Comments on: Free Credit Scores from Credit Karma – No Scam

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:43:05 +0000

They ask for it once, but I presume they store it in a database in their system. Then they can use it when you request it.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:23:51 +0000

It is a relief to finally hear of a company that talks the talk, and actually walks the walk. However, if they claim to only need your SS# once, then how are they to continuously provide further updated info.

Sincerely appreciate your time.

Peace!

By: Amanda Spencer

Amanda Spencer — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:56:54 +0000

I used Credit Karma recently to check mine and my husband’s score. Mine seemed abnormally high compared to a year ago, and compared to my recently acquired Experian score. In addition, my husband’s Transunion score was 10 points lower when checked on Credit Karma than it was when checked on True Credit (also uses Transunion). I’m not sure which one was more accurate, but they were checked within a couple of days of each other, so it would seem that one (or both) is off a little bit. Overall, though, I think it is a great tool to get a general feel for your credit score without having to sign up for anything.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:42:20 +0000

They are pretty accurate for me. However, I use it as a tool to see if my credit score is going up or down over time. If see a drop, then I should probably act and investigate why. If I’m looking to improve my credit score, I should be able to use Credit Karma to note that things are going in the right direction.

By: AV

AV — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:04:23 +0000

Just came upon this site. I was wondering if the issue of the free “score(s)” (not exactly sure how many scores are provided), provided by Credit Karma have been addressed in regards to the scores not being anywhere near what your actual FICO scores are. I see that “CKFounder” indicated that this would be fixed within weeks. Of course this stated back in July of 2008. And I see no comments or indications that “the fix” was in fact implemented. Please advise. Thanks.

By: sheed

sheed — Sun, 10 May 2009 04:43:23 +0000

hey so did you every find out,if we use credit karma does it effect our score a lot or not? And by just logging on to the website and looking at our score? how is determined?

By: Rich Credit Debt Loan

Rich Credit Debt Loan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:31:14 +0000

great writeup… I have bene using for more than 6 months… they have a very good credit blog too: http://blog.creditkarma.com

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:37:26 +0000

It's also good to know about the 10% off Lending Club fee offer through Credit Karma if you are looking for a LC loan.

By: possibleraise

possibleraise — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:29:23 +0000

I used creditkarma for seeing the fluctuations of the past couple of weeks …
1) credit check for my electricity *ding
2) credit check for cable *ding

moving to a new place can be harmful to your credit : )… on a positive note wirefly wants to give me a free blackjack2

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:49:24 +0000

Since other grading systems go as high as 990, I don’t see the 890 as being an unusual thing. I don’t think that Credit Karma needs a “fix” so much as a translation into other scales – if the other scales make their distribution curves publicly available.

(Interesting note, my high school did have a 5 GPA scale. So I did have to explain to people that scale was different.)

By: CKFounder

CKFounder — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:53:49 +0000

@Kevin, We will have a fix for this in the coming weeks. Stay tuned :)

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:47:46 +0000

I guess the downside is, this “score” is not really worth anything in the real world since everyone important (lenders, etc) uses the FICO score. Just try telling people you have a 890 credit score and they’ll look at you funny (since the highest possible FICO is 850). It’s like telling people you have a 5.0 GPA on a 4 point scale.

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:29:16 +0000

If you have an existing account with a lender, they can pull credit on you in a “keeping track of you” sense without it being a hard inquiry. Banks do this often, you’ll often see soft inquiries on your file from the place that you bank with.

Thanks for the tip on Credit Karma, I’m a fan!

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:58:40 +0000

I used Credit Karma as part of my initial verification that, hey, I have a credit history. I’d signed up along the way and was thrilled to log in one day and see that I actually had a score!!! :)

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:59:01 +0000

I don’t have the information that credit.com asks for unless I use annualcreditreport.com to get my credit report and then put it in there. I’m a little Lazy for the two step process ;-).

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:52:59 +0000

Has anyone tried a similar service offered at credit.com?

By: Lucky

Lucky — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:38:52 +0000

Great find. I looked into it and they make their money by offering you deals from their partnering advertisers based on your credit score. Pretty clever.

By: KingTut57

KingTut57 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:03:29 +0000

Kate,
You must be careful with a lender pulling your credit. Every time they look at your credit it will count as an inquiry. The more you have the lower your score goes.

I did check on CreditKarma as far as if their looking at our credit counts as an inquiry and it does NOT count as an inquiry. Just thought you should know.

By: CKFounder

CKFounder — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:58:18 +0000

Thanks for the post Lazyman. Good, interesting discussion on your site.

As for the score, we are still in beta and are evaluating what is the most useful for consumers.

@Kate, Most lender’s don’t have consumer codes. That is, when they do a score request, they do it as a lender and not as consumer. The difference is the lender codes will be an inquiry for credit and a hard pull. The result is a slight decrease in your credit score. Consumer based pulls like Credit Karma are soft pulls and don’t affect your score. I’m not trying to be alarmist and I’m not sure how your friend is set up but I wanted to point out the subtle distinction.

Overall, I really like these types of discussions since it helps us focus on what consumer want in a service like ours. Thanks again.

By: Kate@Living the Frugal Life

Kate@Living the Frugal Life — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:39:34 +0000

Funny, I just got my credit scores for free yesterday. I was calling up our mortgage lender to ask about an interest rate reduction. While I was on the phone with the loan officer, he pulled my credit scores and told me what they were. So it didn’t cost me anything, and I didn’t need to enter my personal identifying information on any website. Certainly it’s not be an option for everyone, and even for those it’s available to, it might not be a good way to monitor one’s credit score on a monthly basis. But I just thought I’d toss that out there.

-Kate