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Credit Karma Review
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I can’t believe I’ve been using Credit Karma all these months and never wrote up a quick review of the service! I’ve written reviews about their credit score report card, but never about the entire service. Tsk tsk, what a bad blogger I am.
Credit Karma offers a lot of nice juicy information but the only thing I’m really pumped about is the fact that you get your TransUnion credit score absolutely free. When you sign up, you have to provide a lot of sensitive personal information because it’s needed to pull your credit score from TransUnion. Since the service is free, the only barrier to using it is your comfort level with providing this information to a third party.
Here’s what my dashboard looked like:
There are several reasons why I like Credit Karma:
- It’s free. When other companies are charging you to look at your own credit score, it’s nice to be able to see it for free. You don’t have to provide a credit card number, there’s no “trial,” and there’s no sneaky catch in there. It’s free and they never ask for a penny. That’s very refreshing.
- Check as often as you want. Many of the trial services let you check your score once. After that, you need to pay. With Credit Karma, you can check it as often as you’d like. The real limit is once a month because that’s how often various creditors will report data. So you can check daily, but it won’t change unless your report changes.
- It helps protect against identity theft. Now that the barrier to see your score once a month (or daily if you prefer) has been reduce to $0, it’s possible to use this as part of your do it yourself identity theft protection. If someone opens an account with your credit and the account uses TransUnion to check your score, your score will inexplicably go down. While this doesn’t trump checking your report every year through AnnualCreditReport.com, the fact that it’s free makes it a no brainer for you to check at least once a month, rather than once every twelve.
- The credit simulator is fun to play with. If you’ve ever been confused about your credit, such as what can hurt or harm it, the credit simulator is a great intuitive way to learn how your actions affect your score. Open a new account? Score falls. Pay off a debt? Score rises.
Here are some reasons why I don’t like it:
- It’s not a FICO credit score. Credit Karma does not give you a FICO credit score, they give you a TransUnion credit score. TransUnion is one of the three credit bureaus, so it’s a score from a credit bureau; it’s just not one using the FICO credit score equation. If you’re planning on getting a loan, you’ll want a FICO score. If you just want to see what your score is, this score is good enough.
- It’s a security risk. Giving a third party your sensitive information, even if it is protected and secure, is always a risk. For me, the risk is acceptable but you have to make that determination for yourself. It’s just like the warning I give every time I write about personal finance tools like Mint or Quicken, you take a calculated risk whenever you give your sensitive financial and personal information to at third party. If something happens, ultimately you are responsible.
Overall, I’m very pleased with what they offer. If you’re wondering how they can offer this service for free, it’s because they’re supported by advertising revenue. One thing they have promised never to do is sell your personal information to third parties, which is always one of the concerns whenever you sign up for free services like this. Fortunately they’ve addressed it and put that issue to bed.
I know a lot of Bargaineering readers have signed up for Credit Karma, in part because everyone always gives them a shout in the comments, so I’m curious what you think about the service. If you have any recommendations of what they can or should do, please also share those as well.
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I checked out Credit Karma because you had mentioned it, and I like it. I haven’t been able to get my free credit reports in awhile, because the credit agencies want a bank statement/information I’m not willing to give to prove my identity. Since Credit Karma is a third party, they can at least get some information for me to view. Yes, I know that’s a bad thing that third parties can get your information much more easily than you can. I don’t mind giving Credit Karma the information they need, because it isn’t nearly as sensitive as what the credit bureaus want from me. I wish Credit Karma provided more services, like the ability to put a freeze on one’s credit bureau files. I took a trial of LifeLock, which didn’t get me my free reports but did put fraud alerts on my reports temporarily. In spite of this, I was shopping and offered a 15% discount for applying for a store credit card. I did not expect to get the credit card and only wanted the discount, but I did get the credit card. I was a bit surprised.
The TransRisk score that they use is way off. It is over 50 points different than my Transunion FICO. It might be a decent educational tool but I find it useless for real purposes. Also, that simulator is off as well. I simulated what would happen if I paid my bills on time for the next 24 months and my score went down!
