Credit Karma tricked customers into thinking they were pre-approved for credit cards

[WaldenEast]

"The Federal Trade Commission on Monday ordered personal finance company Credit Karma to pay $3 million to customers the agency alleges were deceived into applying for products they weren't eligible for." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/credit-karma-federal-trade-commission-3-million-deceptive-claims/ 

[WaldenEast]

MONEYWATCH

Credit Karma tricked customers into thinking they were pre-approved for credit cards, FTC says https://www.cbsnews.com/news/credit-karma-federal-trade-commission-3-million-deceptive-claims

[OmarGB9]

And of course CK vehemently denies the claims. 

[OniStringer]

Man Credit Karma could be such a great tool and is for a quick glance at your credit as a whole. But they really do weird things.

[Bill77]

Speaking of CK, I feel like the marketing of the Upgrade cards are deceptive.  It should be more clear that you are not signing up for a standard credit card everyone would commonly know.  Although I'm sure they covered themselves in the fine print.

[Horseshoez]

I've been critical of CreditKarma in the past and been heavily flamed for the effort; this revelation from the FTC comes as no surprise to me.

[1GaDawg85]

this is my shocked face 

[DXness]

Upgrade is not the only shady thing they still have going - when I check my CK profile, they dress up arguably terrible cards from Credit One, Merrick, Mission Lane, etc and dress down nice cards from Citi, US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Amex.  They have the Credit One Platinum rated the same as the Amex Platinum charge card, like excuse me what?  They make the Citi Custom Cash look like one of the worst offerings available and slap "fair" approval odds on those nice cards, while decorating the subprimes with guarantee banners.  OUTSTANDING odds for Mission Lane!  Fair odds for the BCE that I actually got approved for.

That marketing is designed to scare you from apping for the prime cards and steer you to the predators licking their lips at the thought of having your money for their lunch.  CK probably gets referral money to promote those and I don't recall if they disclose such relationships anywhere.  So unethical...

[Horseshoez]

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@DXness wrote:

Upgrade is not the only shady thing they still have going - when I check my CK profile, they dress up arguably terrible cards from Credit One, Merrick, Mission Lane, etc and dress down nice cards from Citi, US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Amex.  They have the Credit One Platinum rated the same as the Amex Platinum charge card, like excuse me what?  They make the Citi Custom Cash look like one of the worst offerings available and slap "fair" approval odds on those nice cards, while decorating the subprimes with guarantee banners.  OUTSTANDING odds for Mission Lane!  Fair odds for the BCE that I actually got approved for.

That marketing is designed to scare you from apping for the prime cards and steer you to the predators licking their lips at the thought of having your money for their lunch.  CK probably gets referral money to promote those and I don't recall if they disclose such relationships anywhere.  So unethical...

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Click on the "Advertiser Disclosure" link:

[Remedios]

Well, my wish is "Gee, wouldn't it be nice to have an agency in charge of finning consumers for refusing to educate themselves, eating Tide pods, banning Kinder eggs because parents cannot bother with supervising their kids"

It's also very interesting how some can be pro and anti regulations at the same time depending on what's happening