How Many of you use Creditkarma?

[tattooedhusker]

It's ok for what it is (a free monitoring option), but the scores are way off base. My CK score is 638 compared to MyFico TU of 670. I use it because it is fun and a free comparison to other products, but I don't pay any attention to any of the scores they use.

[LoveGoodCredit]

Same with me, I use it to keep track of changes. Somehow for me CreditKarma is on track with  changes to reports, just not sc ores.

[jake619]

The CK FAKO is a joke. No secret there. The site is subsidized by the creditors. My theory is they artificially calculate low and then offer you subprime cards to placate the subprime creditors that are sponsoring CK. Why else would they FAKO so far off? They offered me "likely approved" low-end cards from Cap1 with a stupid high AF but then Amex rewards me with BCE? CK says 635. Amex would say no thanks to that. Anyways that's my theory. Can't think of a better explanation. Maybe others will correct me.

The other services are quite useful and for free you really can't complain.

[llecs]

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@jake619 wrote:
The CK FAKO is a joke. No secret there. The site is subsidized by the creditors. My theory is they artificially calculate low and then offer you subprime cards to placate the subprime creditors that are sponsoring CK. Why else would they FAKO so far off? They offered me "likely approved" low-end cards from Cap1 with a stupid high AF but then Amex rewards me with BCE? CK says 635. Amex would say no thanks to that. Anyways that's my theory. Can't think of a better explanation. Maybe others will correct me.

The other services are quite useful and for free you really can't complain.

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I'll offer an opposing viewpoint....when CK first started, all they offered was a TransRisk FAKO. This FAKO was used only by TransUnion and was available in their products including TrueCredit (back in the day). In other words, the FAKO came first before CK and their offers. Then later TU helped promote Vantage and changed most of their products to reflect that, and was later added to CK too.

[ktl72455]

I use it. Its what I started useing when I decided to see where I stood credit wise. The scoring is off,  my vantage is higher by 3 points than my fico TU score. I dont worry about the auto.

Its not perfect but its free and I can see information that has helped me clean up my credit report and I didnt have to pay for it.

[scorebuilder30]

I use credit karma just for the monitoring of my TU report. The score can be way off at times so looking at items being removed or added is enough for me. Don't use the auto score and occasionally check the Vantage.

[Anonymous]

I use it and I update it every day. I just like seeing numbers move around. I don't know why people always seem to report that their scores there are so much lower than their FICO. I have a 755 on CreditKarma, and although I am too cheap to pay to get my FICO, there is no way in hell that it is higher than the CK score. I would bet just about any amount of money on that. I'd guess my real score is closer to the PLUS score I get from Amex Credit Secure (paid for by my employer for those just about to ask why I'm not too cheap to pay for that), which is 698 or the score I was provided during my SmartCredit free trial last week, which is 648. For someone like me to have "excellent" credit is about as likely as the sun exploding in the next 10 minutes.