topic Is Credit Karma just a waste of time? in General Credit Topics

Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Dervrak — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 12:02:17 GMT

I keep an account at Credit Karma because, well why not, it's free. But whatever scoring system they use seems to be so detached from reality as to be useless. My scores vary wildly from my much more accurate "myFICO" scores sometimes as much as 60 points! Information wise, all the information they are pulling from my credit report seems accurate, but for instance they currently have my Equifax score as 708

where it is 763 on my myFICO report. Also their "scores" seem ridiculously hurky-jerky jumping up and down by large amounts every couple days. For instance, last Wednesday my Equifax score supposedly jumped 18 points because....wait for it....I made my monthly auto and mortgage payment! (at least that's what it had listed under the, why did my score change explanation) And today it just dropped 12 points because a $584 auto-charge hit my USSA card for my six month car insurance payment (bare in mind I have 90,000 in open credit with a 6% usage so this charge would have increased my usage roughly 0.7%).

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 12:16:04 GMT

CK is great for watching your TU and EQ reports for changes and anomalies. Disregard their scores for anything other than amusement though. They use VantageScore 3.0 scoring algorithms which are different than FICO and are used by essentially no one for purposes of granting credit.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 12:36:21 GMT

No, Credit Karma is not a waste of time. First, its useful in keeping track of your TU and EQ credit reports. Second, even though the scores used are based on the VantageScore 3.0 scoring model, you want to pay attention to the trend in scores over time, not the week to week fluctuations.

What I've noticed is that with thin files and rebuilders, VantageScore 3.0 scores tend to vary significantly from FICO 8 scores. But as your credit file thickens and matures, your VS3.0 scores start to converge towards FICO 8 scores although they would probably never be the same. FICO 8 is no more "accurate" than VantageScore 3.0; they use the same inputs but weigh certain factors differently. The advantage that FICO possesses is that it is the dominant scoring model in the market, primarily because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac imposed the requirement for FICO scores during the mortgage underwriting process.

Fannie and Freedie requires mortgage lenders to use Equifax Beacon 5.0, Experian FICO V2, and TransUnion FICO Classic 04 scores. Since most mortgages are eventually sold to, or securitized by those two government sponsored enterprises, FICO scores became the default scoring model for most lenders.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 14:27:38 GMT

I agree that CK is not a waste of time. I get alerts regularly from CK, most of the time sooner than myFico. I will say that I dont pay much attention to the actual score. Example of why is that I am practicing AZEO right now. Doing this boosted my FICO 8 by approx 13 - 14 points. When viewing the AZEO results on CK, my scores actually went down by 5 points. Again, as a monitoring service & review of accounts CK is not bad.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

SouthJamaica — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 14:48:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I agree that CK is not a waste of time. I get alerts regularly from CK, most of the time sooner than myFico. I will say that I dont pay much attention to the actual score. Example of why is that I am practicing AZEO right now. Doing this boosted my FICO 8 by approx 13 - 14 points. When viewing the AZEO results on CK, my scores actually went down by 5 points. Again, as a monitoring service & review of accounts CK is not bad.

I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 15:19:50 GMT

+1 for what @Maizeandblue said.

I've found that my VS3 scores didn't react at all to an SSL/'credit builder' loan falling below 9% utilization (42.35 remaining on $500).

FICO 8 scores went up just as expected from reading observations on the forums.

So, on New Year's Eve, with 1 open account (SSL) and without any revolving accounts reporting yet, I had a TU 8 score of 728 and a TU VS3 score of 629. So almost 100pts difference, and my credit file was clean from the start at 1 year 1 month old.

Today, 8 months later, the two scores are exactly the same - 742.

I think this is because I only have 2 revolving accounts at AZEO with a very low balance ($35) and no auto, personal, or mortgage loans open.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 00:19:21 GMT

Those incidents you are discribing are changing your FICO too. You just do not see them because you are getting a monthly FICO score update vs a weekly Vantage Score update. Which thankfully FICO does not offer because it will be one more think to obsess over. The weekly fluctuations of any score is rarely anything to be concerned about. Use the service for its benefits. You get access to your credit reports on weekly basis for free. Something that did not exist before CK came along.