Yes, I absolutely agree with your opinions. Credit karma said my score is 642 whereas my actual I paid today is 713; which is 71 points difference. I’m not going to trust KC anymore.
I found out that it is an average of all three scores.
That isn’t accurate either, because I just had my credit pulled by a lender, and all 3 of my scores are the same, but Credit Karma shows it to be 25 points lower.
I’ve been using Credit Karma for quite some time and love it. I know it’s not the FICO score but it still helps me gauge generally how I’m doing regarding my credit.
Unfortunately my credit score is not likely to rise too quickly. I paid off all my car loans and only have one credit card with no balance. My mortgage is my only debt which I try to make extra payments on whenever possible. While I know I’m doing fine financially, my Credit Karma score still hovers around 700 and I don’t expect it to skyrocket anytime soon.
I haven’t used Credit Karma yet and am one of those who is paranoid enough about third parties that I probably won’t. But hey, full speed ahead to those who are comfy with it!
I just wanted to reply to Wise Money Matters because he stirred an issue which has been rattling around my head for a while now. WMM is to be congratulated to the hilt for getting his accounts in order! So why is it that these days when we do this, our credit score actually takes a hit or “hovers”???
Paying off all credit card debts and car loans should be cause for celebration and not for concern! God help us if we should also pay off our mortgages! How did we get into this insane condition where our financial fates are ruled by credit card companies (banks) and credit scores?
You are completely correct–the way they calculate credit scores, they actually show absolutely NOTHING about your ability to pay for something. They do not take into account your savings, other assets, spending habits, etc. If you have kept yourself out of debt for a couple of years, you can have a low or nonexistent credit score, even though you are an extremely low credit risk. I have heard the FICO called an “I love debt score,” since all it shows is your ability to take out debt and (eventually) repay it. This stinks royally, but unfortunately we have to deal with it for the time being.
I agree Jim. I went through multiple emails and phone calls with Equifax about a similar issue after they reduced my credit score because I paid off (in full) my monthly balance on a credit card (which I do every month) and I made a one time large paydown on my mortagage.
They penalized me for “demonstrating good credit practices” (a quote in the Equifax literature when you pay off your debts).
After multiple attempts at communicating, someone finally contacted me by phone who was intelligent and good to talk to. However, they were limited to what they could say as it appears they do not want to commit on specific impacts to your score. The comment was the software generates the score based on many factors and we are not trained in how it works.
Very frustrating when I could easily compare the current report from the previous report and clearly see there were only two changes (noted above), and these two “good credit practices” caused my score to drop.
It is unfortunate that we are so impacted by this score and the people who generated it stay at a long’s arm length.
I am in the process of trying to add a comment to my credit report to reflect this, but that is also becoming a great challenge to accomplish.
Its tragic and a tragedy that our credit score is based on something so meaningless as credit reporting companies that are flawed in how they see our true abilities to conduct our personal business and finance.
I someone goes through life paying cash for all transactions and is in good standing with all parties they deal with they are penalized.
If you pay cash for everything then you do not exist and you are or could be harmed by this type of reporting company evaluation of your true credit worthiness if you ever choose to take out a real loan that is above the grossly inadequate system in place.
Since these reporting agencies conduct their business in this way I see a great opportunity for a class action lawsuit against these so called credit reporting companies for the harm they cause the people that use our nations legal currency to pay for debts or pay as you go through life.
If these companies don’t allow for reasonable corrections to be made to a persons credit worthiness then a crime has been or is continually being committed by these companies and damage may be owed to all parties that have been harmed by these credit reporting companies for providing knowingly false, inaccurate and incomplete information that could destroy people and cause great damage to all people They have faulty. Or wrong and incomplete information on.
If a person is branded with a low credit score that is incorrect then this person should be provided with an easy access way to establish a correct credit rating that will not destroy people or companies looking for loans.
Your credit rating from these companies also can impact the prices you get when they use your credit score to determine the price they will charge you.
Most Insurance Companies use your credit score to determine your insurance price sand the amount you will be charged.
