I decided to do a review after seeing some Credit Karma reviews that don’t really answer my questions (or the questions others seem to be asking.) Update: Read here about an opt-in service Credit Karma review credit monitoring as a free additional service.
In this review of Credit Karma, we are only talking about the free credit score service, not the add-on services.
Earlier we discussed how I first found out about Credit Karma and how, as a seasoned financial professional, I was inclined to think that Credit Karma is a scam offer for free credit scores.
There are multiple reasons for thinking Credit Karma’s service is not legitimate, but the main one is that credit scores are not free.
Second, this review is only about CreditKarma’s free credit score service.
Credit Karma Reviews of Free Credit Score
Since most free credit score scams are actually free trial offers that lead to an automatic recurring charge on your credit card, I figured that Credit Karma would want a credit card number before giving me my credit score.
With CreditKarma.com instead of asking me for my financial account information, they asked me for the same type of personal information anyone would need to pull a credit report and get a credit score on me.
Credit Karma asked for a lot of personal information, but never asked me to enter a credit card number nor any bank account information.
Chances are that there is no way you are going to enter all of the information that exists in your credit report, so it is not a very accurate estimate, no matter how good the credit score calculator program itself is.
In other words, the Credit Karma score is accurate, but it is not the score that most financial institutions will be using when you apply for credit.
The surprising thing was that they never asked me to enter a credit card number! As you may recall, I had generated a limited use credit card number to enter, but I didn’t need it.
The catch is that they estimate your credit score based upon the information that you provide.
Credit Karma Complaints
Now what would make Credit Karma the must have personal finance service for financially savvy people is that it does not just offer you your credit score for free once, but says that you can come back and update it as often as you like.
I recently setup an account for my wife (spouses can have very different credit scores even if “everything” is held jointly) and have started getting her free credit score as well.
I don’t know if there is a limit on how many times you can update, but I updated my free credit score from Credit Karma every month since May with no complaints.
However, it is based upon your actual credit report data, so it is good for monitoring whether your score is going up or down, even if it is not perfect for knowing what your FICO score number is right this second.
In other words, I have gotten six free credit scores from CreditKarma.com without paying a cent, without buying anything, and without clicking on any advertisements.
The number one CreditKarma complaint is that the credit score is not a real FICO score.
Source by financegourmet.com
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