If you paid for Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold in California while you were over 29, a check is sitting in a settlement fund with your name on it. The deadline to claim it is August 18, four weeks from now. No claim form. You do have to visit a website and pick how you want to be paid, or the money leaves without you.
The lawsuit alleged Tinder charged older subscribers more than younger ones for the same premium features. In California, that is age discrimination under the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Tinder settled for $60.5 million rather than take it to trial. About 268,000 California users are in the class.
Here is who qualifies. You paid Tinder for the Plus or Gold tier in California on or after March 2, 2015, and you were over 29 at the time. If your payment was on or after March 2, 2016, the qualifying age drops to over 28, because that is when Tinder lowered its age cutoff for the premium price. Payments through the Apple App Store or Google Play from a California billing address count. If you moved out of California since, you still qualify. The class is measured at the time of purchase, not now.
Here’s what they don’t tell you at the top of the settlement page. About $20.6 million comes off the fund for the plaintiffs’ lawyers, plus admin and litigation costs. The rest splits into two buckets. Seventy percent is divided equally among everyone who elects a payment method (a per-capita share). Thirty percent is divided pro rata based on how much you actually spent on Tinder during the class period. Big spenders get a bigger check. Everyone who elects gets the equal-share portion too.
Do this now if you qualify. Search “Tinder California settlement” on classaction.org or topclassactions.com and click through to the official administrator site. Confirm your record when the page asks for your email or phone. It will show you the estimated amount you are owed. Pick your payment method: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, ACH bank deposit, or paper check. Election deadline is August 18, 2026. Once you pick, you are set.
If the site cannot find your record and you know you paid, contact the settlement administrator through the same page. Dig up the Apple or Google receipt. If you paid through an old card or a spouse’s account, pull the statement. The proof bar is not high, but you cannot claim on memory alone.
Payouts are not fast. The administrator processes elections after the deadline, and the current estimate is late 2026 or early 2027 for money in hand. The site will show your anticipated amount before you elect, so you know what you are agreeing to receive.
One more thing, and it matters. Class-action settlements attract scammers the way honey attracts flies. The real site takes a bank routing number for ACH, or an email for PayPal or Venmo, and nothing else. It never asks for a credit card. It never asks for your Social Security number. If a page asks for either, close it and start over from classaction.org. The four weeks between now and August 18 is when the copycat pages spin up.
If you were paying $19.99 a month to swipe right in San Francisco in 2018, the settlement is small justice for a bill that should have been $9.99. Take four minutes and elect. The money is real, but only if you show up.
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