I have never seen a system such as thus one that deserves to be sued more than these credit reporting companies that can make or break you simply by giving you a poor, low or inaccurate credit score.
I would be one of the first to sign on for any class action lawsuit that would take on these credit reporting companies that destroy people, families and businesses every day based on a number score they give you.
These companies make it very hard to make corrections or to get a justified credit score number unless you are a slave to their system.
Since I pay for most of my acquisitions or purchases by paying for it in cash or check I am a great example of someone that could be harmed or hurt by these companies because of them giving out inaccurate credit scores they base on little or no information.
Watch for what they ask for the next time you get an insurance quote. They will insist on doing a credit check on you. They say it won’t affect your credit if they look you up based on your credit but they won’t guarantee it won’t harm your credit score. This is a Large Flag and they should not be allowed to require access to your credit score before they give you an insurance rate.
If I ever come across a class action against these credit scoring companies I will be the first to sign up.
Credit reporting companies as they are used today should be outlawed. Not long ago it was illegal for insurance companies to require your credit information but a few polititions must have gotten the required donation. So they changed the law for certain companies.
Its time we fight back and take back our rights.
Yes, Its Big Brother giving away all of our rights and when we are not looking they take everything else they can.
Every time I have checked my credit I have found errors made by these credit reporting companies. Its time they pay for the damage they do to us all.
We are all at great risk with these companies doing what ever they want with the numbers.
I hope you have Good Luck the next time they spin the wheel on your future and your credit score.
666
Credit Karma is good enough for me, since I don’t need my “real” score for anything right now. I’m about to rent an apartment, so while it might be a good time for me to get my “real” FICO, I’m not sure what help it would do. I already check my credit reports three times a year, and my Credit Karma score every month, so I’m not sure what I would see in getting my FICO score that would help me in the event my new landlord does a credit check. If I was going after a car loan or a mortgage, maybe…
I don’t think you need to get a “real” FICO score just to rent an apartment, you already do enough to ensure your credit is good. Getting a real FICO would probably be a waste of your time.
I got my real FICO score to compare it to Credit Karma. They were within 10 points.
Works for me!
Great service to share with your readers, Jim!
I have been using Credit Karma for about 2 months. When i started using it i had gotten my FICO score a week earlier. Credit Karma shows my TransUnion score as being about 10 points lower than my FICO score. That is close enough for me. Looking at the Report Card feature shows me the areas that i can improve on (any that are not an A).
So, what’s a good score on Credit Karma?
It’s technically the same scale – What’s a Good Credit Score?
Well, if I can trust that the CK score is within around 10 points of the FICO score, then I’m in good shape. I guess I’d like a larger sample set to compare to though. Or, I could just get my FICO score and compare them myself.
I guess it just seemed a bit high to me, not that it’s a bad thing…
Does it affect your credit score negatively when you “update your score” on Credit Karma?
Wondering because of the prompt you receive when updating…
Nope, none of these consumer services do. They are soft pulls that do not effect the score at all and are not visible to creditors. The prompt is permission so that CreditKarma is allowed to go out and get sensitive information from Transunion.
No, your score won’t be affected, but please understand that you are authorizing a THIRD PARTY to access your credit score.
In that Karma Credit works very diligently to HIDE who they are (they were presented to me as a service by Sears under the guise of searscreditscore.com…and NO WHERE did they mention that a third party was accessing my credit info) I would give Karma Credit a D MINUS in service.
I like CreditKarma, even more now that they’re using a real credit score rather than an estimation (even if it isn’t FICO). I check every few weeks, and even used it to see the effect of adding a applying for and accepting a new credit card — my score dropped by one point.
There is a danger in using a score that really isn’t used by any lenders and I think you described it right there. Dropping just a point for an inquiry and a new account? I have NEVER heard of that with FICO. It should drop a lot more.
So now a consumer like yourself walks away and can easily think, wow, I should apply for new cards all the time. Just a 1 point hit?
