Credit Karma sends email when regular account balance is paid off

[dmFICO8]

Anyone else received "✎ (Important) FirstName, We're Emailing You Regarding a Credit Monitoring Notification" email from Credit Karma? Inside tells you "You paid off the balance on one of your accounts." I got one email on 7th, I pulled my report on 3rd, used the link in this email to get another updated report on 7th. Today 10th I logged in Credit Karma this morning, report was updated again, I was thinking maybe the timer was on 3rd, not 7th, then I received another email this evening, that could be the reason I got another updated report today, anyway, I will try the link in this email tomorrow to see if I actually used it today.

I have Credit Karma for few years, never received alert when one of the account updated balance to 0, first happened was few days ago, well, it is not bad at all, more free reports! All my cards are paid in full each statement, I don't use 1 card less than 9% rest 0 balance rule, I only use less than 50% of cards report a balance rule, usually 33% of my 24 cards are reported a balance, most of the balances are range from $5 ~ $15 for activity only.

See picture below

[Gunnar419]

I got one of those the other day, also, after never having received one before.

The CK notice came on the exact day I paid off one of my accounts. I didn't know how they could have gotten the information that quickly and I was very suspicious that the email might be phishing. I didn't use the links, but did log on to CK, and I saw that neither my TU no EQ reports showed the payoff. It was very confusing.

After that, CK showed that my reports were "updated" on that day, but that my regular update was still the same as ever.

I'm still confused by the whole experience. I DID pay off an account that day, Cap1 QS, but my CK reports didn't show it, so what was the point of the email?

[dmFICO8]

I logged in CK today and no update, so I used the update yesterday.

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

I got one of those the other day, also, after never having received one before.

The CK notice came on the exact day I paid off one of my accounts. I didn't know how they could have gotten the information that quickly and I was very suspicious that the email might be phishing. I didn't use the links, but did log on to CK, and I saw that neither my TU no EQ reports showed the payoff. It was very confusing.

After that, CK showed that my reports were "updated" on that day, but that my regular update was still the same as ever.

I'm still confused by the whole experience. I DID pay off an account that day, Cap1 QS, but my CK reports didn't show it, so what was the point of the email?

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I normally don't use the link inside the email, but when I do, I make sure it is legitimate, it got my name and I double check the sender's email address and the redirect link.

There is still delay update in Credit Karma about account balance, in your case, probably your account balance got updated, then CK sent out the email several days later, but you already pulled your report inbetween, so when you got your email and pulled your report, nothing is changed. Banks don't report the account update until end of month or statement close date, so no way CK got your info as soon as you paid, with exception like Chase report to the bureaus when account balance is 0, there is still 2 to 3 days before the bureaus actually updated, unlike credit inquiry, which is instant. All my accounts are reported between 2nd to 5th, but I got the emails on 7th and 10th, there are at least 2-3 days delay in bureau update and another 2-3 days delay when CK gets the info and send out email.

[Gunnar419]

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@dmFICO8 wrote:

I logged in CK today and no update, so I used the update yesterday.

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

I got one of those the other day, also, after never having received one before.

The CK notice came on the exact day I paid off one of my accounts. I didn't know how they could have gotten the information that quickly and I was very suspicious that the email might be phishing. I didn't use the links, but did log on to CK, and I saw that neither my TU no EQ reports showed the payoff. It was very confusing.

After that, CK showed that my reports were "updated" on that day, but that my regular update was still the same as ever.

I'm still confused by the whole experience. I DID pay off an account that day, Cap1 QS, but my CK reports didn't show it, so what was the point of the email?

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I normally don't use the link inside the email, but when I do, I make sure it is legitimate, it got my name and I double check the sender's email address and the redirect link.

There is still delay update in Credit Karma about account balance, in your case, probably your account balance got updated, then CK sent out the email several days later, but you already pulled your report inbetween, so when you got your email and pulled your report, nothing is changed. Banks don't report the account update until end of month or statement close date, so no way CK got your info as soon as you paid, with exception like Chase report to the bureaus when account balance is 0, there is still 2 to 3 days before the bureaus actually updated, unlike credit inquiry, which is instant. All my accounts are reported between 2nd to 5th, but I got the emails on 7th and 10th, there are at least 2-3 days delay in bureau update and another 2-3 days delay when CK gets the info and send out email.

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Yes. This is CapOne, which reports a few days after statement cut, which isn't until much later this month. CK's reports still don't show an updated, zero, CapOne balance 10 days after I got the original email. I'm still working on the assumption that the CK email was highly suspicious and that it's pure coincidence that it happened to arrive on the day I actually did, as it said, pay off one of my accounts.

The fact is, though, that the email had my correct email address for CK and that the links appear to be genuine CK links. In every way, it appears to be a legitimate email and not a phishing scam.

Either CapOne notified TU the very day I made my payoff, but TU hasn't updated reports (weird) OR that was one darned clever phishing email.