Two years after Equifax revealed that hackers had accessed the personal information of up to 147 million people, the credit bureau’s newly announced settlement, valued at up to $700 million, will provide cash payments to those who have been affected — but there are some key requirements people should be aware of before they file a claim.

Under the terms of the settlement announced Monday, the credit bureau is paying a mix of government fines and legal fees and, most importantly for consumers, setting up a fund that will underwrite free credit monitoring and identity-theft protection and provide individual cash payments to people affected by the breach, capped at $20,000 per person.

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Some 147 million American consumers had their personal information stolen, according to the class-action lawsuit being settled by the deal. That’s almost half of the 329.2 million people living in America. The stolen information included names and birth dates, and hackers also took approximately 146 million Social Security numbers, according to Equifax’s SEC filings.

Equifax EFX, +2.94% is immediately paying $300 million into the consumer fund, and it will add another $125 million to pay further out-of-pocket expenses if needed.

“ Getting reimbursed for documented losses tied to the breach could prove difficult, however. ”

Mark Begor, the company’s CEO, said at a Monday press conference that the total payout was “by far, the largest ever” for a data-breach case. “It reflects, from our perspective, the seriousness in which we took this matter.”

Equifax denied any wrongdoing in the breach as part of the settlement.

Equifax, the CEO said, has not seen instances of stolen data being used for identity theft and has not found hacked personal data for sale on the so-called dark web since the September 2017 breach. Because of that, Begor anticipated the company wouldn’t have to pay the extra $125 million to the fund.

However, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who co-led the probe by state attorneys general into the incident, said individual consumers were harmed. “For some, their identity was stolen,” he said at a press conference, not providing specifics about the cases or the number of stolen identities. Jacklin Rhoads, a spokeswoman for Shapiro’s office, declined to give specific numbers but said the office did see a rise in consumer complaints about alleged identity theft after the breach.

“This breach happened because Equifax was more interested in profits than in infrastructure to protect our data,” Shapiro sad.

Begor noted that Equifax is also investing $1.25 billion into its own technology and security.

Getting reimbursed for documented losses tied to the breach could prove difficult.

Here’s what you need to know before putting in a claim for the cash and credit monitoring:

Credit and ID theft monitoring

Affected consumers will get four years of credit monitoring and identity protection from Equifax and its two fellow major credit bureaus Experian EXPN, +1.12% and TransUnion TRU, +1.17% . Though all three bureaus are monitoring, Experian is the company relaying the information to consumers. After those four years, Equifax is offering six extra years of credit monitoring.

If consumers in the class action already have credit monitoring, they can instead be paid $125.

Cash payments

Every person can receive up to $500 for the time they spent taking preventative measures or dealing with identity theft, court papers state. Consumers are eligible for up to 20 hours of reimbursement. Ten hours — valued at $250 — can be self-certified with no required documentation, according to the document. Another 10 hours have to backed up by documentation such as banking and credit-card statements.

“ The fund will pay back up to $20,000 ‘for documented loses fairly traceable to the breach,’ the filing said. ”

The fund will pay back up to $20,000 “for documented loses fairly traceable to the breach,” the filing said. That could include expenses like the cost of freezing and unfreezing a credit file, paying for an attorney, accountant or credit-monitoring services.

To prove those out-of-pocket loses and preventative steps, court papers regarding the settlement said claimants will have to supply “reasonable documentation” that includes credit-card statements, bank statements, invoices, telephone records and receipts.

Settlement payouts will be overseen by a third-party administrator. It falls on the administrator to decide what qualifies as “fairly traceable.” Some of the factors include timing of the alleged losses, which have to happened after May 13, 2017, and whether the losses involved the type of personal data stolen from Equifax.

In the wake of the breach, experts recommended consumers freeze their credit reports, which meant no one — including potential lenders — could access credit-report information without their permission.

Only 8% of consumers did place freezes on their credit reports, but 65% of consumers said they looked at bank and credit-card statements a lot more often since the breach, according to a survey last year.

An Equifax spokesman said the company does not publicly disclose the number of credit freezes.

When does the claims process start?

The claims process will start once a judge approves the settlement. The proposed settlement was filed Monday morning in Atlanta federal court. Approval of the settlement will likely take several months. Equifax is estimating that plaintiffs’ lawyers will ask for final approval of the settlement by late this year, or early 2020, according to the company’s Monday morning call with reporters.

How do I know if I’m one of the 147 million people allegedly affected by the breach?

There will be four emails sent to class members, and “aggressive” digital and social-media campaigns, radio ads, and a full-page advertisement in USA Today, according to court papers filed Monday.

“ Equifax is estimating that plaintiffs’ lawyers will ask for final approval on the settlement by late this year, or early 2020. ”

Another way to keep tabs on the case, or find out if you were affected at all, is a website that’s been specially established for the settlement, and a toll-free number: 1-833-759-2982.

The settlement-claims website will have a tool letting consumers plug in their name to see if they are a member of the class, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to settling with the 50 states and the class action, Equifax is also settling with the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

What if I’m not in the lawsuit’s class of consumers?

Equifax’s deal has some bearing on everyone, not just plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit.

Beginning next year, all consumers in the U.S. can receive six free credit reports per year from Equifax for seven years. That’s a big increase, as consumers are currently entitled to one free annual credit report from each of the three credit bureaus.