Credit Karma Review – Complaints Accuracy Legit?

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. 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.) Most importantly, I want to know is Credit Karma safe. Is Credit Karma legit?

Update: Read here about an opt-in service Credit Karma review credit monitoring as a free additional service.

Update #2: There is a free Credit Karma tax offering now available. Here is our Credit Karma tax review.

Before we get started, there is one very important thing to be aware of. There are scam websites out there that take advantage of people thinking they are going to CreditKarma.com. Remember, Credit is with a ‘c’ and Karma is with a ‘k’. If you somehow end up on either KreditKarma or CreditCarma chances are you are in for a scam. If you get asked to enter a credit card number, be sure you are on the right website first. Second, this review is only about CreditKarma’s free credit score service. This is NOT the only service that Credit Karma offers. They also offer other services. Credit Karma’s not free services will require you to enter a credit card number. If this happens, you are signing up for an additional service, and there will very likely be charges. In this review of Credit Karma, we are only talking about the free credit score service, not the add-on services.

There are multiple reasons for thinking Credit Karma’s service is not legitimate, but the main one is that credit scores are not free.

Credit scores are not free for you, they are not free for banks, they are not free for car dealers, they are not free for anyone. Credit scores are the “why didn’t I think of that” invention of the century where personal lending is concerned.

A company called Fair Isaacs takes information from the credit reports at any of the three major credit bureaus and then uses a proprietary algorithm to reduce dozens of pages or more into one single number called a credit score. It does not do this for free. Every time someone pulls your credit score, they pay. They may pay a lot, or they may pay a little depending upon their agreement with Fair Issac, but they do pay. You can’t give something that costs you money for free unless you have another way to make more money than you are paying out.

Credit Karma Reviews of Free Credit Score

credit karma review scam legit

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. I know how to beat automatic charges on my credit cards, so I thought I would go through the process anyway and find out for sure whether or not Credit Karma is a scam.

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. Credit Karma asked for a lot of personal information, but never asked me to enter a credit card number nor any bank account information. In other words, they have no way to charge me for my credit score. It’s tough to scam someone when you don’t get any money from them.

That begs the question, is the credit score from Credit-Karma a real credit score?

Is Credit Karma a Real Credit Score?

Well, that sort of depends on what you mean by “real”.

You see, Credit Karma scores are real Vantage 3.0 credit scores. The catch is that Vantage credit scores are not used by most lenders or financial institutions. 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. Most banks and lenders use FICO scores, not Vantage scores.

Another credit score offered out there are calculators that “estimate” your credit score for you. The catch is that they estimate your credit score based upon the information that you provide. Chances are that there is no way you are going to enter all 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. So, these CreditKarma scores are better than those kind of estimators.

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. This does include your social security number and there is no way around that, so at a certain level, you must trust that the Credit Karma website is legit.

Like all online financial services, it is safe, until it is not. That is, they use secure connections and encryption, and all that, but a determined hacker, or stupid employee can ruin it all. Unfortunately, this is true of any bank, credit card, or retailer out there. (See also: Home Depot hack, IRS fraud, identity theft… you get the idea.)

Credit Karma Complaints

The number one CreditKarma complaint is that the credit score is not a real FICO score. It is a Vantage 3.0 credit score. 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.

See this for more information about real credit scores versus fake credit scores.

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 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.

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. There are advertisements on the page, but unless they are the kind that pay just for showing up, they have earned nothing from me other than thanks and this review.

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.

No matter how it turns out down the road, for now, Credit Karma is a great deal for people managing their money.



480 thoughts on “Credit Karma Review – Complaints Accuracy Legit?”

  1. I’ve been trying to log back in to Credit Karma because they did my taxes a few years back. They asked for a photo copy of my driver’s license, which I provided. They then REFUSED to accept it as proof I was me. They requested my naturalization papers. I’M A U.S. CITIZEN! This refusal was the last straw. I will never use their services again, even if I have to pay someone else for what they provide. They are not worth the headache!

    Reply
  2. CREDIT KARMA IS A SCAM! BE WARNED!

    This is what I sent CK today:
    ===========================================

    THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO POST in BIG BOLD RED FONT on your website’s homepage.

    1. Someone who pays ALL their bills on-time and in-full for over THIRTY YEARS will receive a “POOR” credit score on Credit Karma

    2. This “POOR” score will NEVER improve AND will be the case EVEN IF the person being scored has had 30 or more credit card accounts during that three+ decades === AND EVEN IF the person has….

    (a) paid off the entire balances owed on many of those 30+ credit cards and then cancelled the cards

    (b) had numerous balances exceeding $1000 which were paid off in their entirety (and on time)

    (c) received numerous credit line increases from those very same banks or other financial institutions over the period when the customer had those cards because of their excellent credit history

    (d) received many PRE-APPROVED new credit card offers — precisely because of the customer’s exceptionally GOOD credit card history AND

    (e) has NEVER had ANY adverse information posted on their accounts
    [there could be one very minor and insignificant exception—i.e. when a credit line was temporarily exceeded but NOT because of any purchase made; instead, because the credit card issuer levied their annual fee which pushed the total balance over the credit line amount and even that over-limit balance was never more than $10-$15]

    ONLY IF YOU POST THE ABOVE INFORMATION VERBATIM ON YOUR WEBSITE WILL YOU HAVE ANY CREDIBILITY OR CLAIM TO INTEGRITY. OTHERWISE YOU ARE A FRAUDULENT AND DISHONEST COMPANY.

    Reply
    • Closing credit cards negatively impacts your credit score. This information is from Transunion and Equifax, not their own side system. Contact the credit bureau if you’re needing more information on your credit report.

      Reply
  3. As the writer says, something is safe until it isn’t. Credit Karma isn’t safe. They aren’t worried about the security of your personal information. How do I know this? They sent us an insecure promo email containing personal financial information they could only have obtained from one of the credit monitoring agencies. A brief search indicated that Credit Karma has been in trouble before for not having sufficient security measures in place.

    Run, run like the wind away from this operation. Contact all of your creditors and find out how to opt out of allowing your info to be shared — and made susceptible to fraud — with Credit Karma.

    Reply
  4. How can you say that Credit Karma is good for anyone managing their money? Credit Karma told me I had a 750 credit score so I thought I had nothing to worry about and I spent the next few months shopping for a home. After 5 months I find the home I want to buy and the mortgage company tells me my credit will need a lot of improvement before I can even make an offer. If I had known about it back in January when I checked Credit Karma I could have started fixing problems with my credit. Because of Credit Karma I did not see the huge problems that were there and now I will spend the next year trying to improve my credit. I should not have wasted time checking my score with Credit Karma. I am quite certain their only goal is to sell credit cards. They still show my credit score as over 700 which is completely wrong. If i used my Credit Karma rating at all I would probably never be able to buy a home or improve my credit because according to Credit Karma I don’t need to do anything.

    Reply
    • Credit Karma provides non-FICO scores. I point this out and say that the pure number is not the best use of Credit Karma. What Credit Karma is good for is watching the number go up or down. If things are getting better on Credit Karma scores, they are likely getting better on your FICO score as well.

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    • I signed up for Credit Karma in order to monitor my efforts to build my credit and monitor my score. What no one is saying here is HOW they get paid. They get paid by referring people with poor credit to lenders who MAY extend credit to them. OK. I needed to buy a car and without my permission the dealer “shopped’ for credit in order to finance said car. FIRST MISTAKE! I now have 14 inquiries and despite my efforts cannot get the duplicate and in one case triplicate inquiries removed even though it was the same lender, same day.

      I did obtain financing and moved on to obtaining a credit card. I went with a secured card which is where things get whacky. I was approved and told what my deposit would be. I doubled the amount though I could afford quadruple easily. My card was issued with the doubled amount. I immediately called and asked if I could get a higher limit with an additional deposit and the answer was no. I use the card and before my closing date promptly pay it off. As in down to zero. Then Credit Karma compliments me like I am a none too bright child on my judicious use of 0% my available credit.

      After having the card for 5-6 months they removed my deposit requirement and increased my credit limit. Still it’s a very small limit all things considered. One month I found myself 150 miles from home in a bad storm. I used the card for a hotel room and gas only. It was close to my closing date so even though I promptly paid it was posted 2 days after my closing day. Credit Karma immediately treated me like a child and said that I had used 63% of my available credit limit and my score was downgraded by 48 points! That is insane. It takes two full billing cycles of NOT USING the card at all to regain my 48 points. I called the bank and asked for a credit increase and was told not to bother, but the very same bank issued me another card! The caused my score to drop another 8 points. Unbelievable.

      All of my efforts to build a score seem to be going backwards. I only have three accounts now, a VERY small car loan because I put 80% down on the car, and the two credit cards. Neither one has ever had a balance carried for more than a week and never, ever have I paid the minimum on a card. I was doubling my car payments until the lender told me to stop as they would no longer allow it.
      Meanwhile Credit Karma is telling me what I already know: I should get a lower interest car loan AND apply for cards they are recommending both of which I already have had for over a year.

      My take? Credit Karma is useless and insulting. The “scores” that upset me so much aren’t even close to a real FICO. I have unsubscribed, joined a Credit Union, refinanced my car and cancelled the high interest card that was the newest. I have obtained a card from my credit union to replace it. Credit Karma would never have suggested this because they get paid for the cards and financing they do recommend and that the consumer utilizes.

      Bottom line they treat you like a loser before you have a chance to lose. I have never ever been late and have massive student loans that are 100% paid off.
      I was wrong to not use credit in College and Law School, but I saw my classmates running up CC debt like crazy and didn’t want to fall into that trap since I had little to no income then.

      Reply
      • You obviously have a low score to begin with.
        You’re complaining about credit cards, nothing to do with CK.

        They told you information that was true. You are using a certain percentage of your limit.
        What’s childlike about that? Obviously, you need to grow up.

        Also, they offer many great cards from many businesses. Like, having 4% cash back on dining/entertianment stuff for FREE….

        I applied for my first card and got $10,000 limit. Applied for another to get $10,000 again. Now they’re $18,000 and $14,000 each.

        The score I get on CK and the FICO score is pretty close. My bank and my CC issuer gave me FICO scores every month and it’s pretty comparable with CK.

        Reply
    • why does c/k put a length of credit for someone not knowing ,I bought my1st home in 1982 but they ? say I only have 6 years of credit . whats up with that ??

      Reply
      • They only go off of what is on your credit report that they pull. If that mortgage is not being reported on your credit report for one reason or another, it won’t show up on your length of credit.

        Reply
      • They give you the average of your credit. If you have a 30 year credit with one place, but have many low 1-2 year accounts…. The average is going to be a lot less than 30.

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  5. Credit Karma is a farce and incorrect. Waste of time and by the way, it really isn’t free as the false advertisements state.

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    • I agree… because when I went online, I also asked about my credit report, I was told that C/K wasn’t going to issue my report to me and sent me to one of it’s brother companies,even after I gave all of my information,like social security numbers etc al. If anyone who deals with them,they have some reason to do so, I don’t know why…

      Reply
  6. Credit Karma sucks! I am mortified by what they have done to my credit. I worked so hard to get my score to 720 and in one fell swoop comes a charge off from over 10 years ago. They have no customer service and there is no recourse with them. They are such a scam. I wish I never used them. I know how this works now and I have ended my relationship with these scam artists. Never again. These aholes have my soc sec number and everything. I should have known better. I cant believe I was so blind.

    Reply
    • They don’t do anything to your credit. They help you monitor your credit. They are not scammers. What can they scam you with? Nothing at all.

      Reply
  7. sure ! i’ve never paid too much attention to my credit score as it’s been in the 700s for awhile now.My husband and I just got really serious about our getting out of debt,we have a little over $16,000 and 3 collections in debt and we’re expecting a baby. I don’t want to have that junk hanging over out heads! so i seek for help via internet on how to be debt free of credit card

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  8. So i applied for a credit card as suggested by credit karma. I put in my personal information, my social security and other identifying information. After what i thought was a credit card application, the web page directed me to a site where it says “based on my information” that the following credit cards MAY accept my application.

    So there. Do not apply for a credit card on CREDIT KARMA and besides, NO ONE on this website will help you.

    Reply
    • You clicked on something to help “prequalify” To see what you are more than likely to be approved for. You didn’t apply for a credit card.

      Reply
  9. Credit karma advertises tax returns absolutely 100%free but it’s a lie,I was charged 35 dollars to prepare and send mine ,tried reaching out to credit karma 5 times all I got back was an automated response stating how it’s free with no hidden charges ,all lies.

    Reply
      • I have to disagree with this line of thinking.

        Despite what a lot of people in the comments seem to believe, the point of sites like Credit Karma isn’t the score–after all, as noted, the score provided by CK is rarely even used by lenders.

        The reason for a site like CK is that it provides you with a copy of your full, regularly updated, credit report at no cost.

        Annual Credit Report will, per the name (and law) give you one per year. The bureaus, from what I’ve seen, don’t get any more generous than 1 per month unless you’re willing to pay. Banks/cards that provide the FICO score generally only give you the number or an abridged report.

        If you’re only paying attention to the number when you go to CK, you’re not using CK right.

        Heck, even FICO scores (as noted) vary, based on the model, loan, and lender. The only thing that’s constant is the source from which that number is derived & calculated–and CK lets you have constant access to it, while also consistently updating it. That’s what CK is good for.

        Numbers are meaningless out of context, and most lenders worth their salt will look past the number, into why the number is what it is. By using CK, you can see why the number is what it is–even if you have no idea what the number is.

        Heck, CK even takes that a step further and actually highlights risk areas and breaks things down, showing you the number of accounts, payment percentage, utilization figures, etc. so you don’t have to calculate it yourself. Why, if they give you that information, does it matter if they weigh it differently than the various FICO models?

        Again–the score follows the report, not the other way around. Giving you access to the report and the various facets of it is giving you the information you need to determine your creditworthiness, since it’s the exact same information that the lenders are going to use. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really care what VantageScore 3.0 or FICO say my credit report means–I care about what my credit report actually says when it comes to the factors that determine the numbers. I can’t do anything about a “703”, but I can do something about low utilization, missed payments, or delinquent accounts.

        Reply
  10. Tried the Credit Karma Tax “service” this evening. It requires a password reset. The old password is evidently fine for everything except this. Whatever. It then *requires*your cell phone number. I have no idea what valid reason they could possibly have for requiring this information aside from selling it somewhere down the road. There’s a link on the page for “help” if the text message they want to send fails. This takes one to a help center that doesn’t address the question. Nowhere on the site is a phone number to contact customer support. Nowhere on the site is an email address to contact customer support. Found one anyway. Not impressed.

    Reply
  11. Someone mentioned (about 380 posts up) that after using Credit Karma, they had 20 year old debts come out of the woodwork ruining their score. It dawned on me that I used Experian’s free trial about a year ago and sure enough old medicals debts (from 5 years) came in to my mailbox (within 30-60 days). But, I had just moved (and as a result entered my new address) with Experian. So that leaves me with three questions:

    1. Did this happen as a result of using Experian only (irregardless of the change of address)?
    2. Did this happen only because I entered my new address with Experian?
    3. Did this happen only because of my move?

    Also, does anyone know if Bank of America has a free offering?

    Reply
    • I just enrolled in BOA’s online FICO score offering. It’s free and updates once a month. The score is pulled from TransUnion only. Does not provide a credit report.

      If you are with a major bank, you may want to check. I would assume most of these have or will soon have this offering.

      Reply
  12. My credit cards offer, and do give me my fico score each month on my billing statement. They do not charge me for it, and the score does change a little, or a lot, but in each case they tell me the possible reasons why. Why no mention of these offers from our credit cards? If you have questionable credit, you probably have expensive credit cards with big balances. The credit card balances are working against you. Having too many credit sources will hurt your credit score. Your credit score declines when your total amount of possible credit exceeds your income and ability to pay the bills. Closing a credit account also hurts your credit score, but it is something you can get past. There are nonprofits that will help you repair your credit, but you have to be smart enough to follow the guidance they give you. People get a sense of being rich, and keep buying until they are crushed by credit interest fees that are nearly impossible to recover from. Look at damage to your credit like a drug addiction, it is painful to repair your credit, it means no more spending on nonessential items.

    Reply
    • Having too many Credit Sources does NOT hurt your credit.
      Missing payments is easier with lots of sources though.
      As long as you keep your percentage of revolving credit below 20% and you make at least the minimum payments on time, that number of sources actually helps you.
      Use autopay and you will be fine.

      Reply
    • That’s false.
      If you had $1,000,000 credit line… Your score isn’t going down the crapper.
      You’ll more than likely have a very high score and it will go up.
      Obviously, if you’re using $700,000 of it, it’s going to go down. But having high limits on credit doesn’t hurt you at all. It helps you.

      I gained $10,000 x 2 limits and gained over 100 score on the FICO.

      Nearly everyone here is posting false information because they cannot comprehend what’s going on.

      Reply
  13. The reason Credit Karma is a scam is that the score given to you is wildly inaccurate. I’m not talking about 50 points higher or lower. I’m talking about low balling your scores 100 points or more. They then precede to market to you subprime credit solutions for people with bad credit, and I’m sure they receive some type of compensation for the referral. I’d call that fraud. If you want to know your real credit score, you are going to have to pay for it. Do not trust their scores for one second.

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  14. I recently requested free credit reports from credit karma INC. after giving out ss#, etc. saying ur 3 free credit reports are on their way, i click next page, only to get a notice at end that theyre having maintainance done. I check my email afterwards to see their site has sent me an automated email. But Im trying to cancel my membership. The site wont let me back into my account. Concerned & freaking out.

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  15. credit karma is CAPITAL joke….there scores are not accurate, they don’t use all 3 credit bureaus
    . They tell you your chances of getting a credit card are good when they are not. I have recently been through a bankruptcy and was told I had a 687 and 701 credit score… So I applied for a card
    only to find out my score was a 603 by the credit card company denial notice. So go somewhere else and pay for your real credit score… i think you can get 1 A year for free…

    Reply
    • No one uses all three bureaus for their scores. Even when you get a loan, they only pull one, or maybe two if they have questions.

      Also, you cannot get a free credit score. You can get a free credit report.

      Reply
    • A few cards have started going this way. The really interesting part is the number that give you “your score” whatever they determine that to mean, versus the number who give you “the score we use”.