I just have experienced a lot of crazy volatility with this score. For example, it does not properly take into account no-preset spending cards so your score drops and that report card says your maxed out when you really are not. (it was simply the score looking at your high balance as your credit limit instead of looking to see it was an “OPEN” card and that it should not be used in utilization) which my FICO score properly deduced.
Then I have had instances where my score is higher that friends who have longer histories, with better characteristics, according to FICO!
Then there was the time I looked at my “Credit Snapshot” and it stated I should pay my bills on time more often, when I never paid my bills late ever!
Granted, Transunion is probably feeding this information to CreditKarma, my point just is that there is a danger that this product can cause more confusion when it’s not using a stable and commonly used score. It’s a great offering I just don’t trust the score.
If you ask me the entire fico thing is a bit of a sham. Here you have this private company with some secret formula basically wielding an enormous amount of power over everyone. At least the credit formula for arriving at your score should be simple and straight forward.
I don’t agree with the concept of an arbitrary score in the first place. You should have just a credit report. If you want a loan, an actual human being should look at your report and decide based on your actual history, ie facts, whether or not they feel you are a good credit risk. A score is just a way for them to say, oh, I am sorry because your score is only 680 you don’t get the good rate.
With this scoring system, you can pay all of your bills on time, never have an issue and still not have a very good score. What if you are moving along fine, and then one day, your credit cards drop your credit limit to your balance that you owe. Happening to people all over the country for no other reason than the creditor is contracting lines of credit. All of the sudden you can go from 750 down to 650 and it is something that you have no control over.
If there was no “Score” well then you would have to have an actual human (remember when corporations had Humans do things)look at your report, and they might have a question. Everything looks real good except please explain why you maxed out all of your credit cards. Oh, I didn’t I actually carried fairly small balances on them but last month a few of my creditors lowered my credit limit because of the financial crisis. Oh, ok that makes sense, here is your loan.
This entire secret score thing is bogus.
Just my two cents, anyone else agree?
I agree – well said
Perfectly said!! Well done.
Your reasoning is ok, but when you think about it, that human that is looking at all of these reports will likely have a system to relate one report to the other. Even if that system is in the human mind, it is very similar to what a credit score is. The credit score just applies all those things that that human would be doing in a more efficient manner.
Works for my purposes
Checked my score on Credit Karma is says 695. Purchased my TransUnion FICO score and it is 771. A big difference in the score. Thank goodness the FICO score is the real deal. I do like using Credit Karma. An increase in the CK score will lead me to assume my TU FICO score has rose without purchasing it. Maybe the CK score is just playing catchup if it increases.
This is the trap. Same thing here….I signed up for this “service” (used loosely) only to find the score is bogus.
But signing up for this service can adversely affect your credit if you fall for one of their guises. I signed up for this so called service through my Sears credit card (www.searscreditscore.com). This so called service said I had a “credit rating” of 675 (but they wouldn’t verify where that credit rating came from and when I actually checked with the credit reporting bureaus they all reported my FICO/Vantage score at at least 100 points higher).
However, as a result of signing up for this service, my Sears credit line was dropped from $5200 to $900..all based on a number that has nothing to do with actual credit…and while I really don’t care what my credit line with Sears (who really uses a Sears card for credit) it does affect my line of credit.
Bye bye Sears card…bye bye Karma Credit.
It is a free service. It isn’t a magic wand. People be advised, credit karma will give you guidance and an estimation of your credit, for me it was only off 2 points, but do not put too much weight on to what credit karma says your score is. Use it as a tool but don’t get upset if the score is not accurate. No one should be relying to heavily on a free service like this.
The score CreditKarma gave me was 747. My real score from all three credit agencies is 801/807/797. So they are way off, but maybe that happens at the higherend of the scale.
I think that is probably true. My credit card utilization says 0%, which is a C, when it is really 1-20%, which is an A, so my credit score should actually be higher according to them. I’m too cheap to pay for a real one without a good reason, so I have nothing to compare it to right now.
If you don’t have a good reason to know your actual score, I think this is good enough. No sense paying for something you don’t need, right?
