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Credit Karma is a great service for anyone wanting to start their credit journey. This truly free service gives you access to free credit scores and credit reports, allows you to monitor your credit, do your taxes for free and more.
Digital Honey rated Credit Karma as the “Best Credit Monitoring App”. Read on below to see why.
Credit Karma Features
Free Credit Score and Credit Reports
While there are many free credit score apps and platforms out there, Credit Karma is perhaps one of the best known. When it comes to offering free credit scores and credit reports, Credit Karma has made a name for themselves and it is easy to see why.
When you become a Credit Karma member you will be able to see your TransUnion credit score and Equifax credit score along with your credit reports.
Not only are your credit scores provided, but you can easily look at the different factors that impact your credit scores and how your credit history compares.
For example, in the platform different factors such as payment history, derogatory marks, and credit age are assigned either a high, medium, or low impact and you can view the details on each to better understand the factors and what may be hurting or helping your scores.
You can also view your two credit scores over time to see how your actions have impacted your scores. This is particularly helpful if you are trying to improve your credit score and want to see how things have changed.
Credit Monitoring and Credit Check Alerts
Credit Karma gives you free credit scores and reports, and also helps you monitor your credit. It sends you alerts when there are changes to your credit report or to accounts that appear on your credit reports.
You can turn these alerts on or off by going into your Credit Karma Profile & Settings. Within that section, you can also choose how you want to be notified.
Keeping an eye on your credit reports is extremely important. If there is incorrect information on one of your credit reports it can affect your credit score and in turn your ability to access financing. The sooner you catch mistakes, dispute them, and resolve them the better,
There is no time limit on how long you have to dispute a mistake on your credit reports, but wrong information may affect your credit scores, so you want to correct them as soon as possible.
Credit Cards and Loans
Credit cards and loans– including personal loans, auto loans, and home mortgages– are a big part of the Credit Karma platform as they make money from loan issuers and credit card lenders when users accept one of their offers.
As credit cards and loans make the company money, they try to use user profile information to provide the best offers to customers. These targeted offers can be helpful if you aren’t sure what cards are a good fit for you, but they can also lead to borrowing when you don’t need to.
Outside of credit card and loan offers, Credit Karma can also help you understand whether refinancing your mortgage or auto loan makes sense, and how a new credit card or loan could impact you and your credit scores.
Whether you are shopping for a credit card or loan, or just want to better understand your refinancing options, or how a new credit card or loan will affect your scores, Credit Karma has great resources.
Other Features and Perks
As a Credit Karma user there are additional features and perks you will have access to, all for free. These include:
- Identity monitoring and tips on how to protect yourself from identity theft
- Credit Karma Tax: now known as Cash App Taxes
- A free way to file your taxes
- Credit Karma Money
- A free savings account
- The Credit Karma savings account is through MVB Bank, Inc and offers a .5% APY along with no fees.
- Credit Karma Money Spend
- A free checking account and a debit card
- If you get their debit card and use it you could win Instant Karma when you use the card and have a chance to be reimbursed with Credit Karma Money.
- Credit Score Simulator
- See how certain actions could impact your credit scores
- Help you find unclaimed money
- Calculators for auto loans, personal loans, mortgages, credit cards, and more
- Insights and articles on a range of financial topics
If I’m Getting My Credit Report And Credit Score For Free, How Does Credit Karma Make Its Money?
Credit Karma makes its money through offers to Credit Karma users. While Credit Karma doesn’t sell your information to third parties they do use your data and information to make personalized recommendations.
If you click through and accept one of these recommendations, such as a cr