      Reply
  16. Credit Karma isn’t very accurate from what I see. Its says my score is 761 but the actual FICO from the credit reporting agencies is 726 – thats one hell of a difference in my opinion.

    I’m not pleased in the slightest bit.

    Reply
  17. I have been using CK for over a year, and for me it serves its purpose. I was notified of a card charge on my credit that was overdue. It was from a card that I haven’t used in over two years. There was a delinquent credit report on my record, in which I was notified by CK. My score was hamper by this action, however, with the help of CK I was able to file a report and get the action taken care of in less than one month. My score now is back to where it was before and I am glad to have been connected with CK.

    Reply
  18. First, the claim that you can’t expect to get the actual score because you are not paying for it so it’s okay that they use an algorithm to estimate it is very flawed. According to Credit Karma, they give you your actual score, and it it free because it is paid for by advertisers on their website.
    What I have seen people say about Credit Karma showing you a lower credit score than what you actually have is true. It should be illegal for them to say that a credit score is lower than it actually is. I know my transunion score it over 50 points higher than credit karma says it is. I found this out because I can get my credit score free through one of my credit cards. Credit karma has shown my score dropping a lot over the past 6 months, and only coming up a little bit, but when I checked it through my credit card, it was MUCH higher and has remained steady for the past 6 months. Don’t trust them to give you accurate information.
    Also, Credit Karma does provide information to 3rd parties that you may have old debt with that can cause you a lot of problems. I have heard this from people over and over again.
    In my case, after receiving nothing for years, I started receiving letters from very old debts that are well past the statute of limitations. In my case, they did say that because of the age of the debt they would not sue me for it, but it’s still a hassle. However, I did get a notice last year from an old debt that they company that bought the debt was excusing it, and I was forced to report it on my taxes as $10,000 in INCOME! (This was an old debt that my husband was supposed to pay when we were getting a divorce, but he didn’t). If I had not been able to prove that I was insolvent at the time that the debt went past due and I was unable to make payments, I would have had to pay taxes on this. (Yes, they can do this, can you believe that?!) on top of that, I found out that even though they did this, according to the law they could still come back later and try to sue me for the money.

    Reply
    • Credit Karma does give you a “real” credit score, just not a FICO score. Instead you get a real VantageScore, which is a real product that the credit bureaus offer. However, it is used by far fewer lenders than a FICO score is.

      Reply
  19. I am very pleased with Credit Karma. After I signed up with them I was able to access my credit report and dispute items that didn’t belong on it and learn ways to build and improve my score all for free!!! Had Credit Karma not offered this wonderful service I would never had had the opportunity since I didn’t own a credit card and wouldn’t have been able to “pay” for a report which now is offered for free!! Thank you Cred it Karma keep up the good work!!!!!!!

    Reply
  20. American Express, Capital One and Discover cards all provide FICO scores for free when you access your account on their web sites.

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    • o I have joined credit karma based on relatives recommendation. I had been looking for a loan to reduce a 22% interest rate on a credit card. The first thing came
      up based on credit karmas recommendation was lending club. Based on there recommendation I tried to get a loan. It proved to be a disaster. E-mails from CK told me to not get discouraged and I looked at other on-line loans, the interest rates were higher than my credit cards. I see no . value in credit karma. find a good credit union or rely on your common sense and good .judgement stay away from on-line loans. all they want is your personal info.

      Reply
  21. credit karma is very legit. i’ve been using it for years. i will have to say that they are a little slow in updating your record. it seems to run anywhere from a year to 6 months late. and ur score is always on the low end of what it’s really is, which is fine with me. it’s just a scale u can go by. it give u advise on how to improve ur score, credit cards that u can apply for better interests, or a better way to lower ur debt. options for paying off ur mortgage or car payments. it’s a damn excellent site w/all sorts of FREE info.

    Reply
  22. I compared credit karma and was not happy with it. I compare my 3 different bureaus and credit karma showed my scores way less than it should have been. My Fico score is around the 776 and credit karma gave me 670. i cannot trust credit karma.

    Reply
    • Score is not the thing you should use Credit Karma for.
      It is Best used to watch Inquiries and New Credit opened without your knowledge.
      I was able to catch mine being hijacked within 3 days.
      Took 2 years to get the Inquiries off of my Credit Reports, but the person was caught and is now in Prison. If it were not for the 24/7 ability to check credit on CreditKarma, I would not have known in time to prevent any harm to my credit.
      It is a tool.
      Get a real FICO score from Discover or other more accurate credit card provider you may already have.

      Reply
  23. Credit Karma is a JOKE. Thay won’t provide a phone number to speak to a representative. In trying to set up an account you can’t get past step 2. So there fore you are not going to get a free score. When you try to enter step 2 with all of your critical information do thay still get all of your info and some how destroy your credit??? I feel ir Credit Karma was lagit they would provide a lagitament phone #.

    Reply
    • More likely if you do you actually find a phone number to call, and I’ve found one…is that you’ll end up talking to someone in India or Bangladesh who has very poor English skills.

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  24. Me and my wife are die-hard supporters of credit Karma. We monitored our credit for 2 years prior to buying our first home. Credit Karma made credit monitoring simple and ultimately more financially responsible. We started a Vlogging business and recommend credit karma to our audience.

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  25. I have been receiving reports from Transamerica and Expedia through Credit Karma for about 2 years. Each time my scores have been reported as approx. 770+. I have no debt except a $55,000. mortgage on my home, no car, no credit card balance, that is it. I applied for a refinance on my mtg. because the present interest rate was a variable and I needed to get my ex husband off the loan. To my great surprise I was denied because my actual credit score came through the bank auditors as 654. Over 100 points difference. I’ve contacted both companies with no response. So the lesson is be wary it seems some one is over inflating the scores. I’m still confused and feel so deceived.

    Reply
  26. I have been using Credit Karma for several years now checking periodically on the status of my credit score with no known issues. However, just today I checked my score again with Credit Karma and was horrified to discover that there was a drastic change/decrease in my score (It brought me to tears). I thought for a moment that maybe I might have been a victim of identity theft. So I decided to check / compare my score with my credit card’s website as they offer a credit tracking service. Both Credit Karma and my credit card company utilize Transunion. I was shocked to find that the two scores were COMPLETELY different. Now I don’t know which site to believe or what my actual score is or what the heck I should do at this point.

    Reply
  27. I’m pretty busy so I don’t make time to review credit reports yearly, but I saw the TV commercial and I read the above Credit Karma review to make sure I would not be charged to see my credit score. I had no problem using Credit Karma’s website. My score is Excellent just like I expected. I even picked an easy security question. “What is your favorite book?” As an author, I filled in the name of my book. It will be so simple to remember the answer instead of the many books I like. I’m more concerned about watching my credit card bills because someone was using my credit card. My name and address is listed online as an author but it doesn’t explain how the thief got a hold of my credit card account number. I did my own research online and I found the name of the thief and a picture of the thief who was using my credit card! Due to that I watch my bills closely to check for items I did not purchase. I recommend the service of Credit Karma. It was quick and easy to use. Thank you Finance Gourmet for your review.

    Reply
  28. I have tried several times to start an account and have had no success. Keeps telling me my e-mail was already in use . I keep going in circles. What’s with that. I’ve NEVER had an account!!!

    Reply
  29. I’m sorry but I’m a huge doubter when it comes to Credit Karma. I ran a free credit report from CK and compared it to my credit score from Capital One and also compare it to a the scores from Privacy Guard and CK had my score 80 points below the other two. This is comparing Transunion scores all ran on the same day across all three services. Sorry folks but yes CK is free and they will constantly hit you with ads for credit cards and other services which you can easily look past but be careful, the information is not accurate.

    Reply
    • That’s odd. Many people are reporting that the Capital One credit score, in particular, looks like it is lifted directly from Credit Karma, right down to the same fonts and color schemes. Of course, your experience may vary.

      Reply
  30. I just wanted to add that Credit Karma is a spammer. I had my preferences set to not receive emails regarding my financial situation and they sent me one.in violation of state anti-spam laws. I contacted them and they took weeks to respond completely ignoring my question.

    Reply
  31. If you have a question that the automatic replies don’t answer, there is no number you can call to get an answer. from a real person. I have been searching for the site that shows my spending by categories – groceries, restaurants, food ,etc over time and the programmed answers don’t tell you how to find that site. There is no way to ask a real person how to find it.

    Reply
  32. why are you asking me for my whole S.S.#, sounds a little fishy
    This is the third time I have applied and been ask the same question.
    You know what they say DO NOT give anyone your S.S.#

    Reply
  33. I am wondering about privacy issues. They say they share with third parties? I don’t want my private info showing up online during a search due to sharing my info. Anyone know what’s up with this privacy concern? Thanks 🙂

    Reply
  34. I signed up for Credit Karma and what did it tell me? It said it couldn’t give me my credit score because Transunion states I have a “thin” credit file! WTF? I have a mortgage and refinanced it, paid off car loans, student loan, and have had credit cards in the past! How can that still give me a “thin” credit file?!? They suggested I apply for a credit card – been there, done that, not going back! I originally signed up for Credit Karma back in 2009 – they were charging back then so I canceled my account, but they kept it on file. All I had to do today was change my password. So, I guess CK is about useless to me.

    Reply
  35. I cannot believe the ridiculous posts I’ve read about credit karma. I realize one must be careful but come on people. Paranoid much? I’ve been using CK for over 4 years. My score hasn’t moved and all my scores which creditors have pulled have been nearly identical..
    Oh…and come on, the the Better Business Bureau? I thought everyone knew they were corrupt? Maybe you should check out CNN’s.recent investigation into the BBB.
    Anyone believing THEIR crap truly is naive…or not the smartest bear

    Reply
  36. Credit Karma is a SCAM! Stay OFF OF THIS SITE! My credit score finally bumped up after some drop offs and I was recommended to apply for a few credit cards to begin establishing good credit again. So I carefully chose one to apply for that I was eligible for and low and behold….I was DENIED and my score dropped 60 points immediately! RUN AWAY FROM THIS SCAM SITE

    Reply
  37. Credit karma is a great source to monitor your accounts, but it’s scores are way off . On all 3 credit bureaus my score was at least 60 lower than my credit karma scores. Except Experian which they don’t report. But regardless it is a great source to monitor your accounts.

    Reply
  38. I would not recommend Credit Karma I believe I believe they sell your credit information to your creditors are used Credit Karma and then shortly after I was being taken to court for a old debt it seemed more than a coincidence.

    Reply
  39. While Credit Karma offers the Trans Union and Experian scores it has been my experience that anytime I go for a serious loan like for a home
    refinance or even the last new Honda we just bought in August the Equifax score seems to rule.

    My background is Network and IT Security the less places you give your information to the safer you shall remain.

    If you wish to get your credit score for almost Free (It may cost a point or 2 on your credit score) you can always apply for a loan at a reputable institution.
    Thanks for the interesting read, my best,

    CannaGary

    Reply
  40. My sons girlfriend and I pulled her credit report using c/k and there was some information on there from a car dealer here around town from 2013. It showed it as being a loan. she told me she never bought a new car. She doesn’t even have a car now. She thinks her mom has maybe taken her identity and bought the car that her mom has been driving since 2013. My question is this: She then called transunion to have a report sent to her and upon receiving this report it shows nothing of this car company. Why would it not be on the transunion report? Through experian she did place a security alert on her account. Would that make a difference to what items show up on other reports? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Some things show up on some reports and not others initially, but eventually they all communicate and get all the info. If CK says a certain Service – Transunion or Eperian – are reporting that thing, you can get a Free report through them – and even dispute through them on one of the services.
      IF the Mom has used her SS# to get the car, then it will show up on the credit report.
      Until you see something on an ACTUAL credit report, it may be a scam. Be careful.

      Reply
  41. They asked me for mortgage and student loan information, and I don’t have either. I was interested, but couldn’t proceed because of this.

    Reply
  42. why does credit karma only use 2 of the 3 reporting agencies? Aren’t the score you give inaccurate also what good is it if you can’t get your fica score?

    Reply
  43. Your Credit Karma review is somewhat reassuring but I’m still skeptical. I’m trying to find easier ways of rehabbing my credit so I can get a mortgage refi. I have never applied to CK until this morning, and so I was suspicious when I entered my email and it popped up automatically with a message that said I already had an account and to just enter my password. Since I never had an account, I never had a password. I’ve been unable to talk to anyone at CK. would you be suspicious? Any suuggestions?
    Thank you,
    Mike 9/4/2015

    Reply
    • Mike P~
      That is a good question because the same thing happened to my sons girlfriend. We were suspicious of a family member so asked her if she ever has checked her credit before. she said no. I told her go to c/k.com and get it. she did and it said she already had an account under that email so we figured this person has used her information. When we were on c/k there was also a car company on there from 2013 for a loan that she says she never got and has never been to that place before, but when we pulled the transunion report it doesn’t show up. Now that you have said the same thing it makes me wonder did this person really take from her. or have you had fraud on yourself as well. Hmmm. How do we know for sure, I wonder?

      Reply
      • And i just remembered that i went ahead and signed up for c/k as well and it did the same thing to me…Telling me i already had an account under that email. Very Weird.

        Reply
  44. I’ve been trying to get into my account and it would not let me, I even made a new account and it still would not let me in, so far I’m not happy with credit karma at all.

    Reply
  45. I have a accumt and cant get in die to password forgot didnt get email to reset it tryed three times how do i get back in it thank you.

    Reply
  46. I really like Credit Karma and what they offer excluding some of the advice offered. I am specifically referring to the advice to take out a loan or other to help increase your credit score. Agree, a loan may help but the offering from Rise has an interest rate over 145%. I would hope Credit Karma would link to companies that offered serviced from providers that can help, not take you to the cleaners on what should be illegal interest rates. I still like the Credit Karma Services provided.

    Reply
  47. So in reading a few of the reviews below, well at least 10+, what really brought me to these reviews in the first place was not just trying to verify the company and whether the website and/or company is legit, but more than that they’re asking for such personal information as my Social Security number!
    Why isn’t anybody concerned about that, because that concerns me in giving that to any company over the website?

    Reply
  48. I don’t see how entering your credit card number means a free score is scam. You get your score, and then they allow you to cancel it, if you dont you get charged.

    That’s not really a scam. Just means you don’t know how to read terms of agreement.

    The fools in this country are many.

    Reply
    • There is a difference in most people’s minds between FREE and FREE TRIAL. You are welcome to try a free trial, and that may be a good idea if you remember to cancel, but that still is not the same thing a free.

      Reply
  49. Credit Karma will give you credit score but it will be very inaccurate. When banks, car dealerships, ect. check your credit worthiness they won’t check Credit Karma, they are going to check the 3 legal credit bureaus. So good luck with Credit Karma, my concern is how did they get my personal information and what do they do with it since there is no legal disclosure.

    Reply
  50. this company is a scam. They take your personal information but don’t provide any communication to resolve any issues. No human beings. Just computers. My advice is don’t do business with these people I regret ever logging on to their site

    Reply
    • They are paid by advertisers. (like Facebook is)
      I’m growing to be convinced that they manipulate your “score” to make it look scary so that you WILL be tempted to try one of their “solutions” – thereby paying them a finder’s fee for your business.
      My scores have had WILD swings just after all my bad bits fell off and i paid off ALL my debts.
      If you use the service JUST to monitor Inquiries and New accounts, balances, and the sub bits of data, it will be helpful. The “suggestions” are probably not in your best interest.
      My REAL score is 100+ points more than they show, so their Vantage number is sheer bunk. It is not even consistent with itself…
      Be careful with info on the interwebs.

      Reply
  51. I’ve used CK for over a year. Their reports always have accurate information on my credit card balances etc so they must be accessing my real credit information.

    They probably use that information to estimate the FICO score for the two services they pull data from, rather than pay for an actual score. I believe the scores are fairly accurate.

    Also they really have given me excellent information about my credit. I am far more aware of what’s going on behind the scenes of my credit than before I started using their service.

    I really wouldn’t want to be without it, to be honest.

    All of this leads me to believe that at some point, they will start charging for this service and if it’s reasonable, I’ll probably do it.

    Reply
  52. hi
    Do you do back round & criminal
    reports w/credit report.
    Would be interested in finding out about using your services as a realtor, for the rental applicants on properties We list.
    Thank you
    Judy

    Reply
  53. C tedit Karma is a joke. I compared my score from Trans Union to CK and boy was I surprised. CK was almost 100 lower than my true score. When I had collection accounts removed, CK score dropped, when it should have gone up.

    I don’t trust this site at all after that.

    Reply
  54. credit karma ended my marriage, got into a a big fight with my wife over credit karma which by the way was no help to me any way. and now we are filing for divorce

    Reply
  55. You mentioned that you set up a new email address, so my question is did you get any emails on your new è-address or any phone calls for that matter? I mean that’s how I would say that’s probably how they make their money.

    Reply
    • I don’t get any emails there other than they send emails telling my my score has been updated, or that I haven’t updated my score recently. Believe it or not, there is likely more money in getting people to login and show them ads, than sending them emails that are going to be filtered out or ignored.

      Reply
  56. I thought that I could rely Credit Karma I believed in them 100% in fact I recommended it to many people. today I went to buy a car found the car I wanted went into talk over the price found out my credit is not nearly what Credit Karma says it is. very disappointed now I know credit is not free

    Reply
  57. Creditkarma.com was a great app until it stopped working for me. I have pleaded for help and received ZERO HELP! I have truly wasted hours upon hours. when can I expect help? Maybe sometime before Charles Manson is released from PRISON, I feel that I am IMPRISONED. Thanks for nothing credit karma, I worked so damn hard to obtain such a score that I have, as high as 790…..sometimes its just nice to gloat at. Good day!

    Reply
  58. First of all, CK is not free. It is a free service; that is, until you (the consumer) freely submit your email address to a subscription. Their television commercials don’t tell you that. Would this email subscription open up a flood gate of spam mail? I don’t know. If it does, I wouldn’t bother signing up to begin with. I’d rather use my email wisely among my family members and friends, not spam or junk messages. Wouldn’t you?

    Reply
    • Really, you need to get a good spam blocker. I almost never get spam anymore.

      And it is free. I haven’t paid one dime. I love their service.