If you prefer to access your reports without the anxiety of a fluctuating score, check out TrueIdentity.com. It is a TransUnion site. You can get a fresh TransUnion report every single day for free. No trials or anything like that. Also no score.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 00:23:45 GMT

9 times out of 10 any time a CK discussion comes up on this forum and someone asks if it's worth using, the first thing you'll be told is that you should ignore the scores they provide. I agree that ignoring the scores along with their fluff summary software charts/graphs is definitely the way to go.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

NeverGivinUp — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 02:51:20 GMT

Glad to have read this. Just got an Alert from CK on my husband's score that EQ dropped 32 pts.! Checked the "What's Changed". Showed 2 Cards increased Balance & 2 Cards decreased Balance (both within $5). The only other change was the addition of 2 Amex Cards. Given the additional Credit Limits, seems it should have increased ?|?| No changes yet showing on FICO scores. Still, SCARY!!

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 03:43:53 GMT

@NeverGivinUp wrote:
Glad to have read this. Just got an Alert from CK on my husband's score that EQ dropped 32 pts.!

Yup, nothing to worry about at all. If his Fico scores dropped 32 points it would be worth sweating, but not a VS 3.0 drop.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

BallBounces — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:38:14 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.

I echo @SouthJamaica, as it relates to Credit Karma being a waste of time.

Let me be very specific:

We all agree the Vantage scores are at best of limited to dubious value. But the CreditKarma defense is often "weekly monitoring of TU, etc". If you are going to use this rationale, why not offer up a better solution: There is a similar site with daily updates of the same. Or, if you really want to be on top of you game, utilize the Experian method and stagger "bi weekly" full FICO score checks. Not to mention, I dont have a lot of cards, but I have 4 distinct credit card companies that provide a reasonable level of active monitoring of these events sent to me if I dont want to be checking in weekly for something new on my file. (Amex, Discover, Cap One, Citi, and I don't even have Amex or Cap One cards anymore)

So yeah, in my opinion CK specifically is an actual waste of time - you can get better detail elsewhere actively, or let the same detail come to you passively.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

calyx — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 15:20:23 GMT

@BallBounces wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.
I echo @SouthJamaica, as it relates to Credit Karma being a waste of time.

Let me be very specific:

We all agree the Vantage scores are at best of limited to dubious value. But the CreditKarma defense is often "weekly monitoring of TU, etc". If you are going to use this rationale, why not offer up a better solution: There is a similar site with daily updates of the same. Or, if you really want to be on top of you game, utilize the Experian method and stagger "bi weekly" full FICO score checks. Not to mention, I dont have a lot of cards, but I have 4 distinct credit card companies that provide a reasonable level of active monitoring of these events sent to me if I dont want to be checking in weekly for something new on my file. (Amex, Discover, Cap One, Citi, and I don't even have Amex or Cap One cards anymore)

So yeah, in my opinion CK specifically is an actual waste of time - you can get better detail elsewhere actively, or let the same detail come to you passively.

I use EX for daily EX monitoring, CK for EQ monitoring, and WalletHub for daily TU.

I would say, the best reason (for me) that CK is not a waste of time is the CBIS (TU) and the EQ monitoring.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:18:25 GMT

@BallBounces wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.
I echo @SouthJamaica, as it relates to Credit Karma being a waste of time.

Let me be very specific:

We all agree the Vantage scores are at best of limited to dubious value. But the CreditKarma defense is often "weekly monitoring of TU, etc". If you are going to use this rationale, why not offer up a better solution: There is a similar site with daily updates of the same. Or, if you really want to be on top of you game, utilize the Experian method and stagger "bi weekly" full FICO score checks. Not to mention, I dont have a lot of cards, but I have 4 distinct credit card companies that provide a reasonable level of active monitoring of these events sent to me if I dont want to be checking in weekly for something new on my file. (Amex, Discover, Cap One, Citi, and I don't even have Amex or Cap One cards anymore)

So yeah, in my opinion CK specifically is an actual waste of time - you can get better detail elsewhere actively, or let the same detail come to you passively.

You’re making the same mistake as most. You are conflating Credit Karma with Vantage. Credit Karma is a waste of time becaue they don’t provide the Vantage score on the schedule that you would prefer, does not make sense.

Credit Karma is a company that has a business that provides free scores and reports in exchange for the ability to market to you. Same way Google and Facebook works. They don’t own or create the Vantage score. They have as much to do with it as you and me. The Vantage score is owned by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. They created it to compete with FICO. If Credit Karma went out of business tomorrow, Vantage scores would still exist. It’s funny people associate FICO with EX, TU, EQ when they actual own Vantage and not FICO.

