topic Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame in General Credit Topics

Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

ElMayimbe — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:29:06 GMT

Is it just me or is Credit Sesame scoring system pretty close to FICO?. CK is usually for me between 30 - 40 point difference, I do like CK for daily credit monitoring though. Are there any other free services out there, perhaps better or similiar?

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

bettercreditguy1 — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:40:40 GMT

For me CK is lower than Fico. Also, CK tends to report fast when cc balances increase and updates very slowly when cc are paid off, (sometimes 2-3 weeks) after payment shows up.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

jamesdwi — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:45:25 GMT

@ElMayimbe wrote:

Is it just me or is Credit Sesame scoring system pretty close to FICO?. CK is usually for me between 30 - 40 point difference, I do like CK for daily credit monitoring though. Are there any other free services out there, perhaps better or similiar?

the scores are useless, this week they may be close, next week they may be 50 pts off, the best way to use these services is for tracking the content on your reports, I have seen CK fluxuate 40 pts when my TU hasn't budged niether has my EQ report. They show when cards report, when new cards arrive occausionally they may pop up a deal that seems interesting, but then you do a further search of deal sites and see if its the best offer the credit card offers.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:47:57 GMT

I would say that both ck and cs tend to do a better job approximating clean reports relative to ones with negatives. Both have never really been off for me by more than 15-20 pts in either direction. CS tends to be a little higher than my ex fico and CK tends to be lower, although I don't have a recent tu fico for comparison.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:57:34 GMT

CK has been lower than my FICO score by roughly 20-25 pts. CS usually about 15-20 PST lower. As the previous poster stated, CK reports changes quickly and thus my score may fluctuate more based on the daily reporting.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:48:52 GMT

CS is lower than myfico by over 50 pts and CK is only 25 pts lower than myfico for me. Proves the numbers are worthless.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

beb86 — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:18:01 GMT

Yeah CS vs CK is a pretty worthless comparison. Mine have varied soo much with those two.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:44:41 GMT

@ElMayimbe wrote:

Is it just me or is Credit Sesame scoring system pretty close to FICO?. CK is usually for me between 30 - 40 point difference, I do like CK for daily credit monitoring though. Are there any other free services out there, perhaps better or similiar?

CreditKarma uses TransUnion TransRisk which weighs things differently than FICO. For instance, CreditKarma calculates your average age over open accounts only, while FICO looks at all reported tradelines -- open or closed -- to make the calculation.

CreditSesame uses the Experian National Equivalency Score, which is designed to weigh risk as closely to the same way FICO does as possible. Altough this score normally ranges from 0 to 1000, CreditSesame uses Experian's optional scoring method and actually ranges from 360 to 840, in an attempt to closely match your actual FICO score.

Your results may vary, of course, but between the better score model and CreditKarma's habit of sometimes hiding hard pulls, I usually find that CreditSesame gives me a score much closer to my real FICO than CreditKarma does. But regardless of the actual score, both sites are a useful and free way to stay up-to-date on your TransUnion and Experian reports.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

starry1 — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:56:20 GMT

CK is about 25 pts higher than my fico at the moment.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

-HighScoringGame- — Sun, 18 May 2014 08:17:25 GMT

I've found both CS and CK scores closer to the scores pulled by lenders. I discovered this while shopping for auto financing a few months ago. Their scores were much closer than what I got from MyFico - by 50 points! I called MyFico's customer service to ask what accounts for this huge spread and they said something about the scoring models being different. I'm actually thinking about canceling my monitoring here. If I can get it free at CK and CS why pay?

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

TiggerDat — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:54:57 GMT

My FICO score is a 699 while my CK score is a 688 and my CS is a 701. So they are both pretty close. We all need to remember that these are just guidelines. No matter what, it is what is in your report that makes a lender decide to give you a loan.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

creditnocash — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:10:18 GMT

not only are these fako scores but we have to remember they pull different reports.

it might be different with a longer aaoa (mine is currently 10 months)

but ck has always been around 680's for me

cs has been in 720's.

besides this past month with christmas etc...

current scores ck is 651 (tu)

cs is 679 (ex)

sw eq currently (as of 1-5-13) is 652

p.s. it really doesn't matter what we say. in the end if you pay your cards, keep low util, dont app spree your scores should reflect that.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Open123 — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:28:40 GMT

I think these are great "free" monitoring services for one to keep track of alerts and changes.

Regarding CK, after they recommended I "maximize" my score by opening up 24 additional credit cards (or, was it 18?), I sort of take all of their "recommendations" with a huge grain of salt.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:22:43 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
I think these are great "free" monitoring services for one to keep track of alerts and changes.

Regarding CK, after they recommended I "maximize" my score by opening up 24 additional credit cards (or, was it 18?), I sort of take all of their "recommendations" with a huge grain of salt.

ESP the cards that they give you approval odds for applying.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

creditnocash — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:29:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Open123 wrote:
I think these are great "free" monitoring services for one to keep track of alerts and changes.

Regarding CK, after they recommended I "maximize" my score by opening up 24 additional credit cards (or, was it 18?), I sort of take all of their "recommendations" with a huge grain of salt.
ESP the cards that they give you approval odds for applying.

it actually reccoomended me the chase freedom,(with a good chance of approval) it was the only reason i applied for it. i didnt have too recon it but i did get a crappy limit.

now that i am older and wiser i only use ck as a reference too whats reporting and nothing else.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

jcstarkey8826 — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:03:20 GMT

@ElMayimbe wrote:

Is it just me or is Credit Sesame scoring system pretty close to FICO?. CK is usually for me between 30 - 40 point difference, I do like CK for daily credit monitoring though. Are there any other free services out there, perhaps better or similiar?

YMMV, but Im also 40 points off on CK, but my CS was the exact same as my score when I got my apt in sept. 2012. its all crazy though

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:38:29 GMT

Your score is likely to be different if you run your credit for a auto loan because the score is auto enhanced more often than not. If you have had multiple auto loans that are closed showing paid as agreed, your auto enhanced score tends to be higher than your fico score and vise versa the other way around. Where CK and CS falls into play is complete randomness. Now, I just recently got preapproved for a mortgage on 1/5 (received loan commitment letter on 1/17), and the EQ fico score pulled by the lender matched exactly with my EQ fico on this site and it happens to be my middle score. The TU score the lender pulled was TU04 and it was 16 pts higher than my TU score on this site. This site uses TU98. So I have had good real life comparisons to myfico scores.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

ednajen — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:59:05 GMT

Does Credit Sesame update your FAKO when alerts hit? It says I decreased usage on a card and one of my credit limits increased but it still shows the same FAKO. I just want to guestimate how my actual Experian FiCO might move for the better. It's been a great monitoring tool so far.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:08:13 GMT

When my most recent balance updated a couple of days ago, my CS score didn't change at all. I have still not received a score watch update and I'm thinking I won't get one.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:10:51 GMT

I also got a slight decrease in credit card usage and increased credit limit alert and my CS score remains unchanged.