      Reply
  59. I have used Credit Karma for several months and recently decided to work directly with a credit Reporting agencies. You get what you pay for……Ck fico scores were off by over 100 points with one of the 3 bureaus and by 30 to 50 points on the others. CK was much lower. Also Credit Karma recommends credit card lenders and gets paid for doing so.

    If you want accurate information, then use a credit bureau. CK scoring model is really off!

    Reply
  60. they are a scam they report my score anywhere from 20 – 36 points higher whey is that EQ has not upgraded score in 2 1/2 years and tu lower than their posting.

    Reply
  61. I think if you go into Credit Karma with an open mind and can ignore the credit card ads, it is a great tool to see exactly how your activities effect your credit. I have been using it for a year and never once been asked to provide a credit card number or bank account. Looking at my free annual credit scores wasn’t frequent enough for me to get a clear picture of what was happening, but now I log on about once a month and feel much more educated about my credit activities and therefore make better choices. In fact, it helped me realize that my small credit cards were significantly hurting my score and once I paid them off, Credit Karma sent me an email telling me that my score had went up. Because I used their site and applied what I learned from viewing my credit to my life, I was able to buy a house, which, by the way, they sent me an alert an hour after the lender pulled my credit score. I have no complaints about them. It doesn’t matter to me that it is not a real credit score, as long as it is close. Just go in with an open mind and ignore all their ads to buy things and open credit cards.

    Reply
  62. Credit karma is not a good place to check your credit. I recently checked mine and it showed my credit to be 720. It also showed me credit card offers that I should qualify for and further told me I had a good chance at getting the card. So I applied for the card and was turned down. I got a reply in the mail saying i was turned down because of my low credit score of 629. I tryed for another card and was turned down also. Now I have two unwanted inquaries on my credit which brought my credit score even lower. Credit karma also shows my credit card balances of something like two month ago. Don’t trust credit karma to give you any accurate reports. It is free. But not accurate.

    Reply
    • CK has a faulty algorithm for manufacturing a credit indication. The CK score is not accurate and lenders will never use CK’s score for an approval….pre-approval maybe. CK has a split personality, one side is an altruistic desire to help consumers (the inexperienced engineers/programmers) and the other side is a self-centered focus on making as much money as possible off each CK users. A major competent of the offers’ algorithm is revenue potential.

      Reply
  63. Hello,
    I actually spoke to a TransUnion Rep because I have my credit report monitor by TransUnion & Equiax. So I been doing some comparsion I said they should be the same or close to the same. The rep. explain some creditors may not report to TransUnion and vice of versa. I asked what is my score when they told me I WAS IN SHOCK they are 68 point higher then what Credit Karma is reporting!!!!

    Reply
    • CK uses the free score as a hook to try to get consumers to apply for credit cards and loans. Its a large led gen site.

      Reply
  64. I work for a national mortgage lender…and I have to say Credit Karma credit scores are “never” accurate. In fact they are always HIGHER than what is pulled through mortgage lenders. Recently I had a borrower that CK had given an Equifax Score of 632. When I pulled his Equifax report, it was 505. Huge difference. In my opinion, and after many such examples of this…Crdit Karma is a scam.

    Reply
  65. From personal experience and reading about other people’s experiences, I suspect collection agencies or something of the sort are behind creditKarma. My credit had been thrashed through a divorce and then an accident. I went on the site and all hell has broken loose including lawsuits for my medical bills being filed under my name and my ex of 15 years ago. I have gotten a 1099 for a bill from 12 years ago. I’ve heard similar stories in research I sadly do after going on the site. I am now in the bankruptcy process. What a laugh at our expense when it’s exposed that CreditKarma is aptly named and in the ruthless hands of collection agencies or the like tacking on tens of thousands of dollars in fees apparently without regulation and coming after people’s paychecks.

    Reply
    • Your debt to income ratio is a large component in credit scoring models. Without knowing how much you make, how could they possibly know if you have a “reasonable” amount of debt for your income level?

      Reply
  66. After it asked me for the last 4 digits of my Ssn# , I entered it 5 times ( which for some reason it would not accept) , it asked me for my FULL ssn# , which is a no no online because ANY WEBSITE can be hacked. So I give credit karma two thumbs down.

    Reply
  67. It is a scam, it is free, but they tell you a better score than it actually is so they can keep you coming back to use it. Eventually, this will be over run with marketing and advertising so you buy other crap on here. I have a lot of clients that need to finance and never once have the score been accurate. In fact, the last time it was off negatively almost 50 points. Pay for a service that also protects you, it is way better and not that much per month. This one is BS

    Reply
    • This is exactly what has happened to both myself and my daughter. Credit Karma is reporting a better score saying it is from Equifax when in fact the score with Equifax is much lower.

      Reply
  68. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Credit Karma, so I decided to give it a try. My first issue was they said “The information that I entered does not match the credit report.” After a little research they suggested that I check my info on Transunion. So I did so. I update all my info with Transunion. The next day I tried CK again and I got in, however they stated my credit report was too thin. Now I’m getting impatient. So I looking for a contact for customer service and to my surprise, there is no way to contact anyone…strange! (Unless I’m looking in all the wrong places.)

    Anyway, I decided to try again a few days later and I actually made progress…so I thought. They asked me 3 security questions, all of which I was 100% sure of the answer. They asked me:

    1. Which Bank did you use for a loan in 2007. I chose none because I had no loan with any of the 3.
    2. Of the 3, what way the monthly payment. Again, none because I had no loan with any of the 3.
    3. Mothers middle name. Ofcourse I know my moms middle name and correct spelling.

    Then, this happens:
    Identity verification is part of our commitment to protecting member data. Since you’ve made several unsuccessful attempts to confirm your identity, we’re unable to give you access to your credit information at this time. To gain access, you’ll need to verify your identity by following the steps below.

    They want me to mail a copy of my Drivers License and SSN. But yet there is still no one to converse with via phone.

    I want to believe this is not a scam because I know several friends who use this, but these signs are not looking good for me.

    Reply
  69. The other credit companies apparently have credit Karma blocked. I cannot open it on iPad or laptop and get the message it is not a secure site.

    Reply
  70. I have tried 10 times to register with Credit Karma, but I always get the same response. It says that the information that I enter does not match the credit report. I don’t understand. I wrote customer service an email and did not receive a solution to the problem. I gave up and registered with credit.com.

    Reply
  71. If Credit Karma is as reputable as all the above positive comments, can you supply a phone number to a live person that can work with me on resolving issues? I have worked very hard to improve my credit and am told by the loan company that I have multiple inquiries showing from CK when CK only shows two. I understood that Credit Karma did not create visible hits like this.

    Reply
  72. I use Credit Karma, and it is always free. Please note, however, that your score does not include information from Experian, which is used extensively for credit reporting, and which may or may not be the same as the other two credit reporting agencies that are used by Credit Karma.

    I found this out when my credit score was downgraded by my insurance company (AAA) at renewal time. I called and inquired about it, and found out that Experian was showing a bad debt that turned out to be one incurred by someone else using my social security number to obtain credit.

    It took a couple of weeks working with Experian to remove this item, and the additional bogus name and address info, from my credit report.

    I suggest that you use the free reporting feature once a year to get your credit reports (all three).

    Reply
  73. Well, I say it is a scam of a silent type. Lets step back and take a look at sites like FACEBOOK for example. Totally free, and people of all ages and background FLOCK there to dump in their personal information. EVERYTHING!! Now FB has a huge database of just about everyone that has signed up for their site. How about google. Do you think google is a billion dollar company because they offer social media (G+) FREE!!, search engine FREE, browser FREE and countless other apps, (no google has take over android) All for free! So how is it they are a billion dollar ompany? Because they are an advertising company – guess what they sell? Yup – your data. Facebook is no difference.
    Credi Karma strikes me as just the same. They would be MORE than happy to pay a measly fee to Isaak in order for people to come flocking to their site by the thousands for something FREE – (google is smart – want people to give you info – make it free for them to do it). How do we know this info is not sold to ID theft organizations? Because they say so? How do we know CK is not part (even small) of the reason ID theft is on the rise – are they coming from here?

    Think about it – it can’t be said enough – GOOD THINGS ARE SELDOM FREE, AND FREE THINGS ARE SELDOM GOOD – Zigler

    Reply
  74. Credit Karma does not ask for a credit card, period. You are on the wrong website. Repeat, for those that can’t read or type. You are on the wrong website if you are asked to pay for something with your credit card. How many times does this have to repeated? I have been using Credit Karma for several years, no problems.

    Reply
  75. I’ve been a user of Credit Karma since last December and have never had any problems with them whatsoever as far as accuracy or anything. My experience has been all positive. Like somebody else said I would like if they would work with all 3 credit companies. That could be perfect.
    I applied for a credit some days ago, and already the loan information is there. It is helping me to fix my credit faster than ever. Thank you so much for this help.

    Reply
  76. I just signed up for Credit Karma and I was not asked for any credit card info. It is totally free. They will let you review your credit report. The issue that i had was that they use an algorithm based on your report, therefore my score was 100 points off. You should take their scoring with a grain of salt.

    TransUnion:
    Credit Karma: 580
    Transunion: 704

    Reply
  77. i always use this credit site and love it never have been charged or asked for anything i signed up in like 5 mins and received my report and it is always right on with the numbers.. i love it and its free..

    Reply
  78. Just wanted to leave a review for Credit Karma. I came across their website around 2009, they weren’t so big at the time ( I mean not on TV and all). My credit was down the tubes at the time. Fast forward 6 years later, I’m up to the 750s. Being able to monitor your credit for free is a big deal as it helps you make good financial decsions. When I had bad credit all doors were closed to me. Credit Karma recommended cards that I could get even with my bad scores to improve my credit. I did get credit and made sure to use whatever card I could get well; before I knew it my lines were being increased, I was ale to get a car loan last yearto buy a shiny new car. Thanks Credit Karma for providing your tools at no cost to the average person. I vow to never dig myself such a hole again and will continue to monitor my credit.

    Reply
  79. I’ll agree to disagree with you naysayers on CreditKarma. I have been with them from nearly the beginning so I don’t remember if I gave my credit/debit card numbers. However, I have never been charged for anything ever through CK or anyone else for that matter. Thanks to their emails and notifications I’ve gained good credit accounts and have built my once alarming credit to a mid-score now. Not everyone may be helped by them but it sure is nice to pull up their website and look at your score in a matter of a few clicks. I’ll stick with them. I respect them and trust them.

    Reply
  80. On the CK website, under Terms of Use there is a clause entitled Offers From Marketing Partners.
    How are the offers sent? By email only? or also by post?
    Is there a way to request no mailings and still register for the credit report?
    I do not want any mailings. I only wish to know my credit rating. A reply would be much appreciated. Thks.

    Reply
  81. If Credit Karma is as good as they advertise, then why wasn’t I able to check my credit, I put in my social security ten times and it wouldn’t take it, I am guessing this is all a joke.

    Reply
  82. I will say that I fell for the glory of Credit Karma. I was going through getting a house and needed somewhere where I could get my credit score. I decided to take the bait and use this website. After I received my credit score, things started happening. Keep in mind, I had no idea that there was an official credit website where I could get free reports without going to this second hand site. After I used CK, I decided to check up on the official website http://www.annualcreditreport.com and received a complete breakdown of my credit history. All of a sudden, I had 7 credit applications active and I have never applied for a single credit card. There was also a phone line opened under my name and a few other things. I decided to have someone look into it and they tracked it all back to me using Credit Karma. I called their customer service several times and was never able to get any real answers that would help me out. They told me to call my bank and then call the credit card agencies but they never did anything to try to figure out what happened. I will never use this site ever again. I just advice people to use their heads before they go and look for their credit score. I am not sure if this is an isolated incident but I know that I received no help from their customer service.

    Reply
  83. Just thought I’d give a good review on my experience since a lot of these people aren’t being very helpful on the matter.

    Credit Karma definitely isn’t a DIRECT scam since they don’t ask for any payment information upfront, plain and simple.

    They are, however, INDIRECTLY scamming by posting misleading credit information so that you subscribe to their third-party offers. Which is undoubtedly how they make their money. It’s very clear that Chase bank is paying their way. More than half of their credit card offers are from them.

    I recently got a new credit card and have been making payments on it. The credit card approval, nor the payments have shown up on the report. Same goes for some other lines of credit I have been using.

    Take this website with a grain of salt. While they make not be taking your money, they are still misleading you with their incomplete credit reports.

    Reply
  84. Credit Karma, does not give accurate credit scores. I get my scores from my bank and other reliable sources. My score according to Credit Karma is below 600. My score according to other sources is well over 600 moving towards 700

    Reply
  85. Credit Karma should have “googled” their catch phrase “On The Down Low” for the sexual definition of the phrase. Not complimentary!

    Reply
  86. Will never trust credit karma scores they are way off, I was so delighted by the score which credit karma showed me went to buy a car they slammed me with high interest and when I asked they showed my score was 60 points lower than what credit karma had showed me had to leave the dealer all ashamed.
    This is the kind of website which should be banned.
    So guys don’t take anything for granted especially if it’s free.

    Reply
    • Husband just called me due to trying to get a new car, credit karma shows us at 700 for trans union. Well dealer just got off the phone with trans union and they said we’re at a 580, I’d say that’s way off. That just knocked me off my freaking feet.

      Reply
  87. Just went into credit karma and scores are way off. Just paid off car and all credit cards two months ago. I owe no creditors. Not a reliable site. Not up to date. But then again it’s free so if you want accurate credit scores you probably try something that’s not free.

    Reply
  88. I accessed the site without giving any credit card info (don’t have one) but there were 5 OPEN COLLECTIONS from a different state!!!! Called Transunion where they say the information originated to hear “we are not affiliated in any way with Credit Karma, and have none of the noted collections listed on your credit report”. Tried to contact someone, anyone @ CK, no contact #s! I did call the collection agencies listed who did not have my name as the account holder, it was someone with my last name and varied first names ( Tiara, Ciara etc… Close but no cigar!) Now I am requesting (by mail) my credit reports free from the 3 actual sites.

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  89. I can’t say one way or another, the website will not even load onto my PC using Windows 7 and Firefox 31. I’ve been trying most of the morning and it just hangs on the loading page. Do they actually exist online?

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  90. its a scam site… i try to check my file and all i got was a run around, wanting more info… than they needed… then i got a answere no score because i have a thin file… and i do have s score because it was check by the bank when i recently purchased a car from a local dealer… i wanted to see if it had up graded any. credit karma.. is a scam site. stay awAY FROM IT.

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  91. I have been on CK for over 2 years and it has been relatively accurate. until today. My CK score dropped nearly 80 points, though my FICO score has dropped only 10 points. And other score services have stayed about the same What is up with Ck they changed the Website no my score is 80 point lower.

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  92. I thought your service was free I spent 1/2 hr trying to log in and could not and my time is money therefore it cost me money not to succeed on your lousy system I will spread the word and I am very upset this is my third time logging in not to succeed. Jerry Lameier

    Reply
  93. I have been using Credit Karma for a little over a year and not once did the site ask me for my credit card number for a free trial. Some people must not be paying attention to the site advertisements. The updating has be spot on or extremely close. Thanks Credit Karma for looking out for my best interest!!!

    Reply
  94. I signed up for this product. However, it did not detect my primary credit card, so my scores are screwed up. When trying to add the account into my profile, Credit Karma cannot do it. I emailed credit Karma and have had no response.

    Not a good product!

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  95. tried to obtain a credit report from Credit Karma. They had some real stupid questions that they claim they got from how I identified myself. One of the questions was when I attended the Naval Warfare School, which nowhere did I even say that had gone to this school. Another one was where was my last student loan, I do have a college degree, but I never took out one student loan as I was able to pay for my college using the GI bill and working, nowhere did I even say that I took out a loan. Now they are asking me for personal documents, like my SSN card, state driver s license, passport to prove to them that I am who I say I am. Guess they think that I am stupid enough to send these documents to them to an address in San Francisco, California. They have the account that I set up all locked up. They will not do anything to include providing a telephone number where you can talk to someone. This Credit Karma is a joke and a scam that they are looking for enough personal information in documents so that they can steal your ID from you. BEWARE OF THESE PEOPLE.

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  96. Credit Karma takes past information/dings on your credit history and reports that they are more current that what they truly are just to drop your credit score. They are trying to get you to invest in the company’s that they throw at you to help fix your credit. I compared my credit score from another company and credit karma, by no surprise, credit karma score was lower than the other because the other one has no benefits to offer you and are already being paid for the services. I am almost certain that credit karma profits from the services they provide, if they didn’t than there would be no commercials at all and there would less

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  97. Credit Karma does not produce accurate scores. I have been paying TransUnion for my credit score for years to keep track of my credit score. I signed up for credit karma after seeing the commercial a few times and I have kept it for comparative purposes. Credit karma continues to give me a score about 100 points lower than TransUnion.

    Reply
  98. Everyone who says CK is a scam because they had to pay a $1, well, you need to evaluate your web savvy…because it wasn’t CK that you went to most likely.

    You got scammed…but it wasn’t by CK.

    CK makes money by advertising…go figure…loan information.

    If you don’t want the loans…don’t take them. simple.

    Reply
  99. I was asked to provide the last four digits of my SSN, but CK said they were unable to verify the info and asked for my complete SSN. They said the info did not match my credit report, and I was asked to send copies of two legal ID’s to their physical address. This makes me a bit nervous…has anyone else had this experience?

    Reply
    • Yes, the same thing happened to me so I hope and pray my information is protected! Credit Karma said I had a mortgage loan and I have never opened a mortgage in my whole life. I canceled my account because I am not sending any information to them. I didn’t know signing up would be such a hassle. I am very concerned now and I am going to check my credit reports regularly.

      Reply
  100. Credit Karma may be free but if you are trying to improve your scores beware Credit Karma sells your name and information to your creditors. this is a scam and does not help you.

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  101. The better business bureau website says that Credit Karma is NOT BBB Accredited and they have 220 complaints filed in the last 3 years. Are you kidding…..NOT Trustworthy.

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  102. Credit Karma is extremely INACCURATE!
    Each month that I checked my credit score, CK shows me dropping from 35 – 2 points. Yet, I have no late payments, large dollar pay offs,.. in others words all positive credit actions.