My experience is just the opposite. Karma is about 80 points HIGHER than the 3. Not even close to an average of the 3 either. I have been working hard to improve my credit and seem to be treading water for the last 3 years.
I feel that I was tricked by free credit report to try a free service that they later charged to my credit card I will cancel my credit card for this reason and I will never trust your organization again .Trickery is the name of the game and your credit services are just like all the other money making scams to trick unsuspecting consumers out of their hard earned money no shortage of takers in this area. I hope God blesses people who exploit poor Americans out of their nickels and dimes with long life long enough for someone to nickel and dime them ,P.S. keep the 31.00 dollars apparently FREE CREDIT REPORT.COM needed it more than my children and I. sencerly il grayson TX
1) Nobody who knows their rear from a hole in the ground thinks freecreditreport.com is actually free. Why?
a)It’s on TV and says “free” over and over and
over. There’s your first clue. Real “free”
things don’t require arm twisting and
repetitive jingles to get their point across.
b)It’s run by Experian and Experian is
comprised wholly by soulless bastards.
2)This article is for something completely different, with nary a TV jingle repeating “free” over and over again.
3)As far as I’ve seen, this site has never pimped freecreditreport.com without warning you that there’s a fee attached if you don’t cancel during the free trial.
4)READ when you agree to things ESPECIALLY on the Internet. Good God, man.
Your 4th point is positively the most important, and one to be considered. But you have to wade through pages of fine print (at 4 point font) to really understand what you are getting in bed with when you sign up with Karma Credit.
By signing up with Karma Credit either via their web site or from one of their non-disclosed “partners” (Sears is one) you are allowing a third party to access your credit score. On many of their web sites they do not identify themselves but instead hide their identify via reputable sounding sites (for me it was searscreditscore.com, which actually had NOTHING to do with Sears…something I learned after reading the fine print)..
I learned my lesson. I signed up through my Sears credit card. I canceled as soon as I learned the extent of how my credit would be shared and have since filed complaints with the BBB, the FTC and the California Attorney General’s Office.
Free is never free….
Sally – Awesome comment. Pretty much hit the nail on the head on all four points.
I like the answer that says that Experian is a bunch of “bastards”– amen
I would have to say that considering that all the scores listed have been HIGHER than CK, that what ever you get from Ck is lower than the real FICO. So if you are in the high 7′s who cares if it’s off by 10 or 90….your still over 760! Close but under is good news to me.
I am still not sure how much stock I put in my Credit Karma score. It says that I have a 727, but I am also a member of Equifax Score Watch and they are reporting my score as a 640. It also shows that I have $0 credit card balances but in reality I owe about $1000 to a furniture store which is a revolving account. Any ideas about why these differences are so drastic?
More than likely your account was not published to transunion. Same if you have bad debt, not all lenders send information to all three companies.
they say they will not sell it to a third party but what will stop them from just giving them the information for free
Nothing…in signing up with Karma Credit you agree to allow them to offer you services from “partners” (unless you uncheck the box).
FWIW, ABC Denver Channel 7 television (www.thedenverchannelcom) did a story on Karma Credit in April that they said they have subsequently “pulled” from their web archives because of questions about the integrity of this organization.
After reading the comments above, I decided not to check my credit score from credit karma as some people reported their real FICO scores are way off from the scores they got from credit karma. I had similar experience from quizzle which said my score was 701 but in fact my FICO score was 785. This makes me conclude all these sites who give free credit score are not really reliable.
Credit Karma can’t be right at all. We lost a home and now have extremely high credit card debt. Most of the cards are in my name since I do all of the finances in our house. Credit Karma says my score is 731. Yeah, right.
So does Credit Karma not pull your actual score from Trans Union or do they do a soft pull against your data and generate their own score?
I tried the service but noticed that my Credit Karma’s score was way off by about 100+ points.
There’s also only one way to reach Customer Service which is by email. The problem with that is that apparently it takes them up to two days to respond back to you (if ever).