That would be fine “for the uninitiated, but we are initiated”...said Bane

People may feel the Vantage score is useless and the extrapolate that to Credit Karma. I don’t find Ford useless because they make cars I don’t drive.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

BallBounces — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:38:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@BallBounces wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.
I echo @SouthJamaica, as it relates to Credit Karma being a waste of time.

Let me be very specific:

We all agree the Vantage scores are at best of limited to dubious value. But the CreditKarma defense is often "weekly monitoring of TU, etc". If you are going to use this rationale, why not offer up a better solution: There is a similar site with daily updates of the same. Or, if you really want to be on top of you game, utilize the Experian method and stagger "bi weekly" full FICO score checks. Not to mention, I dont have a lot of cards, but I have 4 distinct credit card companies that provide a reasonable level of active monitoring of these events sent to me if I dont want to be checking in weekly for something new on my file. (Amex, Discover, Cap One, Citi, and I don't even have Amex or Cap One cards anymore)

So yeah, in my opinion CK specifically is an actual waste of time - you can get better detail elsewhere actively, or let the same detail come to you passively.

You’re making the same mistake as most. You are conflating Credit Karma with Vantage. Credit Karma is a waste of time becaue they don’t provide the Vantage score on the schedule that you would prefer, does not make sense.

Credit Karma is a company that has a business that provides free scores and reports in exchange for the ability to market to you. Same way Google and Facebook works. They don’t own or create the Vantage score. They have as much to do with it as you and me. The Vantage score is owned by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. They created it to compete with FICO. If Credit Karma went out of business tomorrow, Vantage scores would still exist. It’s funny people associate FICO with EX, TU, EQ when they actual own Vantage and not FICO.
That would be fine “for the uninitiated, but we are initiated”...said Bane

People may feel the Vantage score is useless and the extrapolate that to Credit Karma. I don’t find Ford useless because they make cars I don’t drive.

With all respect, I am precisely not making that mistake.

My point is I can get everything credit Karma offers, elsewhere, and current. So, it is, quite specifically, a "waste of time" to view it there. I am sorry that I don't know how to be more clear, it has nothing to do with the Vantage score displayed there or the myriad other places I can see it every day.

We will very much agree CreditKarma exists to gain "subscribers" which they can co market to partners. That too, is quite literally a waste of my time.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Remedios — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:55:58 GMT

From CMS point of view, we're allowed access paid or otherwise, in order to be able to peddle cards and other products to us.

In that respect, CK is no different that EX monitoring. Or Nerd Wallet. Or TU own website. Any, really.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

calyx — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 19:01:54 GMT

@BallBounces wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@BallBounces wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.
I echo @SouthJamaica, as it relates to Credit Karma being a waste of time.

Let me be very specific:

We all agree the Vantage scores are at best of limited to dubious value. But the CreditKarma defense is often "weekly monitoring of TU, etc". If you are going to use this rationale, why not offer up a better solution: There is a similar site with daily updates of the same. Or, if you really want to be on top of you game, utilize the Experian method and stagger "bi weekly" full FICO score checks. Not to mention, I dont have a lot of cards, but I have 4 distinct credit card companies that provide a reasonable level of active monitoring of these events sent to me if I dont want to be checking in weekly for something new on my file. (Amex, Discover, Cap One, Citi, and I don't even have Amex or Cap One cards anymore)

So yeah, in my opinion CK specifically is an actual waste of time - you can get better detail elsewhere actively, or let the same detail come to you passively.

You’re making the same mistake as most. You are conflating Credit Karma with Vantage. Credit Karma is a waste of time becaue they don’t provide the Vantage score on the schedule that you would prefer, does not make sense.

Credit Karma is a company that has a business that provides free scores and reports in exchange for the ability to market to you. Same way Google and Facebook works. They don’t own or create the Vantage score. They have as much to do with it as you and me. The Vantage score is owned by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. They created it to compete with FICO. If Credit Karma went out of business tomorrow, Vantage scores would still exist. It’s funny people associate FICO with EX, TU, EQ when they actual own Vantage and not FICO.
That would be fine “for the uninitiated, but we are initiated”...said Bane

People may feel the Vantage score is useless and the extrapolate that to Credit Karma. I don’t find Ford useless because they make cars I don’t drive.
With all respect, I am precisely not making that mistake.

My point is I can get everything credit Karma offers, elsewhere, and current. So, it is, quite specifically, a "waste of time" to view it there. I am sorry that I don't know how to be more clear, it has nothing to do with the Vantage score displayed there or the myriad other places I can see it every day.

We will very much agree CreditKarma exists to gain "subscribers" which they can co market to partners. That too, is quite literally a waste of my time.