    THUS I think CK a bit of a scam in the sense they tell me my credit score is bad in order to get me to apply for higher interest rate loans and such they offer on their sites.

    BAD BUSINESS!

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  103. My biggest problem with C/K and ANY other company that wants ALL my information including my SS # is the fact that I do not want to send my personal information out on the Web. I feel the same way about Face Book. So many people post things they should never post because it can come back to haunt them. Have you been hearing about how hackers break into large data bases and capture millions of bits of info including CC numbers? If they can do it with huge companies well protected why not the data base of C/K who also has you SS #? I feel the best way to protect yourself is not to offer up your personal info on the Web. Everyone buys things through the Web these days but there are some ways to protect yourself that are fairly simple to do.

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  104. I use to like Credit Karma but for the last 3 months two of my credit cards balance have not been updated. Not sure if it’s Credit Karma or TransUnion. Thus I know my Credit Rating can not be correct.

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  105. Well, I don’t know what to do now. I got my score from CK, no credit card or charge yet? They offered me deals on paying off my cards after consolidating them. It sounds wonderful because I am killing myself trying top pay these off. I really want to try their cards but now I am leary. The last thing I need is a scam.
    I thought it all sounded legit and looked proper and now reading this it is yes and no. I have good credit and fight to keep it so I sure don’t want problems thinking they CK will be good for me. Can you help Finance Gourmet?

    Reply
    • Sandy, it’s hard to know without getting all the specifics, but a lot of credit consolidation ends up really hurting your credit. To understand why, you have to realize that your credit depends upon you paying your account as agreed. With consolidation you do not do that. Instead the company handling your consolidation negotiates NEW TERMS with your lenders. While this keeps them from hassling you, or charging you late fees, or sending you to collections, it does not keep them from reporting your account as delinquent. If you consolidate eight accounts, then it’s very likely that 8 lenders will be reporting you as late. You can see that this destroys your credit score. It’s better than defaulting, but if you CAN make it work, without them, then do so. If it’s consolidation or bankruptcy, then that’s another story.

      Reply
      • Thank you so much. I thought that might be the case when a person does that with their cards. I have no late payments so I think I will ask at my CU bank. Thank you so much for your help.

        Reply
  106. My daughter and I have the same name and birthdate, just the year is different and she is having a hard time checking her credit. Is there a way she can start all over, new email and password??

    Reply
    • I don’t have any affiliation with Credit Karma, but I’m betting that’s a tricky issue for you a lot when it comes to credit. However, that’s kind of the point of using the Social Security number which should be different. You might just want to verify her information. If, the issue is that some of your information seems to mix with her report, that is actually a problem with the credit reporting system, and not Credit Karma specifically. For example, my sister, whose name and birthday are different, has an old address listed as one of my old addresses on one of my reports. In that case, you’ll need to call the credit bureaus to have the info removed.

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  107. I had started through the process of signing up with Credit Karma, but got nervous about giving them permission to pull and “monitor” my credit account (2nd page). I was willing to give permission for 1 soft inquiry, but didn’t want to give KarmaCredit ‘long-term’ permission to monitor my account.

    After pulling up the BBB report and reading some of those complaints — 190 complaints and a pending government action against Karma, I canceled my account with them.

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  108. “I can’t say that I expect Credit Karma to be in business long. I doubt that it can earn enough money on what it is doing to make a profit. It might even get shut down by Fair Issac somehow since they don’t want people thinking of its flagship product as “free”.”

    hahaha…WELL… CREDITKARMA USES TU’S VANTAGE SCORE. SO, FICO DOESN’T HAVE ANY RIGHT TO SHUT THEM DOWN. ALSO, CK IS A LEAD GEN COMPANY. THEY MAKE MONEY FROM USERS APPLYING FOR CREDIT CARDS, AUTO LOANS, ETC WITHIN THEIR WEBSITE.

    YOU GIVE THEM INFORMATION, THEY OFFER YOU, IE, CREDIT CARDS, YOU GET APPROVED AND CK GETS A COMMISSION OF 60 TO 100 DOLLARS FROM CREDIT CARD COMPANIES; IMAGINE THAT TIMES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE APPLYING. (I haven’t read all of the comments, so I apologize if this is a repeat)

    Reply
    • Not sure what the all caps is about, but, you are correct. They show ads, and get commissions and payouts for things you click on. I think I made that relatively clear in my original post. My thought was that they wouldn’t earn enough money doing that to make this effort worthwhile. Clearly Fair Issac can’t shut them down directly, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing they can try. It’s been almost two years since I first wrote this article, so I’ve been wrong about their longevity so far.

      Reply
  109. I have tried several times to sign up with your company and was not able to complete the sign up. After giving you my information which you will use to your benefit. You people are just another SCAM.

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  110. My ex-husband’s wife used my social security number to gain access to my life. The questions are too easy for someone to get in. Credit Karma has been kicking me to the curb for trying to access someone else’s account even though I gave them all the information they need including the name of the person who stole it!!! She actually used her last name as the email address to get in. CK still won’t listen. Forget trying to call them. You have no chance of speaking to anyone. It’s a pre-recorded message telling you to email them.

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  111. According to the BBB there is a goverment action against credit karma for security reasons. This I saw as of 6-7-2014. In the BBB website it explains the law suit.

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  112. I have excellent credit, so why I signed up for Credit Karma I have NO IDEA! I was just curious……

    Any way, I went back to credit karma to cancel my account and I had forgotten to write down the pw I made, and of course, I couldn’t remember it. I filled out the form to send me an e-mail to reset my pw, but DID NOT get a reply e-mail! I have tried NUMEROUS times, but they WILL NOT SEND AN E-MAIL! They ask me to create a new account, sure…. then they want all my info, name, FULL SS# and the like…… I am holding my breath to see if they charge me, even tho I gave no CC # I did give them the last 4 #’s of my Social the first time I signed up…..

    Can You Spell M O R O N ?

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  113. I tried credit karma the morning believing it to be free. They wanted my credit card and it was only “free”for 7 days. A bunch of crock as my dad would have said.

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  114. Funny how you signed up with a “Fake” email but never did so mention how they sell your info to marketing companies to send you junk mail physically and electronically. They make a profit selling your personal info.

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  115. this thing about it being free!!! No its a joke and a waste of time.I didn’t get my score cause one thing didn’t match.It has my ss#.that’s right aint nothing free in this world.

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  116. Credit karma is a scam! They looked up my credit score, but I had to pay a dollar to see it. You Don’t have to give them your credit card #, but you do have to give them your social security # and email daddy. They turn the info over to another company who will use it, and you get charged $35 a month,unless you cancel in two weeks. The problem is that you don’t know about this untill you find a month later that $35 has been taken out of your checking account. Don’t make the same mistake I did, don’t go to credit karma.

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  117. I just tried printing what I thought was ONE page and ended up with 30+ pages.Not too happy about that since most of the info was useless to me!No warning about how many pages to print either or I would have left the site. It did give me a decenct page but almost all the rest were not!

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  118. I’ve paid a lot of dept off & stilling paying on dept I show proof of information & still does not change credit score.& company’s say they can’t change anything . Until they hear from companies them self. No use try too send copies of money orders , checks with letters from company saying I paid..they still don’t change anything very discurging not happy with outcome..can’t get this cleared no matter what I do ? So I just give up..

    Reply
    • Financial institutions and other creditors update credit bureaus on a regular basis, but typically not more than once per month. I’m not sure how long it has been since you paid some of your debts, but that could be part of it. If not, be sure to file disputes about inaccurate information in your credit reports.

      Reply
  119. Credit Karma is a scam just like the rest. THEY advertise as a FREE service & NO credit card needed. THAT’s a LIE from the start. IF it wasn’t them why is it people can’t just send in a money order for a dollar? Oh ya that’s right, they need your Credit Card #, the one THEY said they don’t ask you for. EXACTLY. So Mr. Finance Gourmet, stop lying to people bc YOU DO WORK FOR THEM. Thus you respond to everyone’s post. Otherwise, you would allow people to have their own opinion on them. BOOM! That just happened!!

    Reply
    • I could just hit delete on your comment, then nothing would have happened, but I’m willing to have a civil discourse with readers.

      Once again for the cheap seats, I make some money from Google Ads on all my websites (not just this one). That’s it. Nobody else pays me anything to do any work for anyone. Also, if you look around, you’ll see that this website has hundreds of articles and only a handful are about Credit Karma. If it was some scam, it wouldn’t be a very efficient one.

      If you get asked for a credit card number, I suggest you close that tab in your browser immediately and do not enter it because you might be on the wrong website.

      Reply
  120. It has occurred to me (probably others) that the details of HOW and WHY the credit reporting agencies ARRIVE at their numbers would be a great subject to enlighten all of us about. It would clear up a LoT of misconceptions about how our financial system works, and how to navigate our way through it. It also would make clear WHO’s interests the credit reporting agencies represent…the SUBJECTS of the information reported not being, I’m sure, at the top of the list. Again, some of the cooler heads online with lots of practical (inside) experience could shed some light on this scene to the benefit of at least 80% of us who intend to IMPROVE the circumstances of others, as well as ourselves. The other 20%..well….they are interested in themselves mostly. Thanks.

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  121. Regarding Credit Karma/FICO scores vs auto dealer credit scores, dealerships obtain a modified credit score by taking the basic FICO score and then “overlaying” the applicant’s payment history on auto loans, which makes sense. Why should a car dealer care if you make your mortgage payments on time if you are continuously delinquent on your car payments? My wife learned this lesson when she went to lease a car, having only paid cash for her cars in the past. Her generic FICO score dropped 20 points, although she still ended up with top tier credit

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  122. My experience with Credit Karma has been positive for the most part. I have never been asked for money, and no charges have been made to any of my credit cards. I have been using CK for more than a year, and I check fairly regularly to see what they have for my credit score. They did not include one of my credit cards since it was not in the same name as the rest.

    The main reason I have anything negative to say is that the score does not reflect my actual credit history ON TIME. It may take a month or two before payments on a bank loan are reflected. A couple of months ago my total credit card debt decreased while my credit score dropped 4 points. It should have increased.

    Buying a car through a ‘major’ dealer a year ago dropped my score 4 points, but that is to be expected with a ‘hard’ inquiry. I have never had anything negative on any of my credit reports, so I would expect a higher score – above 800.

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  123. No wonder no major companies use Trans Union. They are far from any quality company. I decreased my credit card usage on 2 cards with a limit on $2500 to under $800. My score increased by 22 points. I purchased $30 in gas on one of them and two days later my score dropped 30 points. No lender in our area uses them and this is exactly why. They show my score at 605 and Experian at 710 and Equifax at 740. Bought a new car a 0 interest yesterday but they used Equifax. The purchase of the car hasn’t hit Transunion/Credit Karma yet but it will put the score under 500 with poor dynamics.

    Reply
    • I’d be interested to know where you got the information that no major companies use TransUnion. My understanding is that all three major credit bureaus do plenty of business, so it would be interesting if one were truly considered the “side player.”

      Reply
  124. My experience with creditkarma was NOT a positive one.I filled out the online forms,and gave up my personal information,all the while feeling nervous;wondering if it was a scam.I found out rather quickly.I was told I had a “thin profile” (WTF?)and would not receive a report.To add to the fun,On the same webpage as the refusal,There were several “offers” ,some for credit cards,and the suggestion that if I were to apply for them,creditkarma would then be able to provide a credit report.I have attempted to unsubscribe,and asked to be removed from creditkarma’s mailing lists,AND those of their “partners”.I have also demanded that creditkarma delete ALL of my personal information.Complaints have been filed with the FTC,and FWIW the BBB.WE’LL SEE.

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  125. Wow. Lots of haters on here. I signed up with Credit Karma last summer and was never asked for a credit card #. I kinda figured it was bs since it was free but have since found out it’s the real deal. In October I decided to start repairing and rebuilding my credit and got a membership to the Transunion credit monitoring site. Then in January I went back to Credit Karma and the score matches my Transunion score. And of course it does because Transunion owns Credit Karma. Anyway, there is less info on Credit Karma than on my actual report but there is enough for me to get started and to at least monitor what is going on with my Transunion report. I meant to cancel my Transunion membership a few days ago so I didn’t get charged again and just use ck, but it slipped my mind and I was charged. One thing I like about ck is it shows your vantage score and insurance scores.

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  126. How can you say free when your company ask for a dollar to get your score. Now in my days free meant that free. No hidden cost until you get to the end of filling out your form. I am sorry for you the joke is on you. Most people will say no way, that is how i feel no way

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  127. After filling in the required information, I WAS asked for a credit card and could not go past that without one. They said it was a refundable $1.00 fee, but that’s still asking for a credit card. Don’t know why everyone else states they didn’t need a credit card and I did.

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  128. I wanted to sign up for creditkarma about a year ago but this was before I had enough credit history for them to apparently “verify” my identity. So they want me to mail them two forms of i.d. to their p.o. box….. This is the only means of contacting them besides email and its not even a real address of a business, how can that make me feel secure or safe to send my personal information to them? I really think they need to work on their business in that sense, maybe a call center so we can feel like we’re dealing with real people with a real business. When I emailed them asking if they could maybe reset my information so that I could re-register or something, they said that if they cancelled my account, re-registering is not an option, you get one try. I am very familiar with how easy it is and how common identity theft is and feel like creditkarma doesn’t cater to that, I’m hoping they stumble upon this at some point and maybe make it so that I can eventually use their service.

    Reply
    • They need your SSN to pull your credit report. You may have signed up for additional services if you entered a credit card number. The $1 charge verifies your account is active. If you don’t want to be paying monthly, I’d cancel immediately.

      Reply
      • This site is a bunch of bull…they wont give u the report unless you pay and after they have your information you cant erase it which sucks…I feel there a scam and there commercial is a lie…they say FREEE IT SHOULD BE FREE……………..how can I go about reporting them ? I would like my fico score but cant find out how to get from the real credit reports without having to pay…is there a way to get without paying?

        Reply
        • Lori,
          Yes there is a way to get a free credit report without paying, just not through Credit Karma. Get your free credit report via the legally mandated website where you can get a free report once per year from each of the three credit bureaus. Credit Karma offers you a free credit SCORE not report.

          Reply
          • Lori, they asked for my credit card also. But the $1 was never taken out of my account. It is for legitamacy of information. But no quality lender uses these bozos that Credit Karma represents. They are very inaccurate with their scores and in my case were off by over 150 points low in comparison to all the others.

  129. I’m so very confused. Credit karma shows my score going up, my credit card shows my score going down, pulled all three scores from the agencies, and applied for a store card just to see…….the agencies, ck, and my cc are all within a 10 point difference, however the card I applied for states my score is over 200 points less than all of the others! How is this possible? I did this all on the same day. I am so very confused. I made bad choices when I was younger and all I want to do is clean up my past mess and but a house and it seems like that’ll never happen! I would just like to understand what I have to do to get an accurate score so I can build mineback up. Any suggestions out there?

    Reply
  130. about 2 weeks ago i tried creditkarma because they are on tv a lot. i checked a box for 1.00 as a donation or something. i did not see the small print-when i saw the fee would be 29.95 i stopped filling it out. today i found out why my account was charged 1.00 and 29.95—the small print said if i do not cancel the form (i thought i had) in 7 days you will automatically be charged 29.95 and this will occur every month. i will call the number on the screen that i saw (in texas i believe) to cancel this scam. i doubt if i will get the monthly fee back but i won’t get charged next month. the real bad part of this is that i didn’t even get my ‘scores’. i guess it was because i never finished the form. if any thing above is rescinded or taken care of (i doubt it) i will gladly come back with an explanation.

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  131. I am very angry because I can’t find a toll free number to call so I can talk to a live person to discuss issues I’ve been having regarding an account I have with credit karma.It has been nothing but headaches since I signed up!! tex

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  132. I’ve been using Credit Karma since 2008, and they update my score every week. It gives me a good snapshot of my use and helps me try to improve my score. It does not replace a credit report that I have to pay for and still get my reports once a year for free from the annual site. I don’t think Credit Karma will be eliminated because it doesn’t give you the entire picture. For example, they will tell you how many enquiries you have, but not who. You still have to obtain a credit report to get the full details. Also, I have obtained two credit cards from their recommendations, one of which is a Barclays rewards card with no annual fees. I’m sure that in addition to their advertizing, they make something off of recommending credit cards and enough to pay the overhead, or they wouldn’t still be in business after all of these years.

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  133. I signed up for karma.my score came up fine. big surprise that itdid work.now the problem I have is thati can not get karma on my site any more.i think they have closed down.does any one been having this problem. please email me I see the reply from deb is having the same problem.have been trying for 2 weeks.

    Reply
  134. I have used creditkarma for about 2 years with no problems. I used to get email alerts to check my score. The alerts stoped this year, however, I was still able to access my account.
    For some reason, this week I have not be able to access the site at all. The error message is “Internet Explore cannot display the webpage.” I am concerned since there is some personal information in their database.

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  135. Sears MasterCard through Citibank used to offer a free monthly credit score as a service to their cardholder’s. When they discontinued that service they made arrangements with Credit Karma so any of their cardholders who wanted to continue receiving a free monthly credit score could simply transfer over to Credit Karma.
    Neither Sears nor Citibank are run of the mill, fly by night outfits. I think they would have done a great deal of research into Credit Karma before offering this as an option to their customers.
    Can you imagine the backlash if Sears and Citibank customers who opted to continue with Credit Karma were all of a sudden being ripped off? Good Lord! your talking about a MAJOR class action lawsuit for millions against both Sears and Citibank not to mention the loss in their customer base.
    I’m one of those with a Sears MasterCard that opted to continue receiving a free monthly credit score through Credit Karma. I’ve had no problems nor do I expect too.
    If you’ve never been to their website, it’s a lot more than just a credit score. You can sign up for alerts so you know when somebody requests a hardcopy of your credit report and who it is, what areas of your report are your weakest and which ones are your strongest. I like their credit report card that gives you a grade (A,B,C,D,F) in each of these areas and lets you know why so you can work on improving or maintaining that grade. There’s a lot more too.
    They make their money from all of the advertising and if you’ve been with them for any lengthy period of time you can see how they’ve grown and the influx of mainly financial related services and advertisement’s on their website. That’s how they can offer it as a free service to people such as you or I.

