How accurate is creditkarma's recommendation/prequalify?

[Anonymous]

Accuracy of the CK credit score: 0%

Accuracy of the CK recommendations: 0%

The only purpose of CK is to see changes in your reports without paying to monitor.  You're best off ignoring both the scores (as they're vantage scores) and the recommendations (as they're just ads).

Cheers!

[heavyjay]

CK tells me I have very good approval odds for various Amex and Chase cards even though I'm blacklisted by both.

[Anonymous]

I have a theory about Credit Karma, Credit Sesame and Credit.com.  You are not their concern.  Their concern is themselves and the commission they make off of referrals.  They promote the easiest cards to be approved for.  Often those cards come with low starting lines and high interest rates.  They don't care about you.  Apply for the best card possible for your situation and disregard the advice of the FAKO sites. 

[Anonymous]

CK is good for seeing where inquiry was posted ie TU also date of inquiry as well as derogs.  As long as you use their scores as a reference against their scores it is fine.  I know their scores move much quicker than real FICO 8 scores. I place very limited stock in them. I wish my Vantage   score was my real score.. So many people use internal systems now its very hard to tell unless you get a preapproval.   

[Anonymous]

Anyone? Is the CARD act in your opinion beneficial? Or has it been. Not trying to get a political debate I'm happy lol. Jw as I follow Congress and political things, but missed this. Thanks

[longtimelurker]

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@heavyjay wrote:

CK tells me I have very good approval odds for various Amex and Chase cards even though I'm blacklisted by both.

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To be fair, that's going to be hard for any third-party site to get right, unless the companies shared their blacklists which would raise other concerns

[longtimelurker]

Apart from the recommendations, for each card in their DB they list average, high and low score.   With the note:

Average score refers to the arithmetic mean, typical low score to the 5th percentile and typical high score to the 95th percentile of, in each case, available VantageScore 3.0 credit scores provided by TransUnion of Credit Karma members who were approved for this product from July 2016 through December 2016.

I think that is of some non-zero value of helpfulness.   You can see how your VantageScore fits in those ranges  And yes, not going to be exact because the difference between your Vantage score and whichever score the issuer uses might be greater than normal oe whatever, but even if using FICOs, scores aren't everything.    So I think it could help you filter out cards you are less likely to get.

But as others say, look for cards that are useful to you, and then use various filtering methods (such as credit pull, CK, here) rather than starting from "suggestions", again either from CK or the FoTM cards here!

[Anonymous]

BETTER OFF FLIPPING A COIN! Don't take an offer just because CK says you have good odds. Likewise, don't not apply because CK says you have poor odds.  

Credit Karma is an advertiser. They make their money by advertising and its VERY  BROAD targeted advertising. I never responded to a single offer on there. All of the cards I have are from reading myfico forums, understanding my score, what certain lenders weary of, other users experiences, proper timing, order of priority, etc. 

If I listened to anything CK had to say I wouldn't have any of the cards I have now (with the exception of the capital one platinum which they still recommend LOL). I had to do everything very strategically and it took about 2 years.

[Subexistence]

Thank you guys for your wonderful respolnses!

[Anonymous]

Are CK approval odds based on scores at the time the various CK members were approved or on what their scores are now and whether they have the card in question? Odds based on these two different points in time can be quite different.

the fine print on the approval odds seems to indicate that the ratings are also based on the CC payment that CK will receive if you apply and are approved. If that is the case, then you could have an excellent chance of approval for a particular card one day that drops to poor the next if the CC payment to CK drops to zero. So it’s not just a measure of your credit worthiness, but of CKs sales benefit.