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You’ve probably seen the commercials. Credit Karma claims to offer you a free credit score with no strings attached.
Is it true?
This is my Credit Karma review after using it for a few weeks and though I have only been using the service for a short time, I already love it.
What Does Credit Karma Do?
Credit Karma gives you a 100% free credit score and they provide a 100% free credit monitoring service. This is definitely the first company I have ever heard of to offer a free credit monitoring service.
I’m sure you have seen companies that claim to be free, but end up charging you after a certain period of time if you don’t cancel the service, but that’s not true in this case. Credit Karma is free. Completely free. They couldn’t charge you if they wanted to.
They don’t even ask for your credit card information when you sign up.
Credit Scores
Credit Karma actually offers you 4 different credit scores, which are:
- TransUnion Credit Score – Your score from TransUnion (one of the 3 credit bureaus that provide a credit score)
- VantageScore – Your cumulative score across all of the 3 credit bureaus
- Auto Insurance Score – Your score that some auto insurers factor in when giving you insurance quotes
- Home Insurance Score – Your score that some home insurance companies factor in when giving you insurance quotes
This is how it will show up:
Credit Monitoring Service
This is a feature that will notify you when changes are made that affect your credit, such as a new account, a closed account, late payments and the like.
You can opt-in to their free credit monitoring service on the their website and they will send you email updates about your credit.
This is a great tool to help protect yourself against identity theft.
Credit Report Card
Credit Karma also offers a free credit report card, which basically shows you what your credit score is made up of and how to improve it. Your credit report card is made up of these categories:
- Credit card utilization
- Payment history
- Age of credit history
- Total accounts
- Credit inquires
- Derogatory marks
You are provided with a grade, like a report card (A, B, C, etc.)
Credit Score Simulator
This feature is just plain awesome.
It basically allows you to simulate what your credit score would look like if you add a card, close a card, increase your credit line, open a new account, etc.
It’s a very helpful feature to utilize before you make a decision that will impact your credit.
The Bottom Line
Credit Karma has an “A” rating from the Better Business Bureau and they appear to be an all-around great business. Overall, it’s a free service and they don’t ask for your credit card information, so you have nothing to lose.
The only downside to the service (if this can even be considered a downside) is that when you log into the dashboard, you will see several offers from other companies. That’s how they make their money, but it seems like a fair trade-off to get a free credit score and credit monitoring service. You don’t have to click on the ads, just like any website.
Credit Karma Rating
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Credit Karma
Summary
Credit Karma is free and effective for monitoring your credit. I've never had a problem with them.
One of their competitors (Credit Sesame) offers free identity theft insurance. Just keep in mind that VantageScore is used by like 4% of lenders whereas FICO is used by 90%.
Hey William,
Thanks for the comment! I don’t really pay much attention to Advantage Score. Fortunately Credit Karma doesn’t just give you the Vantage Score. As far as the free identity theft, that’s awesome! I’ll look into that company; however, if I really want good identity theft protection, I wouldn’t mind paying for a higher quality company or at least upgrading to one of Credit Sesame’s paid options.
Thanks for the comment!
Well, it’s been about a year or so now… how are you liking Credit Karma still?
I still like it and use it, though I prefer Credit Sesame now. I wrote a review about it too. lol. Though Credit Karma just started reporting 2 bureaus instead of one, so that’s pretty cool.
Good deal, Lucille. I’ll check out Credit Sesame as well. You da man.
Let me know what you think!