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  136. I’ve been a user of Credit Karma since 2007 and have never had any problems with them whatsoever as far as accuracy or anything. In 2010, my husband and I bought our first home and I was thankful that Credit Karma was there for me to help monitor our credit during the process. Fortunately our middle score happened to be the Transunion score which was (within a few points) extremely close to what our lender was going by. I’ve always stayed on top of my credit on a regular basis and Credit Karma has been and will continue to be a key player right along side of me.

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  137. i tried to get free credit score like advertized on tv no credit card no charge i found it impossible for one or the other it was a waste of time i knew it couldnt be real

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  138. Don’t believe the Credit Karma scores. The above comments say it is based on Trans Union, but that isn’t even true. Credit Karma says my score is 771. I just refinanced my house and my actual scores were 813, 819 & 820. Credit Karma is a joke and should not be relied upon.

    Reply
  139. All the advertisements states nocredit card needed but you still need one just to see the report that is false advertising to me.

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  140. I’ve used CK for 2 years now and have seen the effects of getting new credit and paying off credit has changed my credit score.i have experienced no issues with it. All sites have ads. At least the ads are relevant. CL is a great way to get a feel of the status of your current credit monthly. Anything suspicious showing up would alert you sooner than waiting annually for your full free credit reports.

    Reply
  141. Never give your SSN out over the internet period! Is your computer protected with a firewall? Anti Virus? Using a router? Is it secure and safe?

    I read that cyber thieves actually drive up many street may even yours looking for unsecured routers then trying to steal your credit card numbers if you use them online.

    Reply
  142. They wanted my credit card number and I gave it and now I am scared they will bill me. this is really scaring me.

    Reply
    • Pam,
      If you gave your card number to creditkarma.com (and you got the spelling right) then you either, signed up for a free trial offer, or you signed up for the account management service. If you signed up for a free trial, my advice is to cancel it right away. Free trial offers bank on you forgetting or being late to cancel. If you signed up for the management/monitoring service, then you just linked your account. You could unlink it if you chose.

      If you gave your number to another website, including creditcarma.com or kreditkarma.com (notices the mispellings) then you need to watch your card carefully for charges because these are not legit websites and likely will charge you. Try and cancel if you can and dispute any charges immediately with your credit card company.

      Reply
  143. I have had CK for over 2 years now and my experience with them have been very positive.they track all my new loans,credit cards and credit inquiries and notify about them asap thru email..don’t know about the fako score thing but I’m just happy bcuz somebody is keeping an eye on my accounts for free.

    Reply
  144. “Credit scores are not free for you, they are not free for banks, they are not free for car dealers, they are not free for anyone”

    So not True!!! You are entitled to a free credit report at least annually from each of the credit bureaus. This comment leans mean toward my belief that you are just a hype to the creditkarma site

    Reply
    • You are entitled to a free credit REPORT, you are not entitled to a free credit SCORE.

      You can also only get one report per year. By the way, I talk about your free annual credit report here.

      Folks, look around this website. There are 500 or more pages, and something like four of them are about Credit Karma. That’s either the most inefficient hype job ever, or maybe I’m just a guy with a personal finance advice blog trying to help.

      Reply
      • I have been using Credit Karma for a couple of years now with NO issues. The site probably stays in business because advertisers buy space on certain sites like Credit Karma that get frequent visits. Credit Karma receives enormous amount of traffic. There are many credit card advertisements as you can see. Also, auto loan lenders, banks, etc.. on Credit Karma. They pay for space, the makers of Credit Karma turn a profit, it stays on. Very simple really. Its an advertising site that keeps people coming back to check scores and update their information. Brilliant really, the way this was done. They picked the perfect genre to facilitate traffic on for advertising purposes. It is a legit advertising site that happens to operate a legit credit score site. They make far more money from these big companies to advertise than they ever would by charging customers to view credit scores. Think about it!

        Reply
  145. “As it turns out, I was buying my car off of its expiring lease..”

    Ouch. And you are giving people financial advice? Shame on you.

    Leasing a car is getting bent-over by the dealer. Buying it at the end of the lease is just getting bent-over twice.

    Just buy a late model secondhand car and drive it carefully. You will pay about half as much.

    As for Credit Karma, when I tried to use it, it gave me a message saying “We have too many users right now and have suspended service.”

    How do they make money at this? I suspect they are harvesting e-mails and selling the data. When I unchecked the box to receive “exciting new offers!” it declined to give me the credit score.

    And as you note, it is not the real credit score, but rather a made-up score created by Credit Karma.

    And it begs the question – does Credit Karma pulling your report actually lower your score?

    For me, it was an academic exercise, as I have no debts – paid off my mortgage, and have paid-for cars and no credit card debt.

    The freeannualcreditreport is the best way to go. It might not give you the “score” but chances are, you can read the report and figure out what is what. If you have a lot of negative information, you are going to have a low score.

    And if you have a lot of negative information, it is time to stop borrowing money, learn to live on less and save more.

    Being perpetually in debt is not “normal” – but many Americans think it is.

    Not being in debt is like being on acid 24/7. It is an electric feeling.

    And anyone can do it. Just walk away from all these crummy deals like leases and credit card rewards. Learn to live within your means and stop borrowing more.

    If you can spend $1 less than you make, you will accumulate wealth.

    When you borrow $1 more than you make, not only are you going into debt, you end up with less to spend, as you have to pay interest.

    Sadly, few people ever figure this out. They want THINGS, so they can impress people they don’t even know.

    Sad, ain’t it?

    Reply
    • Wow. This is a wide ranging comment. First, the lease was for business purposes and the car had very low miles on it (still does). Buying the end of the lease means paying the lender the remaining residual value, which was far less than the car was worth thanks to the low mileage and good condition. This post isn’t about the economics of leasing, but if done properly and for the right reasons (not just getting a lower payment so you can buy a more expensive car) leasing can be a good option. I also buy my cars via an auto-broker and did not use any dealer financing, which CAN sometimes be a poor option for some buyers.

      Your comment is the first one I’ve heard about having any sort of service issues with the website not responding.

      I use one email address for everything I sign up for online and other than getting the confirmation email out of there, never read what comes in. I would suspect many people do the same. You can pretty much guarantee anyone who asks for your email address means to use it to send you emails.

      I too encourage people to get their free credit reports, but you only get one once per year for each bureau, and as you point out, that does not include a score. That makes is unusable for monitoring how your actions, or creditor’s actions, are affecting your credit score during the year. This is a different service, to do a different thing.

      I find it hard to believe that not being in debt feels like being on acid at all, let alone 24/7 but I’m glad it is proving so enjoyable for you.

      Reply
  146. I’ve used Credit Karma for about a year now and recommend it to friends and family to get access to their credit scores. Yes, you can’t get your actually FICO scores that lenders see but even the score you do pay for at the credit bureaus may be slightly different from what the lenders see. These are all ballpark numbers and gives the person an idea.

    There is no fee to sign up for CreditKarma so I don’t know why people are stating they are putting up credit cards or anything of that sort on the site.

    The one thing I have noticed recently is that they started showing credit card offers in between the pages of information about your report.

    I’ve worked in banking and I know my score the lenders see, the score I pulled from the credit bureau and the score I see on credit karma they are all within a few points of each other.

    Just make sure you are actually on the right site and not similar site.

    Reply
  147. I have used Credit Karma for years now. My one and only complaint is they dont seem to respond to Emails sent to their support in a timely manner. I have been trying to get a new password (for my girlfriend) to get into the system for a few days now. Their system says it will email it to her but we havent received it. Yes we have looked in her Spam Directory. This same thing happened to me a few months ago. Has anyone else had this issue??

    Reply
  148. In order to access that info, don’t you give the site your SSN?
    I’m don’t think I’d want to give that info over to another internet site.

    Reply
    • You do have to give them your SSN. It’s the only way to get a credit report or the information in it. I don’t like it either, but until Congress does something, that’s the way the world works. Incidentally, you also have to give your SSN to get your official one-a-year free credit report as mandated by law.

      Reply
  149. I am really confused. I opted for the free credit scores because it said “always free” I was, however, asked to put a refundable $1.00 deposit on a credit card. When I got a “welcome to creditkarma email” I just happened to notice that if I didn’t cancel within one week I would automatically be billed??? So I am confused as to how other people are getting the credit scores free month after month!!

    Reply
    • Mary, I noticed that Credit Karma has done a significant update to their site to focus on account monitoring rather than credit score monitoring. You may have accidentally signed up for an optional service. I’ll do an update / rewrite in the near future once I have a chance to check everything out fully. Until then, I do believe you can still get the free score updates, however, from the comments and emails I’m getting, it may be trickier to sign up for ONLY the free parts.

      Reply
  150. To all the people saying that their score from a loan app. was different from credit karma there is a good reason for that. Credit Karma is free because it gives what those in the know call a “fako” score. Not a true FICO score. In fact, real, legit FICO scores for personal use can only be obtained from the equifax and transunion sites. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get your real experian FICO without applying for a loan and getting denied, at which point whoever denied you credit is legally obligated to send you your scores. Fako scores are useful tools to ballpark your scores, but they are not 100% accurate. I currently get a fako experian from 3 different sites each month and they vary by 60 points. As such, I don’t know what my experian is, but I know around where it is. Point being, don’t mistake your fako for your FICO.
    -William

    Reply
    • I agree with you. Free credit .Karma s “score” varied by 60 points as well and I dont think this site is legit. How can this site s score vary that much and be ” real”? It was different then my experian

      Reply
  151. I use Credit Karma, I have for a long time, I set my bf up on it and just yesterday I set my sister in law on the site and she signed up herself and her husband, no fees and no problems. I haven’t been able to compare it to anything but it seems fairly accurate enough that I can tell.

    I also had a years of identity theft protection company that was given after the playstation fiasco, and they never once found anything suspicious, and I had Credit Karma during the whole thing. I’m a very skeptical and worried person, and I trust the site very much. I looked for reviews recently to kind of find out how the scores compare, but knowing its not FICO and is FAKO or whatever..not sure what that means, but I get the idea that it just means that it may vary slightly. A ball park is still good enough for me to have a good guess, better than not knowing anything.

    Thank you for the review.

    Reply
    • If you have nothing to compare it to, how can you say it’s “accurate”? CreditKarma is full of problems:

      You can’t update your credit card info,
      Their system can’t connect to credit card companies correctly,
      Their “customer service” dept, never replies to your email or for help,

      It’s a mess. I’ve sent them 4 emails to delete me account – I’ve not gotten any replies from yet, and it’s still active.

      Plus as mentioned before their “fako” number is way lower than your actual. CK told me it was 690, when it was actually 749.

      Reply
      • @ Anthony P. You start out saying you have nothing to compare it to so how can you say that it’s accurate. You end your comment saying what Credit Karma said your score was and then you said what your real score was. Is that not a comparison?
        You say that you can’t update your credit card info. You would have to go through your credit card company to do that. The big 3 reporting agencies only report what info. your credit card company gives them and Credit Karma gets their info. from Transunion.
        You say that their system can’t connect to credit card companies correctly. That’s rather vague as to what exactly you mean by that. Your whole comment seems to be rather confusing and contradictive, perhaps that’s why your not receiving any replies to your emails, they are somewhat of a mess.
        I’ve emailed Credit Karma before and not only were they prompt at replying to my email, but they also explained to me how to resolve a problem on my credit report and gave me the email address and 800 number for the company that I needed to contact. I followed their suggestion and the problem has since been resolved.
        I’m very happy with Credit Karma. By the way, if you compare the big 3’s credit scores, odds are none of those will match either, and if your referring to the score that is what the big 3 come up with after putting all 3 of their scoring models together, that’s a different scoring chart all together and a 749 would be in the same grade range as your Credit Karma score of 690. Go back to the Credit Karma website and look at those comparison tables a little closer. Be sure to read what each one means and not just the number value.

        Reply
  152. My profile data wasn’t sufficient or didn’t match theirs so they were unable to provide a credit score. To my knowledge all the information asked for was provided completely and accurately, so I don’t know what the problem is. PL

    Reply
  153. I notice Credit Karma has 29 BBB complaints recorded over the past 18 months or so. Billing issues comes up often… Looks to me like there might be a snake in the grass after all. I don’t believe in anything being free and when it is free, it’s either a poisoned chalice or not worth having.

    Reply
    • Credit Karma does offer some pay-for services and some free services. I don’t see any complaints about people being charged for the free services. Nothing is completely free. Google shows you ads in your free Gmail accounts, as does Facebook, and Twitter. Credit Karma does to. As far as the complaints go, billing issues pertain to the for-fee services. This post isn’t about the extra add-ons you pay for, which I can’t review because I’ve never tried them.

      Reply
    • I have been using creditkarma for a long time. It is absolutely legitimate. I would advise anyone with credit to have an account. I have a walmart credit card that gives me a fico score every month and creditkarma is close enough to be a excellent financial tool in managing your credit.

      Reply
  154. Although I follow my credit score on CK, I have to scratch my head at what they show my credit score. It’s at least 50 points less than all three of the credit bureaus AND my score on FICO, with the same information. Huh?

    Reply
    • Remember that there is more than one credit score, even from the same credit report. It depends on if it is for a mortgage or car loan or something else. These services are not useful as a way of knowing exactly what your score is, after all, it changes day to day. What they are useful for is tracking the overall trend. Whether you really have a score of 722 or 698 isn’t as important as if it is going up or down.

      Reply
    • The NEW Credit Karma “service” that REQUIRES one to share ID and password to “link” each account is questionable at best. It even wants the password to your bank account? I will never use the site again. Check out credit.com. It is still legitimate it seems.

      Reply
      • You don’t have to use the new service. In fact, I think it is still only available to some. The new service, which monitors your accounts (instead of your credit) is very similar to the kinds of things offered by mint.com among others. You have to give them you account names and passwords as well, in order to see “inside” your accounts. You can still just stick with the credit monitoring piece of Credit Karma.com if you prefer. I think this new offering probably deserves its own article.

        Reply
  155. Have been using creditkarma.com for awhile now. Never was asked for a dime let alone a credit card number. Even got my mom using it. It is the best website to check your credit score. Very accurate and up to date. One of the few sites that says it’s free and means it.

    Nicole
    PA

    Reply
  156. One way CK make money – they sell your e-mail address. Shortly after I signed up for CK, I started getting spam, lots of spam. I get 400 or 500 spam e-mails weekly and they started coming right after I signed up for CK. If you sign up for CK, establish a separate e-mail account just for CK.

    Reply
  157. Ive used CK for over 2 years and also CS neither one is a 100% accurate but they do put you in the ball park. I noticed a lot of complaints on here are your score going down even though you didn’t make any bills or you paid bills off. Well that is why your score is low in order to have a high score you must be in debt but in debt reasonably credit cards need to be less than 2/3rds of the maximum balance, other bills must be paid on time that will keep your score up once you close an acct it drops so trying to stay debt free will not give you a high score just the opposite.

    Reply
  158. I have been on credit karma for just over a year now. i check my score every couple of days, to see if anything funny pops up on it. For the last 2 months almost 3 months now my score has not moved, up or down. I am looking to get an auto loan, so I checked the site and my score was the same, when into the dealership and they pulled my credit and the score was almost 100 points lower then what as being show on the site to me. And that was the determinate for the loan, if it had been where I had seen it I would of been approved. I will never log on to that site again.

    Reply
  159. I have had Credit Karma for almost 2 years. I love it. I think it follows my credit very well. I had co-signed on a loan with my son. When doing a monthly check I saw my score had gone down. I saw it was because my son missed a payment. I got after him, it was paid and in a matter of 2 weeks my credit went back up. I highly recommend it and advise people to check monthly. I haven’t had an increase of junk mail or anything else since signing up.

    Reply
  160. I signed up for CreditKarma and everything worked fine. I got an accurate credit readout. But, my email account has been absolutely bombed with payday/cash-advance loan offers ever since. They’re obviously sharing my info.

    Reply
  161. Thank you, Noble Finance Gourmet, for your review on CreditKarma.

    I read about it earlier this morning from a comment thread on a site I frequent, and thought I’d do my research to see exactly how they were going to scam me (Years of the internet has taught me that anything involving credit, with the notable exception of annualcreditreport.com was likely to shaft me) After an hour or so of casting a jaundiced eye around the far-flung reaches of cyberspace, I have to say that I’m surprised! There is very little negative publicity for CreditKarma, and what negatives there are are often either for the bogus “kreditkarma” or from people I could charitably refer to as “alarmist.”

    I went and reviewed the T&C before I took the plunge and gave them my information. From what I could understand in the T&C (Full disclosure: I am not an attorney, and only speak “pidgin legalese”) it looks like the worst they’ll do is sell your non-personally-identifying information to their “partners” in order to provide targeted advertising at you.

    There’s a certain website type, and design out there that utterly screams “I’M TRYING TO DECEIVE YOU” — Look at the websites of online gambling sites, a lot of file hosting sites, sites that try to sell you freely available information, and other credit monitoring sites, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. CreditKarma’s site is not at all like these. They’re very upfront about what they are, what they do. I can best describe the experience as the difference between a personal banker and a used car salesman.

    Aesthetics and overall feel aside (that’s all subjective), There was no deception or railroading (frequently dishonest sites will, in the sign-up process, throw up a page for a partner offer with form elements to fill in, without clearly indicating that it is a partner offer) and everything was very straightforward and frank. Kudos go for keeping it simple and transparent.

    It seems the most vocal crowd, both on this blog, and elsewhere on the internet, are folks who report that their scores differ on CreditKarma, from elsewhere. From what i’ve found it seems CreditKarma reports lower than other score pulls that they’ve had recently. Even if we ignore the differences between the bureaus, and daily fluctuations of the score, I’d rather have a conservative estimate than an optimistic one.

    Overall, from this review and others, CreditKarma seems quite legitimate, and I have been pleased with the service since I signed up this morning.

    Cheers!

    Reply
  162. Credit Karma is a waste, I ran the credit simulation they offer and tacked on a extra inquiree, and tacked on a new account and new balance, pretty much I tacked on every way I could think to see if my credit score would drop.
    The dial did not move when I ran the simulation but when I opened a new account bam my credit score dropped 6 points.
    Yes I also simulated age of accounts..

