provide your Social Security number, Fidelity login credentials, bank account information, or any passwords. The claim form asks for your name, mailing address, email, and your confirmation that you received a breach notification. That is it.
Fidelity denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The $2.5 million fund is real and administered by a neutral, court-appointed third party. You file directly with the administrator and keep 100% of any payment. Never pay a third-party service to file this claim for you.
How this compares to other data breach settlements
Most data breach class action settlements pay claimants a few dollars each because the fund is small relative to the class size and almost everyone claims the flat payment option. The Fidelity settlement is notable because the documented-loss tier (up to $5,000) is meaningful for people who actually had expenses tied to the breach.
The pattern mirrors what we saw with the Cash App data breach settlement, which also offered up to $2,500 for documented losses and a flat alternative payment for everyone else. The mechanics are the same: documented expenses get real reimbursement, and attestation-only claims get a pro-rata share of whatever is left in the fund after Tier 1 payouts.
If you kept receipts for any credit monitoring service you signed up for after the breach notification, or if you had to spend time dealing with unauthorized activity on your accounts, Tier 1 is worth the extra paperwork.
What to do about your account security now
Filing the claim is one step. On the account security side, if you have not already done so, a few things are worth doing regardless of whether you have seen unauthorized activity.
Routing and account number pairs are the credentials for ACH transactions. Most banks flag new ACH originators but do not block them automatically. Monitor your bank statements and Fidelity account for any unexpected outbound transfers, new payee setups, or scheduled payments you did not create. If you find anything, contact your bank immediately and file a report with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
The two years of free identity theft protection from the settlement will flag new accounts opened in your name, which is a useful layer of monitoring. It does not cover ACH-specific fraud directly, but it catches the downstream identity theft that can follow account data exposure.
Other settlements closing July 27
July 27 is a busy deadline. The Amazon Prime FTC settlement (up to $51, no proof required) closes the same day. If you were a Prime subscriber anytime between June 2019 and June 2025, check that one too. Both claims take under 10 minutes each and are free to file.
For a full list of what is currently open, see the open class action settlements guide. The Payout app tracks deadlines automatically and notifies you before they close.