This is the year 2010. I don’t understand companies who only provide email support as an inferior replacement for phone support. Don’t get me wrong — there are alot of companies who do email support well, but Credit Karma is not one of them.
There is no “actual score” from anyone any more. The three major credit reporting agencies (Trans Union, Experian, Equifax) have actually gotten together to formulate VantageScore. They want to corner the market, so they pushed FICO (your only REAL score – the one used by creditors) out of the picture. The suit is still pending.
You can’t even get your real score from Experian any more. They FORCE you to get (read: pay for) your useless VantageScore. Lenders DO NOT use VantageScore. They use FICO. If you don’t believe me, call your creditors yourselves.
CreditKarma is a scam and waste of money. You’re not getting anything close to what your creditors see.
CreditKarma is certainly NOT a scam. A scam requires some hidden agenda on their end and in this case, there isn’t one.
Sure there are offers on the website for auto loans, CCs, etc., but you are NEVER forced to click them. Advertising is how the website survives, so it’s obviously to be expected.
I saw an online poll a few months back when I first joined CreditKarma, it had a couple hundred responses and the majority said the score they were given was within 20 points of their actual scores, which is very respectable for a completely free service. Sure, some scores will be way off, but the main purpose of the site is to help you watch your credit FOR FREE and to give you advice on how you can improve it. It is not there to give you a 100% accurate score (which they plainly point out when you join).
I like the phrase “CreditKarma is a scam and waste of money. You’re not getting anything close to what your creditors see.” Credit Karma said mr score is 642 , but when I check with Transunion by paying , it is 672.
CreditKarma is a joke ist said my score is a 633. Whent i pulled my real fico score is was 721 almost 100 point difference. Creditkarma said my credit was poor. When it really is good. I dont where the get thier info from but it is sur unreiable.
The scores from the bureaus are often very different from the FICO score. Karma isn’t able to provide the FICO score because it is too costly.
DO NOT USE THIS SITE. I DID AND NOW I RECIEVE HUNDREDS OF SPAM EMAILS A WEEK. I AM GOING TO SUE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My Credit Union started providing my score using credit karma. They stated that they get the info from Transunion…but I subscribe to a service that gives me my score and details from all 3 major credit bureaus…Credit karma had the wrong info when the info I receive dirctly from Transunion was correct. Also…My big 3 scroe went up significantly at the same time my credit Karma score went down. When I question them on the discrepancy…al I get is a form letter in reply…do not let these people mess with your credit!!!
I used KC and they are way off. They said I have 17000$ in credit card debt and that is impossible. I have only one credit card and it has a 2500$ limit.
KC is fun to play with but is not accurate by any means. I checked my credit score on KC and it showed 600. I then pulled my score from Transunion and it shows a score of 745 on the same day. KC is such a joke!!
I was using this site but not going to any longer. It under-rates my real FICO by 85 points! saying I don’t use my credit cards enough…when I ran my real FICO scores, all agencies had me averaging 85-90 points higher. So now I’m figuring they are just trying to get people to use their ‘partners’ services to ‘improve credit’. My REAL FICO is 805-810…Credit Karma says 720…BIG DIFFERENCE
Sorry to burst your bubbles, but I just PAID for my 3 scores at Identityguard.com………CK said trans was 683….
My paid site said ( 605EQ 669EX 619Trans OMG……also the CK insurance score is way off as well…..said 683. My insurance gave me the score as 469. OMG again..
I can see a few points difference from CK and other well established credit sites, but come on…….over 60 pts. off with transunion…not accetable.
My CreditKarma score just came back 80 points higher than my FICO….hmmm
I really love the service, however I am confused with the score. It is not the same as the graph that is beside the score. Really nice to use the simulator to help make financial decisions. Would recommend the service to anyone.
Credit Karma is a SHAM and a BIG JOKE!!! Don’t waste your time! My credit is stellar and I keep paying off loans early (ABSOLUTELY NO BAD CREDIT EVENTS AT ALL!!!) … and my credit score keeps going DOWN! So I checked with my Credit Union and they did a free REAL credit score check for me and it was over 100 points HIGHER than that sham of a joke Credit Karma Krap!!!