Do you get your EQ monitoring from a credit card or other pay site? Or do you have a free site? Barring CBIS (because most people don't care about that) and focusing on the 'big three CRA' monitoring, I still 'need' it because I can't find any other free sites with access to EQ monitoring, so I'm curious where you're getting it.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 19:22:26 GMT

@BallBounces wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@BallBounces wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I recognize that it does update TU & EQ reports on a weekly basis, but to tell you the truth, I do find it a waste of time.
I echo @SouthJamaica, as it relates to Credit Karma being a waste of time.

Let me be very specific:

We all agree the Vantage scores are at best of limited to dubious value. But the CreditKarma defense is often "weekly monitoring of TU, etc". If you are going to use this rationale, why not offer up a better solution: There is a similar site with daily updates of the same. Or, if you really want to be on top of you game, utilize the Experian method and stagger "bi weekly" full FICO score checks. Not to mention, I dont have a lot of cards, but I have 4 distinct credit card companies that provide a reasonable level of active monitoring of these events sent to me if I dont want to be checking in weekly for something new on my file. (Amex, Discover, Cap One, Citi, and I don't even have Amex or Cap One cards anymore)

So yeah, in my opinion CK specifically is an actual waste of time - you can get better detail elsewhere actively, or let the same detail come to you passively.

You’re making the same mistake as most. You are conflating Credit Karma with Vantage. Credit Karma is a waste of time becaue they don’t provide the Vantage score on the schedule that you would prefer, does not make sense.

Credit Karma is a company that has a business that provides free scores and reports in exchange for the ability to market to you. Same way Google and Facebook works. They don’t own or create the Vantage score. They have as much to do with it as you and me. The Vantage score is owned by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. They created it to compete with FICO. If Credit Karma went out of business tomorrow, Vantage scores would still exist. It’s funny people associate FICO with EX, TU, EQ when they actual own Vantage and not FICO.
That would be fine “for the uninitiated, but we are initiated”...said Bane

People may feel the Vantage score is useless and the extrapolate that to Credit Karma. I don’t find Ford useless because they make cars I don’t drive.
With all respect, I am precisely not making that mistake.

My point is I can get everything credit Karma offers, elsewhere, and current. So, it is, quite specifically, a "waste of time" to view it there. I am sorry that I don't know how to be more clear, it has nothing to do with the Vantage score displayed there or the myriad other places I can see it every day.

We will very much agree CreditKarma exists to gain "subscribers" which they can co market to partners. That too, is quite literally a waste of my time.

Where can you get a free Equifax report more “current” than once a week? You can get a daily TU but that is literally not “everything CK offers”. Also all those banks you listed provide scores not reports. There is actually a very limited number of places to get free reports. I’m not aware of any CC that provide reports.

If you are saying you can get more current information by paying then my response would be “of course you can”

I think in any information repository you have to separate “is this useful to me” from “is it useful”. You are saying “I don’t need it, therefore it’s useless”.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

CreditRebuilder2020 — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 22:01:42 GMT

As others have said....those scores are basically useless. But if you don't want to pay for an account with the Big 3 Bureaus....it's not bad for credit monitoring.

Every time I apply for a card and my TU/EQ gets pulled, Credit Karma is pretty solid with how quick it lets me know about the inquiry.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 03:27:04 GMT

@CreditRebuilder2020 wrote:

Every time I apply for a card and my TU/EQ gets pulled, Credit Karma is pretty solid with how quick it lets me know about the inquiry.

Many on this forum that pay for a MF monthly membership that also use CK often report that CK alerts (that are free) come faster than the alerts from the paid MF service.

Re: Is Credit Karma just a waste of time?

BallBounces — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 14:58:30 GMT

@calyx wrote:
Do you get your EQ monitoring from a credit card or other pay site? Or do you have a free site? Barring CBIS (because most people don't care about that) and focusing on the 'big three CRA' monitoring, I still 'need' it because I can't find any other free sites with access to EQ monitoring, so I'm curious where you're getting it.

I missed this, sorry.

I monitor EQ through a combination of card providers and the "several times a month Experian process" I follow. Experian will monitor EQ and TU and provide alerts such as the below. It does occur to me that this is not "free", so it does not really fit your criteria. I agree that EQ certainly makes things harder than TU and EX for simple monitoring., but my process works for me.

XXXX reported a new account on your Equifax Credit Report.

New Account Alerts notify you when a new account is added to your credit report.