Credit Karma scores scrutiny on Twitter

[Anonymous]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

Did it air during the game? Did anyone get the impression that it resonated?

Not sure why this didn't click for me earlier, but it's deeply weird that Experian is running an ad campaign attacking the usefulness of VantageScore, a model that was developed by three companies, one of which was... EXPERIAN!

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lol @Curious_George2 ....I didn't even think of that! You're right!

I don't remember seeing the commercial and I was mostly-to-somewhat coherent for most of that game. It may have aired sometime right  after the game during the lead-in stuff to that new/reboot TV show The Equalizer with Queen Latifah.

Experian's Twitter account promoted it with the hashtag #superbowl.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Credit12Fico wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Experian just started airing a new TV commercial around a week ago that is a very thinly veiled attack on Credit Karma.

Summary: 2 people are tied up in chairs and being brainwashed at a "Credit-Rama" research lab. John Cena and a cow break in to save the day.

(Experian posted it to Youtube, of course.)

I'd say 75/25 on Experian starting the Twitter outrage campaign themselves. lol AND MORE POWER TO THEM.

I know it's going to increase their CMS subscriber base significantly, and I think they deserve it.

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but at the same time, that's pretty oxymoronic to then market "Experian Boost" which is completely useless for real applications for credit. If anything, Experian Boost is just an alternate form of brainwashing to make you think your credit score is higher than it actually is in the eyes of the banks... 

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It's not. It's designed to give the underbanked/serviced a fair shot with credit by rating things like your rent and utility payment history, average bank account balance, etc and factoring it into your score.

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That sounds great, and I'd be all for that if it has any ability to actually help those consumers. But does it? What score(s) is/are affected by the boost? If it's a FICO score, great! But if it's another FAKO score that lenders virtually never use, that's not helping anyone.

If the boost factors go into a FICO score, how? I can see how Experian could package account history from non-traditional sources and feed it into the FICO software black box as if it were a traditional credit account of some kind (maybe code it as a revolver?). But how on earth would they feed bank account balance info into the FICO algorithm? 

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It affects EX FICO 8 directly. I posted that just prior to your reply. The number shown for EX8 after Boost is activated will be the number a lender sees.

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It affects more than just EX8 and also affects VS3 according to EX but they don't list all of the scores that it impacts, just says "the most common versions."

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/does-experian-boost-work/

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Yes, I was just thinking of EX8 there because so many lenders use it.

Also FICO 9, Vantage Score 3 and Vantage Score 4:

"Lenders would see the effects of Boost only if they view your Experian credit report or pull your FICO 8, FICO 9, VantageScore 3 or VantageScore 4 credit scores using Experian data." https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/experian-boost

I didn't find a direct Experian source for that, but it's probably in a whitepaper or something. A Time article mentioned all 4 as did someone who wrote an article about their experience gaining +44 points.

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Those are the scores I figured it would be. They can't do mortgage scores because of federal regulations I'm sure. 

[Anonymous]

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@Curious_George2 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Experian just started airing a new TV commercial around a week ago that is a very thinly veiled attack on Credit Karma.

Summary: 2 people are tied up in chairs and being brainwashed at a "Credit-Rama" research lab. John Cena and a cow break in to save the day.

(Experian posted it to Youtube, of course.)

I'd say 75/25 on Experian starting the Twitter outrage campaign themselves. lol AND MORE POWER TO THEM.

I know it's going to increase their CMS subscriber base significantly, and I think they deserve it.

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That commercial. So bad! I understand it's a hard product to advertise, but still...

I totally agree that Experian doesn't get enough love for the quality of their CMS. But can we talk for a sec about this boost thing they're promoting? It's total garbage, right? My impression is that the only score it affects is an internal one that no one other than the CMS-viewing consumer can see. If so, that totally guts the argument they are making against VS.

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Probably the point of Boost is to see if they can spy on anything they don't know about you already and sell it to someone. 

They do even mention, barely, that Boost can make your score go down. But they don't say exactly how.

[Anonymous]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@Credit12Fico wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Experian just started airing a new TV commercial around a week ago that is a very thinly veiled attack on Credit Karma.

Summary: 2 people are tied up in chairs and being brainwashed at a "Credit-Rama" research lab. John Cena and a cow break in to save the day.

(Experian posted it to Youtube, of course.)

I'd say 75/25 on Experian starting the Twitter outrage campaign themselves. lol AND MORE POWER TO THEM.

I know it's going to increase their CMS subscriber base significantly, and I think they deserve it.

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but at the same time, that's pretty oxymoronic to then market "Experian Boost" which is completely useless for real applications for credit. If anything, Experian Boost is just an alternate form of brainwashing to make you think your credit score is higher than it actually is in the eyes of the banks... 

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It's not. It's designed to give the underbanked/serviced a fair shot with credit by rating things like your rent and utility payment history, average bank account balance, etc and factoring it into your score.

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Average bank account balance is kind of misleading too. Some people have a trove of cash for emergencies, or don't like to watch their excess savings rot, and buy Savings Bonds because banking rates just suck right now. The bank balance is sort of transient. Maybe you have assets you could put in but would rather not because they're currently earning 56 times as much as your Savings Account.

[Anonymous]

I don't care much about Credit Karma scores and Twitter. However, I like Credit Karma because of the free report showing when credit bureaus received your latest payment report from your credit card companies, weekly. That same report also reflected on myfico if you are paying for them as I am doing now for the next few months.  You can also check your inquries and age of accounts. They are free so no complain.

[Anonymous]

From what I am seeing now. The twitter users are showing their own stupidity and ignorance for following the vantage scores from TU and EQ where credit karma put together. They should complain to TU and EQ instead. Get real fico scores from credit card companies or buy myfico complete reports and scores.

[iced]

If the Twitterverse is confused now, just wait until Fair Isaac's monopoly is broken and other scoring models like VS get more widespread use for risk assessment. They can then also whine that their FICO score was way off because the dealership used VS.

Eventually we'll settle into an equilibrium where scores are just approximate guides and people start striving to improve their profile rather than all their scores. On the plus side, that should also be the day people stop taking a credit score so seriously that it's a matter of life or death to them.