I agree with you. My score from TransUnion is over 800, but my recent Credit Karma is about 730. How can you have such big difference and claim it is useful?
There is an obvious error. I have 7 credit cards and a mortgage, but the count of payments only increase 3 each month. Don’t I pay the other 5 accounts? I certainly did! Otherwise my credit will plunge!
I think Credit Karma is just scaring people with bad or mediocre credit to use their partner credit restoration services. Those of us with great credit can see through their scam!!! It’s obvious to us with great credit that their numbers are bogus!!!
My score is also not even close…CK says 558 and my real TU is 625. Now they are pushing credit repair companies even harder on the site. They need to focus more on what they promise, rather than get money hungry like they are. I see this site shitting the bed real soon.
I’m thinking that some of the complainers are fake. The website is extraordinarily useful and reflects about what my score should be. Keep in mind that the Karma score goes up to 950. “Real” scores go up to 830 or 850. Thats why there is a difference.
Hey Kyle,
If the Karma score goes up to 950 and “Real” scores are only 830 or 850, then the Karma score should consistently rate “higher” than the “Real” scores on a simple curve! Think about it, and come up with some other nonsense why these scores are consistenly “lower” than the “Real” scores.
I signed up for Credit Karma about 3 months ago. It showed my score was 644. More than 6 weeks ago, I paid off one card, established a new credit card with 0 balance (didn’t have a C card before) and got two negative credit entries removed from my credit report. Additionally, one two >30 day late payments rolled older than 12 months. However, my score has not changed, not one point since all this transpired. It makes me suspicious of the accuracy.
I just pulled the score from My Fico and got a 793. (I’m shopping for a loan) Credit Karma list my score as 791 wow impressive. Only two points off.
credit karma is a scam. they said my credit score 763, experian said 735 on same day.
credit karma website said with my high score i’d probably be approved for a particular credit card (with great rates)and would know “instantly” so i applied. after applying a chat window appears, person asks me for my address. i resist, saying i jsut entered it when applying for credit card. they say i must re-enter it for verification so i do. then they say they will mail the result of my application in a few days. i said “your website said id get “instant” answer. she/he says “verification requirements have gotten more strict”. well then put that on the website! and now its been more than 2 weeks and i havent heard a word. fucking liars! scammers. porbably stolen id.
anytime you are denied for a card they do not give an instant answer because it has to be “reviewed.” Also, KC does not look at experian, and yes, all 3 credit bureaus have different scores. Loans and credit cards look at all 3 to determine your approval.
Saturday I signed up for Credit Karma. Monday was the first time in 2 years I was getting chain calls from Collection agencies. Credit Karma is just to collect your information for collection agencies.
Guess you ran out on paying a bunch of debts. Caught up to didn’t it.
I love Credit Karma and have been using it for years. It is a wonderful tool to see how your credit is doing and can provide vital information. Of course the score you get when looking for a loan will be different because this is only TransUnion, and loans look at all 3 credit bureaus. Personally, I think it should be illegal to charge for a credit report, it is so critical to everything we do, yet we cannot view it easily…
One huge think Credit Karma helped me with was my score went from 760 to 540, which of course raised a huge flag, so I looked into it and found out that someone else’s overdue medical bill had gone onto my credit. I was able to remove it and then watch my credit go back up, but if I did not use Credit Karma I would never have known about the issue.
Medical bills have a impact but not a drop of 220 points!!!!
@ Ryan – Actually, in most cases when you’re applying for a loan or a lease, the banks DO NOT pull all three bureaus. Many lenders consider one of 2 bureau; TU and EXP – EQUIFAX is relied upon significantly less.
Usually, the lender will pull JUST ONE bureau on you; TU or EXP. They seem to be the preferred bureaus, although my own bank used EQUIFAX to my surprise. If you score well enough to make a decision, case closed. If, for example, the TU report listed you as a TIER 2 borrower (good credit), they may pull your EXP to see if you score higher, like a TIER 1 (BEST CREDIT). If you score better there, they’ll consider that for their decision.