    Reply
  163. There seems to be an awful lot of defense for Credit Karma on here while putting down another site. Makes you wonder who is actually on here. CK isn’t any help other then to get you to sign up for credit repair loans/cards/etc. The score rating is bogus. It shows a 566 right now and I know that my score is a 619. Still bad but not as bad as CK wants me to believe. I know what my score is because I pulled my report from all 3 agencies.

    Reply
    • allen,
      There is no one “on here” other than me. I’m a freelance writer who used to be a financial advisor. I am most certainly not “connected” to anyone. I’m not sure what “defense” you see, other than me (and others) pointing out what we know.

      Remember, the Credit Karma score is not a FICO score. Second, your score will sometimes vary depending upon which credit report was used to generate it. Not all financial companies report the same to all the bureaus. Finally, pulling your score from the agencies won’t necessarily get you a FICO score either. You can get a FICO score from myFICO but even that is only one of several score that exist. The score is different if it is for a mortgage than if it is for a car, for example.

      I recommend people use Credit Karma and other similar services to make sure their score is moving in the right direction. If it goes down, then your FICO score might be going down too.

      Reply
  164. Btw, credit scores are the biggest scam of all. We get judged daily on credit worthiness not knowing why things happened the way they did to effect scores. we have a government so far in debt that they will never get out yet credit is extended at every turn. The whole system is a scam.

    Reply
  165. My credit score is 619. Not great, I know. Credit Karma keeps bouncing my score like a ping ping ball. 566 as of today, down from 595 yesterday. Gotta love how that happens. All credit cards are paid off. No loan apps. No credit apps. something at CC just isn’t right. and since I signed up I have received phone calls for bills from 8 years ago. Only way to get my number is through here. Didn’t have this number 8 years ago. CC is fishy at best.

    Reply
    • Allen,

      You are mad at CK because you have a poor score and probably because you haven’t always paid your bills on time. I have used it for 2 years and I find it quite accurate. Take a deep breath my friend…

      Reply
    • Initials for the legit site is CK, not CC. So first, verify that you’re even in the right site. Second, keep an eye on your credit utilization. Recommended is no more than 30% of your total available credit, which gives you a score of B in that category. Less than 20% scores you an A. But if you’re often maxing out your credit limit (even if you pay on time but don’t reduce your balance to be less than 30% of your total available credit across all your credit cards… that hurts your score. This is one of the biggest factors in calculating your credit score (and the most changeable depending on your credit card usage and payment habits so that may explain how your credit score could change drastically).

      Reply
  166. I find it very interesting that after using Credit Karma, I had people trying to open credit card accounts using my name and SS#. These people knew the answers to the security questions that are asked. I have NO credit cards and am very careful with my information.

    I vote: SCAM

    Reply
  167. I have been using credit karma for months with not a single problem. I have become much more aware of my credit habits thanks to credit karma.

    Reply
    • I agree Creditkarma is a scam. I went for my crdit score and it asked for a credit card. And something about if not canceled in 7 days you would be charged 12.99 per month untill canceled. so i did not go ant futher its not free!!!!

      Reply
      • You went to the wrong site. You weren’t on CreditKarma.com if you needed to provided a credit card. You were scammed, but doesn’t mean CreditKarma is a scam.

        Reply
  168. Thank you for the good words! As a long-time employee here, just want to definitively clear up a few misconceptions:

    1. Yes, it’s completely free. No paid subscription. You can pull your score an unlimited amount of times. Free.

    2. They are indeed “soft” pulls, so there is no impact on your score.

    3. Your score will vary using different credit sites because they come from different bureaus. We provide the TransRisk score from TransUnion. As a member myself (even before employment here), this score is accurate in terms of gauging loan/credit worthiness. I used Credit Karma to apply for a mortgage before coming here, and the score was only a few points off from the eventual middle score my lender used.

    Once again, thank you for the good press and I’d encourage anybody with questions to contact us.

    Reply
  169. I just found out credit Karma does not show your correct score. Try creditsesame.com My score for credit Karma says 620 and on credit sesame its 700. I have worked very hard to pay my bills on time, just payed off my chapter 13 and relied on CK to be accurate and its not. I think they suck!

    Reply
    • Comparing two free sites and deciding which one you like better doesn’t really seem like a very solid way to determine which one is more accurate.

      You’ll want to compare to a real credit score you get when applying for credit. Check with your bank, sometimes they have a relatively recent credit score on file for you. They pull them every so often to see what services to market.

      Also, check out my write up on Credit Sesame here.

      Reply
    • Being a financial expert and pulling multiple credit reports daily – – I would say the lower score is more indicative of a recently paid off bankrupcy in the past few years. I would throw the higher one in the trash.

      Reply
    • You’re right. they are trying to tell me my score is nearly 80 points higher than it actually is… I’ve been using CK for over a year now and they have always been off by 50+ points or more. I’ve heard some say over a 100pts.. The biggest problem is its still not your real score. I signed up with Equifax and their numbers are bogus too.. (Found out buying my last 2 cars, that they were high also).. As far as I can tell there is no way to get your real score as the scoring is always different depending on the type of loan…

      Reply
  170. I stopped logging on to Credit Karma! I do not have good credit (it was tanked in a divorce three years ago). I have been trying and trying to repair my credit. My bank pulled a number when I was denied financing and it was in the upper 600’s (yeah, bad). Credit Karma showed low 600’s. Every time I hit the refresh/update button over the course of three months, it ONLY went down, down, down… Yet, in those three months no debt, bad debt, loan applications, nothing occurred that was negative – nothing! If anything, it would have gotten better, not worse. My concern is this constant downgrade at each update is affecting my score.

    Reply
    • The credit pulls from Credit Karma, if they are even reported, would be considered “soft pulls” and would not affect your credit. Your credit is calculated based both on negative things that hurt your score AND positive things that increase it. Your good credit accounts are aging away at the same rate as your bad credit.

      If your situation permits consider doing something with credit that is positive. A small credit card that you diligently pay on time every month, for example.

      Reply
      • Thank you! I had opened a small credit card, six months ago, and have paid it on time without issues, which is why I was not understanding how every-time I hit refresh on Credit Karma, my rate always drops… I stopped going on their site for this very reason.

        Reply
        • Take a look at your credit utilization. Make sure you’re using no more that 30% of your available credit. This is a big factor in your credit score so the more you come close to using up your total available credit, the lower and lower your score will get.

          Reply
  171. I decided to give ‘Credit Karma’ a whirl b4 I found this review. All you said in your review turned out to be 100% correct. As I’m retired and most of my friends are still working, I like to pass on ‘finds’ to them in order to hopefully save them some time/$$$/etc. Be4 I recommend ‘Credit Karms’ I decided to do more research…I found you and now I’m emailing this review along w/the ‘Credit Karma’ website to my friends. Many thanx – Rongrant

    Reply
  172. I am certainly glad they don’t charge for their poor service. I had a home modifacation removed from my credit on all three bureaus that showed 38 past due payments along with a bankruptcy. On Karma my score didn’t change for 4 months but had increased on all bureaus the first month of the four. My score for over 129 days was 150-176 points higher in the bureaus than on Karma. Poor unrelable service.

    Reply
  173. I have been using Credit Karma since November of 2010 and have never been asked for a credit card number. When I went to go buy a Cadillac I updated my score on credit Karma before I went to the dealership so I could compare what they showed as my score and what Credit Karma said and it was 2 points different (dang close). They make their money from the credit card companies that advertise on their site I beleive.

    Reply
  174. Credit Karma is awesome! I was never asked for a credit card number so it really is free! I’m trying to buy a house so monitoring my credit score is really important right now. I’m not much into remarking on or grading websites but I wanted other people to know that this site is not a scam but that it is authentic, free, and super informative!

    Reply
  175. Thank you for the review! Amazing website. I was weary at first of using CreditKarma but it did NOT ask me for a credit card or anything. NOT A SCAM!

    Reply
  176. I just tried to sign up to Karma, they ask for a credit card and the fine print said i would be charged $1.00 REFUNDABLE but if I didn’t call a 800 number within 7 days I would be charged mothly until cancelled

    Reply
    • Had a couple of reports about this. I’ll re-check and see if things have changed. However, I’ve also gotten reports of a Credit Karma scam where a website called KreditKarma.com has copied the real site and is scamming users out of money. Be sure you got the right one and be sure to dispute any charges that they make on your card.

      Reply
  177. i signed up on credit Karma and they said my file was too thin
    27 days later i got a letter from a collection svc about a 19 yr credit card debt
    so they had to have sold my info

    Reply
  178. Even though I am 46 but have never used a credit card, never borrowed money, never owned a home or a new car, never went to college and have never taken out loans etc., I signed up with credit karma just to see if it gave me a credit score at all. After I filled out everything I had a credit score of 745 or something like that. I think they came up with that score by using the home address where I am currently renting a bedroom, and they also used the cars associated with the home owner, not me. So this was not a accurate score in my case since I am not the home owner.

    Reply
    • The scores are computed from your own credit report which is tied to your Social Security number, so someone else’s cars and the like won’t help / hurt. Don’t forget, bank accounts (even check and savings accounts) and your rental history can end up on your credit report, as can on-time payments of utility bills, cell phone bills, medical bills and others. Even in the unlikely case that you have never done anything that was reported to your credit report, that still means you have no late payments, your debt to income ratio is very high, and so on, all of which would add up to a good score.

      Reply
      • Credit bureaus don’t factor in income or debt-to-income ratios in credit scoring. Not even sure that data is something they mine. Lenders do. Credit bureaus monitor how debt is managed, comparing the utilization level to credit limits, not income and asset levels, plus how consistently payments are made. You could have a billion dollars in assets and pay cash for everything with no debt at all and your credit score would not be high. Which is super, unless you want to get a loan. You would not qualify.

        Reply
  179. The Government, Federal Trade Commission (FTC),requires each of the three credit agencies; Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to provide one free credit report annually. The FTC site is;
    http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm
    They send you to this site;
    https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
    So, you don’t need to go through these other agencies, you can get three reports legally free. And I think if you request one from each one separately, you can check out your credit 3 times a year.

    Reply
    • You are correct. You can get your credit REPORT for free once per year from each of the three agencies. There is no requirement to offer a free credit SCORE, and none of the three credit bureaus do. In fact, they’ll try and sell you a “free credit score” that is actually an auto-renewing trial membership in their overpriced credit monitoring service.

      Reply
  180. I am very pleased with Credit Karma. I first heard about it last year from one of the financial websites I am subscribed to. If not for that endorsement, I would have been leary of trying it. They actually remind you to update your credit score if you have not for a while. I just updated mine today. I totally trust them.

    Reply
  181. I was going to try it but after looking around im thinking no. if creditkarma.com is owned by transunion like the author claims i find it odd the registrar is Go Daddy.com and not CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC. like it is for for transunion..maybe nothing to it but it bothers me.

    Reply
    • I think you might not understand what a registrar is. GoDaddy.com is a domain name registrar. You buy domain names through them. Everyone has to buy a domain name from a registrar, even big companies. I think I got FinanceGourmet.com from 1and1.com but they don’t have anything to do with the site other than hosting the name. Likewise, CSC Corporate Domains has nothing to do with TransUnion other than being who they bought the domain name from.

      You’ll find lots of domains with a GoDaddy registrar. They are one of the biggest and the cheapest, although I wouldn’t recommend them.

      Reply
      • CSC is Computer Sciences Corporation. They are an outsourcer. They must be hosting the TransUnion computers in their data center.

        Reply
  182. I’ve been using credit karma since Jun 2009 without a problem. I think they make a significant amount of money by advertising for credit card and loan companies. It is a win/win for you and the banks. The banks are always going to make money off of you, but credit karma does help you wade through large amounts of financial data. I could figure out what credit card would give me the best rewards based on the type of spending I do.

    Reply
  183. I think they make their money on referral fees from the credit cards they recommend for you…just like airlines do. It’s lucrative, and it works, but it’s a good deal for the consumer too, since you have no obligations.

    Reply
  184. It all looks good and well, and everybody knows that there is a “BUT coming here.
    They do not want your credit card info. But they do have all of the other pertinent information needed to steal your Identity. Not saying that is what is up.
    But now they have your SS#, address, phone numbers, Spouses name and chances are some next of kin names and numbers. Everything needed to apply for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages. What is to say this is not the grand scheme of things. Just asking? I do hope this all legit. I sure could use a way to monitor my credit score.

    Reply
    • Credit Karma is owned by Transunion, one of the three major credit reporting bureaus. They already have all that information and more. They use those fields to to match you to your credit record and, probably, update any information you have on file already.

      Reply
      • First off person who wrote column could be anyone. with the way people have gotten so dog e dog and greedy to keep up with the jones’s a few big bills to 5 or 10 ck employees and there you have your positive feedback. What have not read ( read most but not all ) was about ss#. Was asked to give last 4 and after typing in bunch of info correctly was told
        I would have to put in full ss# that is when I quit the site. Did all u people need to put in full ss#. Interested in hearing.

        Reply
        • If you want to know who I am, you can follow the links at the bottom to my writing site ArcticLlama. That’s me. I’m a professional financial writer, and freelance writer. As far as your SS # goes, yes, you have to give them the whole thing. That is how you pull up a credit report. That is the only way. You have to give your SS# to anyone that wants to see or use your credit report. If that makes you uncomfortable, I don’t blame you, but there is no other way to use this service.

          Reply
        • I know this old but can’t resist responding to yet another English error ——— it’s “dog eat dog”. If this poster read enough he or she wouldn’t write phonetically. Either that or there’s a hearing deficiency which doesn’t catch final consonants.

          Reply
  185. I signed up for Credit Karma in Dec last year, since then I’ve paid off over half my credit card debt but Credit Karma is still showing the old debt level with no change in my score since I first signed up, so my question is do they really update your score frequently or is more like once every six months or some other long time period?

    Reply
    • I found the problem: you have to actually click on the Update button to get a new reading on your score and data.

      Reply
    • They do’t update every time you click update. Transunion is the worst of the bureaus and you have to keep contacting them to accurately remove improper or false files. It usually take them several months to catch up with the quality bureaus.

      Reply
  186. I checked my credit score in creditkarma.com it gave me a hight credit score than, myfico.com.
    I want to know why,or which one is true?

    Reply
    • First, the credit score from creditkarma.com is computed by Credit Karma using data from your credit report. It is modeled on the FICO score, but is not a FICO score. The score from myfico.com is theoretically the more “real” score, however, scores are snapshots of a single point in time. It will be higher or lower tomorrow depending on if anything new gets reported to the credit bureaus. Second, even the score from MyFico may not be the “real” score depending upon which one of the several types of FICO scores a lender chooses to use.

      There is a lawsuit brewing around just this issue. So many people are paying to see “their credit score” and actually have no idea what they are being shown, nor are those who sell the access making it clear what they are showing.

      For now, don’t focus on what the score is, focus on whether it is going up or down. Whether you have a 720 or a 730 is only important when you actually apply for credit. However, if your credit score (whichever one you are looking at) goes from 730 to 710, you need to find out why and, if possible, undo it.

      Reply
  187. ok. The paranoia level seems a bit out of control here. I have been using CreditKarma.com for years now with no perceptible spike in credit offers or financial spam. Just great free B.S. free credit reports. I am glad to see some other people digging into the legalese as yes I was wary at first only because of all of the predatory companies out there that have offered me free credit reports before. The big companies Equifax/Experian etc are the worst! Talk about a scam? Free credit report.com SCAMMMM. Between amazing services like Mint.com and creditkarma.com and having an amazing bank like INGdirect.com Things are going pretty well. I LOVE ING!!! One thing the obama administration hit out of the park were these credit card reforms. I noticed (evil)bankofamerica has a class action lawsuit on their hands right now for ripping people off to the tune of several billion dollars by luring people in with a 0% rate and then at the first late payment jacking them up to 36% interest rate like they did to me. That is my last credit card mar on my credit score and I cant wait to start paying it own over the next year. BOA you bunch of THUGS. Im paying 16.8% on 5000 and probably have paid 5000 to get a 5000 loan from you turkeys. God I hope you guys in the credit division crash and burn. I hope the building you are sitting at there in Charlotte NC has faulty plumbing and the sewage backs up so high you are all up to your noses! ok ok rant over.

    creditkarma.com seems ok to me.

    and p.s.

    social media managers are typically young internet savvy people who work on a contract basis for different companies. They usually aren’t corporate robots like you DON. chill out. Her picture is fine… is she supposed to be wearing a Hillary Clinton style pantsuit to make you happy? Go get a massage and loosen up a little.

    Reply
  188. I have used credit karma for over a year now, and I never have had any problems with them. I found out about them through a company called TransCard, which I got my bosses to use them for petty cash instead of Wester Union. Credit Karma has never sent me any spam emails and I have never received any phone calls on any phone in the house or cell phone from them, though the funny thing is that I get phone calls of people trying to sell me credit monitoring services for Discover Card and Citi bank.

    Overall, I use Credit Karma and it has helped me to build my credit. I got it after I got my first card and following its tips I have increased by score alot.

    Reply
  189. I have been using Credit Karma for over two years and have had no problems. The information they provide is legitimate and the tools they have to help you improve your credit score are invaluable. Yes they are ad supported and make money by offering you ways to improve your scores through signing up for additional credit cards, insurance carriers and even banks. It works more like affiliate marketing. But the basic service is FREE and available without the use of any credit card you may have now.

    Reply
  190. I read your article carefully before signing up for Credit Karma. But, I also checked them out with the BBB (they are a member). Their BBB score is A-. If people feel they are being “scammed” by this web site then I suggest a complaint to the BBB.

    Mitch

    Reply
  191. I think they share your credit score with companys that solicit you about financial offers. A company called my cell phone the day after I tried the service. It realy dosent bother me because I did read all of the disclosures and in them it said they would share my info with theyre “Partners”.

    Reply
    • The day after signing up is probably too fast to attribute it to signing up. It takes a bit longer to package a phone list and sell it and then for those who use the lists to call the numbers on it. I’m not saying it can’t happen, I’m just saying that would be VERY fast for something like that to happen.

      Reply
  192. You gave them your name address, birthdate, phone number and SSN?nTo someone you don’t know? Now you act like a spokesman for them. The truth is that you have no idea how they may eventually use that very private information. Just because they haven’t used it yet for identity theft or anothermscam is no guarantee they won’t in the future. No one should EVER give out that kind of information to any person or site you don’t know well.

