Comments on: Free FICO Credit Score Estimates

By: UK

UK — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:37:42 +0000

I have been using creditKarma from 2010 and its really cool. When I applied for car laon the score they gave and CK gave was in the same range. I dont get any bugging or marketing emails from them. They have very nice features in their site and their blog/advice rocks. It also shows how much you can save on some of the services. Only things that was wired was the the savings its displayed for my auto loan for not actually showing, it was actually extra spending. I dont know how they calculate it, but was not right.

By: Val

Val — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:26:57 +0000

I just signed up to creditkarma and try as I might, step 3 never goes thru. It just gives me an error each time saying that I have to complete all fields. I did complete all fields correctly except the apartment box since I don’t live in an apartment. I got tired of doing it over and over to no avail and decided to cancel. Guess what? NO CANCEL BUTTON!!!

By: JB

JB — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:21:09 +0000

I have to constantly check my credit & try to keep my scores as high as possible to survive medical school on student loans. I’ve used creditkarma & many other sites for this & feel that all of the Transunion affiliated sites, including CreditKarma report scores that are well below the scores I get at myfico or directly from the credit bureaus. I’ve also noticed inexplicable variations in my score at creditkarma (never for the better unfortunately) when NOTHING has changed from the previous score update.

Considering how difficult it is to maintain accurate & consistent credit reports & scores, I’d like to find out which agency a bank or other potential creditor tends to pull reports from, before I put an inquiry on my report. Anyone know of any sites where I could find that?

By: Yankeeman

Yankeeman — Sat, 01 May 2010 03:06:15 +0000

Hi – thanks for your review of Credit Karma. Question on credit scores, is there a way to get the credit bureas to rescore me if I pay off my large amount of credit cards all at once. We are consolidating all debt into a refinanced mortgage and want to get rescored fast as we are also trying to get a leased car for our 17 year old daughter and get a college loan in a month from now.

Thanks if anyone knows – if I should write this somewhere else, please let me know.

Thanks, Glenn

By: JWP

JWP — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:36:19 +0000

I have been utilizing Credit Karma for almost a year. During that time I also obtained reports and FICO scores from MyFico including TransUnion, which CK uses. Everything seemed consistent between the information reported by CK and the credit reports until Jan. Since then, the percentage of ontime payments they provide shows a “dip” twice even though there has been nothing late. A review of the TransUnion credit report verifies this. My scores never dipped and remained about 35 points above the FICO scores, so it didn’t affect that, but any errors, especially with numbers, lead one to question their methodology. Emails to CK have been less than productive as they continue to provide “canned” responses about “credit scores” being different for various reasons. I assume they manipulate the raw information from TransUnion, to produce their “Credit Report Cards” but there seems to be something wrong somewhere in their “translation”. Might be something simple, but they don’t seem to understand the problem. It has caused me to lose confidence in their “Credit Report Cards” and graphs.

By: D.S

D.S — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:23:21 +0000

I have tried Credit Karma and The estimator and both gave me different scores with large margins. Try credit.com it’s great.

By: Ab

Ab — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:34:06 +0000

Just checked using both the estimator and Credit Karma. Both worked very quickly and the scores matched up well too. Thanks for this post, truly helpful stuff! Too many bloggers simply rehash oft repeated techniques of raising / managing your score, you were the first I found with helpful links and how to information. And now I know that I don’t need to stress about raising my score since its relatively high considering im only 20. Thanks for helping me put my mind at ease!

-Ab

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:33:48 +0000

I’m sorry it wasn’t clear, typically a trial means that you get to try something for free and then pay for it if you don’t cancel the service. I’m sorry it wasn’t clear but I’ve amended the article to make that clear. If you call and say you want to cancel, they will usually pro-rate the refund and issue it to you.

By: globetrekkerr

globetrekkerr — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:31:41 +0000

You didn’t mention that MYFICO also has a 30day trial period and then they will charge you annually if you don’t cancel. Your article sounded like there was no “cancellation” required. Maybe you need to research futher.

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:33:39 +0000

Regarding Creditkarma, I've had the same problem. My score was MUCH lower there than I've ever gotten from one of the 3 credit reporting agencies when I've paid for a score.

By: saladdin

saladdin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:17:53 +0000

Why is mine always at least 30 points lower then myfico? I have no mortgage or loans of any type open. I use only 1 credit card and pay off every month.

If your service is having such a hard time with a file of my size then I don’t see how it can be accurate for complex ones.

saladdin

By: saladdin

saladdin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:58:08 +0000

Creditkarma has never been close. I just ran it again and it shows 668 but myfico is 710. It has always shown scores 30 poitns lower then myfico. saladdin

By: Lazy Man and Money

Lazy Man and Money — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:47:50 +0000

I’ve met with the CEO of Credit Karma a couple of times and can only tell you that they have the consumer’s best interest. Even if you don’t sign up for their service, their blog (http://blog.creditkarma.com) is a great source for credit information.

By: Aya @ Thrive

Aya @ Thrive — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:00:33 +0000

Credit Karma seems like a good resource, I’m glad there are people spreading the word about useful sites that are being tried out. Just to add to the mix, Thrive (a free online financial advisory) has added a new feature which gives users their credit score estimates for free as well. It’s important to know your credit score before embarking on improving it, and Thrive also gives advice about how to work on your credit score instead of just showing it to you to decode by yourself.
Just thought I’d pass on another resource since it was relevant to the discussion at hand.

By: CKFounder

CKFounder — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:57:21 +0000

@miss m

That is a common misconception, that there is only one true credit score. There are hundreds of different scores. When it comes to FICO they have multiple scores and those scores are even different depending on the bureau you use.

Independent Source: http://www.experian.com/consumer/credit_score_faqs.html#1

The truth is that all credit score are similar and correlated. Monitoring one, a few, or all is a matter of detail and costs.