If you score low, like a TIER 3 on EXP, they will look at your TU. If that’s really weak also, they may as a last resort look at your EQUIFAX.
These 3 reporting bureaus DO NOT have all the same info. If you look over your credit report, not all open and closed accounts appear under each bureau. TU may show you with a balance of $65,000, while EXP may show $70,000, and EQUIFAX may only show you with $52,000. That’s the case on mine, as well as different current employers.
Just thought I’d throw that out there so everyone has an idea of what’s experienced out there, at least from what I’ve seen working in the car business for the last 12 years with lenders including CHASE. Mortgages may do more significant pulling. Ask your lender first on which bureau service they will pull for a decision so you have an opportunity to examine the accuracy and clean up any issues before submitting an application.
I don’t know how accurate Credit Karma really is, when I logged in on Oct 8th they had me at 720 and when I had my credit ran on Oct 11th came back N/A, then logged back into Credit Karma and this time had me down to 607!!!
Something is wrong here!!!!
I’ve been using credit karma for over 6 months now and was loving it.I pulled a real credit report and my score was 116 points off. The points were in my favor which is good but I could not figure out why my score was always so low.To get a real score don’t go by what Credit Karma says check a real one.
iluvtx.
Thanks for using the service. But I should clarify that there is no “real” score. Banks decide what score they want to use based on what they think is best and the costs. Just you and I shop for chicken soup banks shop for credit scores. Our scores are real and purchased directly from TransUnion. There is no guarantee that the score you bought from another site is going to be the same that the banks use either.
I’ve been using Credit Karma for 3 years adn have watched my score rise from 687 to 771 in that time. Time and responsible use of credit makes the difference–always pay on time.
It does tend to run about 10 points lower the the FICO score you pay for. But it’s an excellent yardstick of credit worthiness and it will alert you to any sudden credit issues.
It’s updated monthly. Best time to check is the 2nd week of the month when all the credit bureaus have reported in your recent activity. If you check it the first day of the month, you may get a copy of last month’s score. Just a tip.
I jusrt want to clarify a typo in my last post: Credit Karma runs about 10 points higher than my FICO score. But it still makes a good yardstick to check the general trend on your credit worthiness.
Truth is,no potential lender is going to accept your credit score alone–either from Credit Karma or FICO–in determining whether to lend to you.
Still, it’s a bargain serv iceActual creditors have the right to factor in a lot of things that FICO refuses to consider–like income and age and overall net worth.Still, it costs you nothing and gives you useful intelligence on your credit history.
Like whether there’s been any new lines of credit opened in your name or a rash of hard pull inquiries that you may not have authorized.
A lender told me all 3 scores are between 670-680, but Credit Karma score is 750+. That’s about 80 point difference. Based on Credit Karma score I will qualify for the best mortgage rate, but the creditor told me I have to pay 1% above the best rate.
For everyone wondering why the score on CreditKarma is such a point difference, it’s because all three credit bureaus have different score ranges.
FICO(Equifax): 300-850
Transunion: 501 to 990 (also known as your VantageScore)
Experian: 501-990 (known as VantageScore as well)
Your FICO score will most likely always be lower than the other two and the FICO score is the one looked at mostly when applying for things. The FICO is the only one I keep up with for two reasons:
1- it will the lowest (so I known worse case when applying for credit, etc)
2- this score is used the most
I pay a credit monitoring service for Equifax that monitors all three. I also pay for a plan on Equifax that gives me an immediate alert when my FICO score changes.
These have been worth paying for. I have found out that someone opened an account with my knowledge and was able to immediately freeze my credit.
I am also not giving my personal information to some third party.
I heard about this site from Clark Howard but I still wouldn’t sign up for this
Re:Sundi
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Sorry-
On my last comment, I meant that someone attempted to open an account without my knowledge
I was able to close the account immediately and freeze my credit
100 points off!!! I check my score all the time on CreditKarma, turns out my score is 100 points higher! Here I thought I was a low life!