Credit Karma allows you to pull your credit score from all three credit bureaus for no charge, so you can know if you’re credit is good or find a way how you can improve your credit. Expect to get two free credit scores and a full credit reports that updates weekly with efficient tools and resources available to educate their members on the basis of credit scoring; what will affect the credit score either in a positive or negative way.
Credit Karma also has an online savings account and tax preparation.
Credit Score Free With CreditKarma
Expanding on the question as to whether Credit Karma is really free or not, this was quite an inquisition considering that MOST other “free credit score” issued by major companies would be misleading.
When you sign up for the “free credit monitoring services,” they’ll usually ask you for your credit card information and within a given month, you’ll see a seemingly suspect charge on your account. You’ll then realize you was lured in legally by a free trial that expires after the first month and if you didn’t cancel that subscription, expect a monthly charge from then on. With Credit Karma, it’s 100% safe; from personal use, Credit Karma does not ask for any credit card information whatsoever.
Key Features
- Credit Report Card; get a snapshot of your credit report as well as a grades. It shows what credit repairs you need to raise your score.
- Credit Simulator. This informative tool simulates what certain financial transactions will do to your credit score.
- Credit Compare for comparing your credit score against others in the Credit Karma community. You can see how you rank based on the overall Credit Karma community, by state, by age percentile, and email domain.
- Tools & Calculators like amortization, home affordability and debt repayment calculators.
- Credit advice such as “How do I improve my credit score?” or you can choose to answer others’ questions.
Credit Karma Pricing
You can get your credit score, reports, and monitoring for free with Credit Karma. They use the information about your spending habits and charge companies to advertise you targeted ads.
Benefits of Using Credit Karma
- Credit Karma also offers an Equifax Credit Score + TransUnion So you’ll get a pull from 2 out of 3 of the major credit bureaus
- Your TransUnion Credit Score is continuously updated so that you can see the impact and changes to your credit score more efficiently. You’ll then be able to monitor your errors and discrepancies more closely.
- Free Credit Monitoring. Tools to track your spending by category and helpful report cards notifying you on the goods and bads, ins and outs of your credit usage.
- Credit Score Simulator is quite possibly on of the most useful tools on Credit Karma and allows you to simulate certain actions and their cause and effects on your credit; such as opening a new credit line, etc.
Credit Karma Limitations
Although Credit Karma is free to use, there are some limitations that you might come in counter with:
- Scores are based on the VantageScore 3.0 model, while most lenders use FICO.
- They do not offer Experian monitoring.
- It does not monitor bank accounts, credit cards, or investment accounts.
- No identity protection insurance included.
- Get targeted ads for revenue, which encourages borrowing and may tempt you to take on new debt.
- Lacks customer support option with no phone number or live chat.
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Conclusion
Credit Karma is an efficient way for consumers looking to check their Free VantageScores and credit reports from Equifax and TransUnion. Enjoy helpful features integrated to get your credit score on check such as Credit Report Card, Credit tools and calculator and a credit simulator which proves time in and time out to give consumers the most optimal data necessary on their scores.
Keep in mind that VantageScores varies significantly from a FICO Score and could leave you at a different scoring category. Also, considering that VantageScore does consist of a 6% Market Value compared to the other 94% from FICO, lenders do use VantageScore as a means to determine whether you are approved for a loan or credit card or not. Don’t forget to check out our full list of Credit Card Bonuses if you’re not interested at the moment.