    And as an aside, the response from “Justine” the “social media manager” disturbs me as much. No professional company would ever allow an executive to send out a picture like that. I realize its “social media” but its still a business!

    Reply
    • I used something and it worked out, so I told people about it. I would prefer people do something like this instead of signing up for a “free” credit score only to end up on the hook for a $10+ per month credit monitoring service that they don’t want or need. I’m not sure how that is acting like a spokesman.

      I’m not sure what your criteria for giving out your information is, but my name, address, and phone number go out to anyone who ships something to my house. My birthday isn’t much of a secret, either. I am very careful about who I give my SSN out to, but the fact is that it is impossible for anyone to get a credit report (and thus a credit score) without a social security number. There is no way around it.

      Reply
    • Don I am perplexed at your naiveté frankly. How exactly do you think one obtains a credit score if you don’t give them this information? It’s obvious you have never pulled your credit score…

      Reply
  193. I say SCAM!!! I entered all my pertinent information (Name, Address, SS#, Phone #) which hasn’t changed in the last (30)
    THIRTY years, have only had ONE SS# and am 74 years of age.
    By their standards “UNABLE TO VERIFY INFORMATION” after they have ALL my information.
    Now I have to call all three Credit B’s and put a FRAUD warning on.

    Reply
    • As you, I had a VERY negative experience with Credit Karma. I’d gone to the website to nose around. I put in my Personal Information and scrolled down to the Accept Box. Before I did anything, my screen flashed, I was welcomed as a Member. I immediately emailed them to Unsubscribe me. (This took two days). The next morning I received a note from Google Chrome telling me that someone had gone into my email and changed settings with my knowledge. I continually emailed Credit Karma until they emailed me back saying I was “unsubscribed”. I will never trust them now.

      Reply
    • OH my GAWD! REALLY? Fraud alerts on all 3 bureaus? I work at the worlds’ 2nd largest financial institution & can GUARANTEE you put thier address in your SEARCH bar & then clicked one of the lookalike SCAMS, NOT CreditKarma! OR You entered your data WRONG! I take calls all day LONG from older people like you who try something ONCE & then “I’ll never put MY information on the web”! Well GUESS WHAT? IF you have a bank account or stocks, bonds or investments, how do you think we communicate your info? BY INTERNET! SO ALL your info is on the internet already & there is NO WAY to remove it all, so GET OVER it & realize it’s the 21st century & a digital age & your check book & using U.S. Mail is OBSOLETE!!! GET a computer, LEARN how to use it & STOP being so unnecessarily PARANOID!

      Reply
  194. This website creditsuit.org/credit.php/blog/creditkarma_another_scam_stay_away_from_lying_thugs/
    has the truth about CK:

    Not until you sign up, do you get the term where they hide in many pages of legalese:

    At the time that you submit your registration form to us for a free credit score, you will automatically be enrolled to receive periodic valuable offers for products and services from our Partners.

    And:

    Our Partners

    Credit Karma shows personalized offers based on consumer credit profiles. These offers are from partners and advertisers who share our vision of consumer empowerment. The premise of our service is to provide value to both consumers and advertisers equally by using advertising revenue to subsidize the cost of credit scores, and then matching offers to users appropriately based on their credit profile.

    “These offers are from partners and advertisers who share our vision of consumer empowerment. “

    Reply
    • Bob,
      Thank your for your comment.

      First, the Terms of Use are available at the bottom of the home page just like they are on most websites. There is no requirement for you to sign up before you can see them. You can view them at any time without logging in or creating an account. Or, you can use this link.

      Second, it is pretty clear that Credit Karma is advertising supported and I made note of that fact in my review. I see plenty of ads on the site. Whether or not they will ever send some sort of email offer, I can’t say, but I haven’t gotten anything from them or their partners other than an approximately monthly email that says “my credit score may have changed”. I also have not gotten anything in the mail that is different than the standard stuff I get.

      The text you quoted could use some context. The very next sentence after the first quote you cite is, “As set forth in more detail in our privacy policy, we will not share your credit report and score with our Partners.” I think that is a pretty important piece of information to get left out. In fact, the Terms of Use go hand in hand with most website’s privacy policy so that would be worth reading as well. (Again, there is no need to sign up before viewing.)

      More importantly is the fact that while that author has chosen to play up these “privacy issues” these terms are virtually identical to many commonly used online services including Mint.com and even Google and their advertising programs.

      In other words, yes, you will see ads on Credit Karma but you will get free access to your real credit score on an ongoing basis. I am willing to let them throw some ads up on my computer screen in exchange.

      Reply
    • I signed up two months ago never pulled out a credit card was never asked for one have seen my credit score go up 40 points with TransUnion and have received 1 email letting me know that my Scores may have changed.
      I really think that some people click to fast during the signup to read all the fine print then get themselves involved with all the paid extras that they didn’t want.

      Reply
  195. Hello!

    Just wanted to drop by and say thank you for spreading the good word about Credit Karma.

    I totally understand your skepticism about the possibility of a free credit score, but I’m glad that Credit Karma convinced you that it is possible to get your credit score for free anytime and as often as you like. In our office, we think that is a consumer right and a way to empower yourself to build healthier credit on your own!

    If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to email me.

    We hope your readers will share your enthusiasm about our free credit scores.

    Also, just as a side note, you don’t have to worry about Credit Karma going out of business. We will be around for a long long time, and will ALWAYS provide free credit scores with no plans whatsoever to ever, ever charge you. =) Thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Justine
    Social Media Manager
    Credit Karma

    Reply
    • I must say that my expeience has been all positive. Very accurate to the two reporting services I have compared.”eqifax-transunion”. Take the time to make a profile, add a picture, tune up the the details they give the options to do so. Remember we are just trying to make ourselves credit worthy, it has its privledges.
      I hope someday creditors will use C/C’s service. They are the only Co. not wanting to start a revalving charge at my exspense.
      Thanks Credit Karma
      Dan
      indiana

      Reply
        • Why would you say that. I’ve been using Credit Karma after using Credit Sesame with horrible results and I simply love it. Yea, monetization could be an issue in the long run but for online companies right now, that doesn’t seem to be an issue as VC’s are very willing to give them funding. Thank you Credit Karma!

          Reply
          • They are free but what people don’t know is that as soon as you get your unreal score ,debt companies from 20 hrs will come out of the wood work and make old debts that should have been removed. They make them current and then your score drops and you are harassed by deby collection from a 20 yr old debt. If you talk to any collection agency after credit karma you will have new accounts from yrs back ,say when you had a bad marriage ect.that’s why it’s named credit Karma. Karma is a bitch and comes back to you and bad credit karma sucks when you had a bad time in life ,car accident injured and can’t pay bills spouse is abusing credit or having to use credit to make sure babies are fed. Credit karma doesn’t ask for a credit card because they get paid from old credit collection agency for your new address and information.

          • Perhaps thats why they have no contact phone number. Want you to write in to cancel. They ran my credit without my permisssion.

        • I agree. They just want you to take their offers. That is how they stay in business. I understand that, but when you try one they suggested, they run your credit which lowers your score with another inquiry. I used the free credit government agency and my score is much higher there than it is on Credit Karma.

          Reply
          • Robin, you mention you used the “free credit government agency.” May I ask what the URL is for this? Thank you.

          • Bob, annualcreditreport.com provides your detailed credit reports from the three agencies as described in the article above for free, but NOT your numeric credit score.

          • they never did that with us…i like creditkarma, ive never had a problem with some 20 yr old debt showing up, and if it fell off because of its age, i do not believe (i may be misinformed, but i do believe this is accurate) that they can put it back on my credit report! they take care of disputes, fairly if i may add! and since joining them, at no charge, i am notified if someone is attempting to open credit with my information…

          • i had no credit for 10 years due to enron scandal.. I HAD A PERFECT 807 CREDIT SCORE, THEN ONLY PAID BILLS WITH MY 2,500 DOLLAR CARD. 2 YEARS LATER , I FIND OUT ENRON RIPPED ME OFF 3,777.56/ i filed a state claim, bank claim, and had insurance protection, alll that didnt matter. i ended up in default brought on by a rip off.It took ten years to go away. I now have 737 credit score, , and will not get ripped off like that again. NO house buying, only rent

        • I agree. I really hoped they would keep me up to date with my credit. They are a joke. My balances are lower than they show. They need to do more recent updates on everyone’s accounts.

          Reply
          • I agree. I made over 400.00 payment on one of my cards about 3 weeks ago, and doesn’t reflect it. Also I applied for a loan about 7 months ago.and turned down. Said my scores too low.gave me their scores and it was about 70 pts lower than according to credit karma

          • The payment may take time to show up. Remember, your creditor most likely only reports your balances once per month. The other is probably correct. These scores are not FICO scores so they won’t be an exact match to what a lender actually uses. Try and focus on the movement up and down, not on what the exact number is.

        • I agree. I don’t think it’s as simple as it appears. After giving up all of my personal information, including full social, the website said they could not find my file. What?! I’ve had a credit history for over 25 years. Personally, I know nothing is ever free; there is always some benefit they’re getting that we know nothing about. I think it’s very suspicious that they advertise that you can get something, but once you give them all your information–like in my case–you still don’t get it. If I had known before reading this site that it doesn’t give you a FICO score, I would’ve never given out all of my information anyway and be exposed to someone hacking and stealing my info from yet another company. AND WHAT’s THIS ABOUT OTHER COMPANIES STARTING TO CALL YOU AFTER GIVING CREDIT KARMA YOUR INFORMATION? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!

          Reply
        • Credit karma what a joke they say I have a thin file all the other credit sights have no problem I have 17 open accounts incl a 40,000 loan a 8000 car loan credit cards some I have had for over 10yrs

          Reply
        • Wow….Chill not everyone lives above THIER means of income. Life happens. I have had times when I had to choose which bills to pay with this paycheck and which bills have to wait. Food, housing, childcare non babysitting such as THIER have to have needs don’t want the school calling us up and causing trouble either so there is much money going out there, power, the mandatory insurance has to wait because after 40 hours plus I still didn’t make enough. So life happens let’s stop kicking our fellow Americans while they are down and provide good heartfelt advice. Even if this person doesn’t receive like we feel it should have been received it could be from many other reason ands hardships you just cannot really know it all. This type of Behavior that you are expressing is EXTREMELY COMMON and appears to me as LEARNED from society. How would you have truly reacted if it were not for the learning it from others doing the same thing. Pattern behavior. Would you have asked more questions with concern rather than blabbing out disrespectful words with a quick shut off? Do you have compassion? If you are very good with your payments and budget very well and extraordinary then share these tips with others so that they may learn something that will improve their livelihood. We live once, I myself want to make it better than it has been , it has proven difficult at many times in my life and right now I am doing better. More focused checking my reports….Because it is NOT A SCORE IT IS MOSTLY ENCOURAGEMENT TRUTHFULLY. BUT I WILL TAKE IT! Credit Karma has encouraged me to do better even knowing it is not an exact thing. It has useful tools. I will continue to keep using this site and chugging away at the grind stone and maybe by the time I am 60 years old I will get it right. The other issues with our system isn’t Credit Karma’s fault. It is the way it is all set up and that in that what I say is that it isn’t giving free good credit away and it is difficult sometimes to acquire good credit and even more difficult to maintaining good credit at least Credit Karma is helping to encourage.

          Reply
        • Its all about personal information DOB, Social. They have no contact number for customer service. They ran my credit without permisssion

          Reply
        • See what happens when you have a heart attack on vacation and your insurance won’t cover the hospital bills nor do they want to pay for the surgery you need financial disaster in the works

          Reply
    • I have been using C/K since February and have used it to bring my credit score up by over 80 pts! I do wish it would work with all 3 credit companies instead of just Transunion, but it’s a start for me. I absolutely love it! No issues whatsoever and you can actually update it once a week, which I do because I did eventually link it to my bank account and plan to use it for tax purposes with deductions. C/K actually categorizes all of my spending so I know what I am spending my money on most.

      Reply
      • I would like to know why CreditKarma is still advertising on TV and the site is impossible to bring up. I used to use it every month, and then several months ago, it stopped. I thought maybe it had been shut down. Has anyone else had this problem?

        Reply
      • I have one question to be answered please. I have been reading the reviews/comments on CreditKarma for about 2 hours now on differing sites including ‘myfico’ and finally here, so that I could make an informed decision about whether or not to sign up for CK’s free credit reports. I know for a fact due to a very hard life with many bad turns and many ignorant mistakes due to that life I have an ‘awful’ credit score…(do they go into minus digits?…lol) In any case at this later point in life I need to seriously work on finding out just what those numbers are and find any means I can of repairing and rebuilding my score to a appreciable number which I’m sure is going to take many long years. I was never much a financing in my day, and I’m getting older now and wizened up enough to know if I don’t tackle this huge mountain now, I may never get another chance. My question is in regard to the repeated checking of your score. I read somewhere down the page (not sure where exactly it was now so I just picked a post near the top and clicked reply to get this in) that one individual who was applying for some form of credit/loan etc was denied because of too many inquiries into their credit reports…. so my question is “if you are checking your score on CK frequently, is that showing up as your credit report being pulled, thereby creating a issue when you really need it ok’d by some business or otherwise? Thanks in advance for your answer.
        EJ

        Reply
        • Two things: First, Credit Karma ESTIMATES your score from your credit report using their own algorithm. Second, these are considered “soft” pulls. Soft pulls are those done for any reason EXCEPT applying for new credit. For example, your bank probably pulls a regular credit report/score on you and those do not count. But, when you apply for a card or a credit line at a store, those are counted against your credit score, but one or two won’t have much effect.

          Reply
          • Hello Finance Gourmet $$$ Thank you for your helpful information. After reading through enough replies, I find myself undecided about CK. I am interested only because I’m concerned about identity theft. My score has always been “walk on water” and I hope to keep it there.

            For any skeptics out there, I just discovered that I can access my score from Experian through my Chase card account, free and at any time. So, if you have a Chase card, at least you can get one score without worrying about ss# or credit card# input.

          • There are a increasing number of credit cards that offer a similar service to Credit Karma. In fact, some of the credit score features on Capital One cards actually look the same as those that come from Credit Karma, so much so that I wonder if Capital One is using Credit Karma’s service and rebranding it. I’m going to do an article soon on all the different ways to get free credit scores and free credit monitoring.

          • So when is the best time to apply for a line of credit? Or what I should ask is at what score on CK is considered a good time to apply esp. If it will determine the Apr?

        • Checking your own credit score is not considered an inquiry and will not show up on your credit report. Credit Karma has a tab (I use the app) that shows you how many inquiries are on your credit report and lists the companies that have made the inquiries.

          Reply
      • My interaction with the Credit Karma site DIDN’T provide TRANSUNION. ONLY accounts open on Experian and Equifax and the “FICO” score.

        Reply
    • I have a different story. In order to get my score I had to give a cc number and a $1.00 charge appeared on my statement.( thought this might be to verify my idenitity, soI went with it.) I was signed up for a $29.95 a month credit alert service, unless I called to cancel it within
      7 days. When I called I had to say NO 4 times for them to cancel the service.

      Reply
      • I’ve been using C/K for 7 months and it has been a great help me reduce my credit score. I also noted two months ago when I applied for a loan that the scores my bank pulled were very close to what C/K had. They do have a trial option to sign up for their alert service which would require a credit card number, but if you just want to just monitor how well or bad your credit standing is, there is no charge.
        If they refunded your money, it would be only fair to say so as not mislead others that they are a rip off.

        Reply
      • Lora, I Don’t believe you were on the right Web site according to what all others report about Credit Karma. You should recheck and re-post what is the truth. This is a protection for others looking not to get ripped off.

        Reply
        • You owe Lora an apology. A friend of mine went to credit karma’s website and she got the same webpage. She even tried two additional browsers. This site is owned and operated by TransUnion.

          Either way, credit karma and the big 3 credit reporting agencies are scamming you. If not, why have one credit report for the consumer with a certain amount of information, while credit reports to banks are given a totally different credit report?

          One consumer sued Experian based on seeing a totally different credit report at her bank. I used to work for two credit reporting agencies. I know a scam when I see one.

          Reply
          • No he doesn’t owe Lora an apology Regina. If Lora isn’t intelligent enough to find the offer to sign up for FREE on the website, then that’s HER FAULT! Geez…..the average IQ in America is already low enough…you people are just dragging it lower!

      • Then u got scammed from another site not from here.credit karma doesn’t charge for anything when it comes to your score and who u owe I’ve been using this site for years and yet have had to pay them anything

        Reply
    • I have been using C/K for about six months now; and my feelings are mixed. It doesn’t show all of my credit card accounts so the scoring in that area is flawed since my utilization is showing as being higher than it actually is. Also recently, I noticed that it is showing an open account in collections that has been paid off and closed for almost four years now. That same account shows paid and closed with the correct date on my actual reports that I pulled from each of the sites. In some ways, it is a good tool; but cannot be totally trusted as the information is not always correct.

      Reply
      • Agree with Desiree. Their score is average at best, mine was actually 20 points higher with TransUnion. Also, their reported info will drop off then reappear months later. Example; I sold a house in May, in June it had dropped off my report, in August it has since reappeared. I questioned them on it through an email form on their site and they had no response and tried to direct my question towards another category of loans (just dumb).
        Take their info with a grain of salt as it is not wholly accurate. I guess for free it’s kind of like you pay for what you get.

        Reply
        • I agree with RON, I have had my I.D. info stolen 2 times when my credit was excellent, well now its bad and I two am getting older. but one day I recived a letter of importance to me from the GOV. (my work)and read that some records from their empl. had been stolen (cybor)? then about a month later CREDIT KARMA is telling me( after all ive done to correct my credit) that my credit that was going up fast had droped to BAD again. So I got so angree because not one word of susp. activity from C/K and yes I ched one more time and I don’t even know who these people are that I owed 200.00 on some crap. When I tried to reach C/K , COULD’nt. So I just droped out. I’ve always believed u do get what u pay for!! so I’d reather pay and have experts in this field investagate. And no I Didn’t owe a cent!! that’s just it I oue nothing so I have to buy a car for my credit to go up fast… Oh ya and the cards they offer ,There go ur points again!! sorry for all the messy typing but I don’t type!LOL

          Reply
      • You’re right, Juanita. I was also asked for my CC number with the explanation they only charge $1 and it goes to charity. Even if that’s true, it’s still false advertising. I complained to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and all they did was send me a bunch of material, but didn’t do a damned thing about the false advertising. I think whoever wrote this column is a CreditKarma shill!

        Reply
      • I’VE TRIED A FEW TIMES TO GET MY CREDIT SCORE AND NOTHING. WHATS THE DEAL WITH THAT. I PROVIDED THE INFORMATION THAT YOU WANTED.

        Reply
      • Your not using the right site. you probobly spelled the url wrong and did creditcarma or kreditkarma or one of those scams. I just did creditkarma.com and its 100% legit did not ask for my CC.

        Reply
        • I totally agree with you Kevin, I’ve known of and used often creditkarma.com. I first learned of this site from a well know consumer advocate and financial guru former TV reporter ( WSB TV channel 2 NEWS) and host of his own consumer advocate Radio show on (WSB Radio AM 750 or FM 95.5), Clark Howard of Atlanta Georgia; (THE CLARK HOWARD SHOW) He still does a call in show that comes on MONDAY-FRIDAY I believe at 6:00 but it’s recorded earlier in the day.
          You can find out products about finaces and consumer scams at His web site: clarkhoward.com. He has been and still is today one of the biggest proponents of helping the average consumers from being scammed! I don’t believe He would ever recommend a site that’s a scam considering He’s never put His name out for a paid recommended product endorsement, and started a consumer hotline with experts to answer consumer questions about credit or credit problems, or products that are having product complaints. All from volunteers. I also had been reading these other comments of people being scammed on co and so far to this date have had nothing but help from them. I agreed with Kevin, I’ve never given my cc# and have never been scammed by them, but I have put in the wrong address and been asked for my cc that’s when I knew I’d made a mistake.
          Thanks

          Reply
    • Just wanted to drop by with my 2 cents. I’ve been using CK for over a year now and my credit score has steadily improved to the point where I am debating on purchasing a house in the next year or two.

      There are 2 things I noticed right away from using CK.

      1) The site is linked up with TransUnion. So I would assume that any credit score you get will be more accurate if the bank uses them.

      2) In addition to advertising, they will also recommend credit cards and places to get loans. I wouldn’t be surprised if these companies pay CK to be on their site. That said, they don’t advertise cards blindly. They look at your credit score and recommend a card that would be most suitable for you. I signed up for my first credit card through them and was surprised to get a $1,000 limit (I was expecting no more than $500)

      Reply
      • There is a scam component to Credit Karma and here it is: they deflate credit scores to get people to apply for sub-prime products being offered by their advertisers. All my scores were A or B, yet my overall was D and they rated me as poor. WTF?

        Reply
        • If your overall score was a D, then your other scores were not A or B.
          They break it down exactly why you have the score you have. Look a little deeper.

          Reply
        • I disagree. That may be your experience with it, but they do not deflate scores. Mine were actually a bit higher than my actual FICO score. As the article says, they calculate your score based on the information they have. If you don’t like the sub-prime products, simply ignore the ads! The article clearly stated nothing is free. Someone has to pay for the credit reports, and it is the advertisers. We should be THANKING the advertisers for allowing us to have FREE access to a service that would normally cost a lot of money!

          Reply
    • What a joke! According to our records you have a mortgage with one of the following. A,B,C,D or none of the above. Had the same mortgage for years and yet they say what I know for fact is not what they have. Hello?? I know who I financed my house with but to get the use of their site ya got jump through hoops because they are WRONG! Nope every year you can get FREE report from agencies. Y does credit Karma exist when they are FAULTY?

      Reply
      • You can get a free report. I wrote about how here and in more detail here. The point of Credit Karma is not the report, but an estimated credit SCORE. Not sure what is going on with your thing, but they usually ask several different questions. As long as you get enough of them right, you should be fine.

        Reply
      • The questions at the start which you are referencing are actually to make sure that you are who you say you are. These are the same questions that appear on occasion when you apply for new credit in a new area. There is purposely inaccurate information in those options because they want to be able to determine your identity.

        Reply
      • C\K asked me questions to apply, I move a couple times and I didn’t went to the post office to do the address change, since the address they had on file didn’t match with the one I was using to create my account they asked a couple questions.

        so far works fine with me.

        thanks

        Reply
    • 1) I have used CreditKarma.com for years. I have never been asked for anything like a credit card or a way for them to charge me. Their information is reliable.

      2) I have never received any kind of spam or advertising of any kind which came from that usage.

      3) The site offers a lot of valuable information if you take advantage of it. Spending patterns, suggestions how to improve your credit score and your spending overall.

      4) IF you are interested, the site can provide you with alternative choices of credit cards to save you money. I was advised of a 2-year 0 interest credit card with a charge after that which would lower my interest payments from what I was already paying. Saved me hundreds of dollars.

      5) It is NOT a scam. Anyone who has had to pay anything (even $1) was not on the correct site. I know it’s easy to get the wrong site as I have done it too. Doesn’t take but a second to realize though.

      6) Some people will argue because they think they were on the right site and insist they couldn’t have made an error. Some will argue because they just don’t believe it can be true. Some will argue because they don’t know any better. And than there are those who argue just to argue. The review was accurate as far as my experience.

      Reply
      • Same with me. Have used CK for years. Scores are accurate, I’ve never been asked for a credit card number, etc. They make their money through advertising. For example, they show you a list of credit cards that you are likely to be approved for, given your current credit score. My score is around 800 and there are several cards available, which CK shows me, that offer no interest for 15 months, rewards, plus up to $500 cash back if you charge a certain amount on the card within the first 90 days.

        CK also has a free service where they will give you a list of pre-qualified loan offers for your current credit score.

        If you do enroll in one of their recommended credit cards, or if you apply for a loan from their list, CK probably gets a commission of some sort.

        I have ZERO complaints with CK.

        Reply
    • I have had positive experience. Those posting negative comments about the Credit Karma need to be re-evaluated to determine their mental fitness. Credit Karma has actually helped me keep track of my spending and maintain a healthy credit score and report.

      Reply
        • Agreed 100%. Been using it for 6 months and get weekly updates. Never paid a dime or entered a CC number. It helped to educate me on how to increase score. Just brought my utilization under 10% and my score increased by 93 points from last week.

          Reply
    • While it may be free (I don’t know, I didn’t get that far), it asked me security questions that it claims to know the answers to. I answered the questions correctly, even looking things up to be certain. I was told that my answers were wrong. I was then asked to copy and send identification. I do not trust anyone who asks for such things. The security information I gave them should have been sufficient. I did check to ensure that I was on the correct site, and I have recently bought a house, so I know my identity has not been stolen. I cancelled the account and regret giving them the information that I gave them.

      Reply
      • AMEN! They keep stating that I took out a mortgage! I have ne3ver taken out a mortgage! They just blacked the screen!

        Reply
    • I too started out as a serious skeptic when I tried CreditKarma.com…now I have been with them for almost 2 years and really like the site. I use them as a “go by” and it compares extremely close to the other credit card protection site I use to monitor my bank and my cards. Credit Karma also has a lot of reading material on how to keep your credit score looking good. I am totally impressed with it, and check it a couple of times a month. I have told several people about it and they also have used it frequently. It does not charge you for anything, does not ask you for any personal information other than an email address. It gives you the Equifax and the TransUnion credit scores which I have found to be very accurate. It also explains why your score is what it is and what may impact it negatively. I find it very legit and will continue to use it.

      Reply
    • Justine, how does your company make money? Not asking for proprietary info. Just that basic premise.

      As my Mom always said, “if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.”

      Understanding your basic profit model would allay MUCH skepticism.

      Reply
    • I was VERY, VERY SKEPTICAL until I “caved” in the beginning Jan 2016. In brief, I love the service and continue to read the literature and other information that is offered on the site almost daily. So refreshing to have a company with the consumer in mind…THANK YOU!!!!!!

      Reply
    • JUSTINE,
      DON’T KNOW IF YOU ARE STILL THERE BUT I DID HAVE AN ISSUE RECENTLY WITH THE SCORES. I BOUGHT A NEW CAR LAST WEEK AND CHECKED CREDIT KARMA FIRST TO VERIFY MY SCORES. THEY RANGED BETWEEN 690 AND 720. WHEN I GOT A HIGH INTEREST RATE FROM THE BANK THEY SHOWED ME A 542 SCORE FROM TRANSUNION…..HOW CAN THAT BE??? WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT!

      Reply
    • Never can get into this site. Its always something wrong. I’ve lived at this address for 22 years and have good credit. Just wanted to ck it. This site sucks. It says they can’t find anything on me. Total BS.

      Reply
      • I agree, it did the same to me, would not accept my address, and I know where I live just glad that happened before I gave up my ss#.

        Reply
    • Funny ive tracked my credit score on CREDIT KARMA for 3 years finally it gave a credit score off a 633 an a 690 so i figured id try to go an get s car. Upon entering the lot an picking out the vehicle we went in an i told salesman of my credit scores per credit karma. Ten minutes later he comes back with all 3 credit scores in which case all 3 scores were zeros. NO WHERE NEAR A REASONABLE ESTIMATE. How can a company get away with such bogus claims of ” free an accurate credit scores ” as the commercial claims they offer? Needless to say i was very disappointed with this service. I had planned on trying to get a loan to pay for my wedding. But obviously being mislead into believing my scores were 633 and a 690 screwed me out of this loan. So to all who use this service please dont take it as its set in stone you will be very disappointed as i am.

      Reply
      • My spouse applied for a loan from the bank, and got a zero score. We were confused. But after a few minutes, I remembered having to place a credit freeze on his report after his DL and SScard were stolen from a vehicle. We were trying to prevent identity theft as well. The credit reporting company must have posted the ZERO because we had requested the freeze. If you got a zero, I think you should investigate further.

        Reply
        • I just left a reply and my post has my photo attached, although I never added a photo to your site. It must be grabbing it from another social media account. Please delete my reply. I don’t want my photo to be posted on this site. PLEASE DELETE MY REPLY. Or at least PLEASE DELETE MY PHOTO!! Please! I am begging you. I am scared to leave this photo up. PLEASE!!!!

          Reply
          • Hi, April L,
            I think the photos come automatically from Gravatar, which I think gets the pictures from WordPress. I’ll see if I can make that go away, but I’m pretty sure that is where the picture is coming from. I don’t even have a way to upload pictures to this site.

            Update: I scrambled your email and the pictures went away. So, yes, the picture came via Gravatar/WordPress when you put in an email address that matched their system. So, FYI, that will happen on any WordPress powered site if you put in that email address.

    • Thank you for the free credit report,one QUESTION it seems that every report WE get the score is lower,nothing has changed,accounts are same,no missed payments. Thanks

      Reply
      • I’m not actually part of Credit Karma, so I can’t really help you. Be sure to click through to the credit report data and make sure there is nothing on there that you didn’t expect. The only other possibility is that one of the factors in a credit score is your “utilization” which means how much of your available credit you are currently using. Even if you pay off every month, if you balance is higher than normal on the day the financial institution reports your data, it could make your utilization percentage worse.

        Reply
    • I’ve been using Credit Karma for four years. When you changed the scoring, it all went to hell. I use to find near accuracy with your score and mine, but no more. After you changed, the scores reported on CK and my real scores are far apart. 641 on your site, 701 when the bank pulled my score. It was a great site for me to monitor, so I won’t say that it didn’t help me understand the credit score game. However, having the information so unreliable now does nothing but hurt me. A 701 score gives me buying power I was unaware that I had. I am now refinancing vehicle loans for lower interest rates. If it weren’t for CK, I’d done this earlier. So I’m going to stop using the site.

      Reply
    • I have no good word for Credit Karma I forgot my password and never got help to get back on it so went with Credit Sesame instead and found it to be better then Credit Karma so I will stay with them.

      Reply
    • Just to inform people that kredit Karma is a waste of an app.I had a extremely hard time logging in, so I just obsoleted the app, don’t even WASTE YOUR TIME with it!!!!!

      Reply
    • I having a problem l can’t seem to reset my password not happy someone needs to contact me before l contact the media my email is *****

      Reply
    • Credit Karma should not give odds on chance of getting certain credit cards and then be turned down.I have been turned down twice causing me to get hard inquiries.

      Reply
    • Ok. So, according to Credit Karma My Transunion score is 567. My Equifax was 671. I don’t understand why they are 100 points apart. I went a and applied for a loan a couple of days ago and was told I have no credit score at all. Why? Needless to say I missed out on the loan.

      Reply
      • Unless you’ve never had credit I’m not sure how you have no score at all. As for why two reports can be different, it is voluntary and up to the lenders, to decide which, if any, credit bureau they report your info to. So, if they report something (good or bad) to one but not the others, there will be different info and a different score.

        Reply
        • No score occurs when you have no activity on your account for a period of time, I think its 6 months. We found this out when buying our home. My husband and I both had excellent scores and were preapproved for our mortgage. After we selected a home and went to close on the loan, they reran all our info. I had no score !!! We completed the mortgage in his name only. When we had first talked about buying a house, I stopped using my credit cards and paid everything off, so from that time until the closing, I have no reported activity on my account so I had no score. I think all these people who are saying that they have a zero credit score are in the same situation.

          Reply
    • Comment to Credit Karma:: Jun 11, 2:24 PM PDT: I don’t think its right to recommend a card to build up credit that says the chance of receiving the card is good or very good and then you aren’t able to qualify and it knocks your credit score down more.

      Reply from Credit Karma::Kanye, Jun 13, 11:41 AM PDT:

      Unfortunately, we can’t know for sure if lenders will approve or decline applications, as it’s totally up to the lender. However, we do the best we can by basing our approval odds on historical data.

      We’ll be the first to admit that we don’t always get it right, but please know that we’re always working to build better models and give people the best information that we can. Our goal is to always do what’s best for our members.

      Kanye
      Member Support Specialist

      Reply
    • My husband and I are NOT happy with credit karma. It’s not remotely accurate. Credit Karma had our score almost 100 points higher than our FICO score.

      Reply
    • Credit Karma used my information without my permission for a personal loan. They have no contact information or phone number on their website. The Lender “best Egg” told me i had to contact Credit karma… its a scam. and right now I’m setting up site for a class action lawsuit against them.

      Reply
    • My FICO score is 753 as of 8/16/2016, according to Discover Card free credit score data. Credit Karma shows 724 for Transunion and 729 for Experian. The disparity is nothing new. I bought a car back in 2012 – my FICO score then was 746, while Credit Karma was showing 715.

      Take Credit Karma scores with a grain of salt – they’re trying to sell new credit cards and loans to help you “improve your credit score”.

      Reply
    • I got credit scores also for free.I’ve been trying to log into credit karma for about a month now with no success.I keep getting page not available message.

      Reply
    • After years of working on my credit score, you finally gave me the numbers last month that I was looking for, high 700’s and a low 800 score. Logged in today, to my surprise, both numbers had dropped to low, low 700’s!! There is no explanation for this, nothing I have done in the past month would warrant this!! Don’t know what’s going on, but cancelled my relationship with you.

      Reply
    • Why don’t my balnces owed ever change when ,ive been paying them down and really working on it extremely hard.my balances are not even.close to accurate at this point on ur site ,when in fact my creditors have lower balances than what ur site shows.

      Reply
    • I thought credit karma was a credible site too until I applied for a increase on my amazon store card. I was turned down by transunion. Transunion had my credit score on the notice I received. My credit score was 100 points lower than that on credit karma’s site. I think they inflate your credit score hoping you will apply for credit cards or pay for other options on their site. IMO that’s the definition of a scam site.

      Reply
    • Free Filing Taxes
      I am very frustrated that there is NO CONTACT PHONE NUMBER or any way to speak with an agent online. I filed my federal taxes but it will not allow me to file state and I have sent 4 emails. This is insane. no wonder the service was free it does not work properly

      Reply
    • I am frightened and sick since I did my taxes with your company and I feel that I can’tell rely on you that my tax information even went through to where it is supposed to go. After hitting submit, we did not receive any confirmation!! How do we know we can trust You? How can you operate without a phone connection and a human to talk To? This is really crazy and scary especially with all the frauds out there!! NEED A REPLY!!

      Reply
    • Customer service sucks. The most you get is two sentences saying they can not help and to contact the credit agencies even though the agencies say they have nothing on the issue at hand and say to contact Credit Karma. Like that will help…..just a form email. What customer service? It’s not and to call it custom service is a disgrace. I see why they have no phone number. Users be WARE!!!!!

      I would be ashamed to work there, but I guess the lackies have to do something.

      Reply
    • My brother walked away from his home years and tears ago- He moved to Florida from Michigan- I also live in Florida and my brother decided to move closer to me- He was 70 miles away- He checked credit Karma and it said he had good credit– SO HE SOLD HIS HOME– When he found another home by me he found out that his credit wasn’t good and his Michigan home was a issue.. Credit Karma isn’t accurate.

      Reply
    • why did my score drop 27 points? it shows i used one card 78 percent.. is that a bad thing? i always pay off my balances in full// i ALWAYS HAVE 10 K IN CREDIT AVAILABLE ,, MY INCOME IS 33 K.. I KNOW THAT IF I DONT USE A CARD , THE BANK WILL CANCEL . IT/

      Reply
    • Get the damn security freeze of my credit report I’ve copied my license, birth certificate, and social security card. sent it in there and they haven’t done anything. This is holding up my process for getting a loan. I’ve been going through this since May 2017

      Reply
    • Credit Karma, Is a great source to get a snippet of what your credit scores may look like! However scores are always 10-20 points off form getting your score directly from the credit bureaus! Credit Karma has a two week delay on updates as for the three bureaus it’s real time data.

      Reply
    • I HATE CREDIT KARMA!! I’VE HAD TO RE-APPLY FOR SEVERAL ACCOUNTS THAT CREDIT KARMA HAVE HAD DELETED!! THESE WERE CREDIT ACCOUNTS THAT WERE IN GOOD STANINDIN!!! AND I HAVE CREDITORS FROM MY PAST HISTORY CONTACTING ME BECAUSE THOSE OLD ACCOUNTS WERE UPDATED!! THANKS FOR NOTHING CREDIT KARMA!!

      Reply

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