Is CreditKarma smoking crack?

[Anonymous]

SO this month I got rid of my last derog comments account (charge off) and one other collection that was 6 yrs old.. That leaves one charge off for Sprint that was paid. My Fico score shot up 40 points to 685 (true Fico) but  CreditKarma dropped 9 points to 648. Now last month at 657 they said my chances of getting a Chase Freedom or Discover IT were "poor". Now all of a sudden, they say my chances of getting a Chase Freedom or Discover IT are "very good" even though the score has dropped. Now they are also adding BOA as a "good" chance.I just don't get it. How can all of these chances get better when the score has dropped? I am not thinking that this crap is too reliable and i don't want to burn a hard inquiry to prove my theory.

The pre-qual sites do not work since I was opted out until last month and the opt back in has not yet taken effect. I'm thinking I wouldn't want to attempt Chase or BOA without a succesful pre-qual. I just want a Prime Card before I start gardening for the next year. I have a NFCU for $8K that is 4 months old (just got a $2K increase), a Barclay's $1K that is 3 months old and a USAA secured for $300 that is 13 months old. I also have 2 installments reporting even though the big one is paid off and not reporting zero yet, 2 real estate. AAOA is 5-6 yrs. I have some over 30s that are 6 yrs old, and one collection for $500 paid (SPRINT). I recently completed a refi on my house that has not shown up yet. Cut my interest in half! I really feel like I need a prime card before I close the old USAA acct that has served its purpose. I have some Fako scores already in the 700's (USAA Exp and TU) and really hope to be in the Fico 700 club by Spring/Summer.

Bottom line, I think CreditKarma gets paid for apps whether they are approved or not.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

SO this month I got rid of my last derog comments account (charge off) and one other collection that was 6 yrs old.. That leaves one charge off for Sprint that was paid. My Fico score shot up 40 points to 685 (true Fico) but  CreditKarma dropped 9 points to 648. Now last month at 657 they said my chances of getting a Chase Freedom or Discover IT were "poor". Now all of a sudden, they say my chances of getting a Chase Freedom or Discover IT are "very good" even though the score has dropped. Now they are also adding BOA as a "good" chance.I just don't get it. How can all of these chances get better when the score has dropped? I am not thinking that this crap is too reliable and i don't want to burn a hard inquiry to prove my theory.

The pre-qual sites do not work since I was opted out until last month and the opt back in has not yet taken effect. I'm thinking I wouldn't want to attempt Chase or BOA without a succesful pre-qual. I just want a Prime Card before I start gardening for the next year. I have a NFCU for $8K that is 4 months old (just got a $2K increase), a Barclay's $1K that is 3 months old and a USAA secured for $300 that is 13 months old. I also have 2 installments reporting even though the big one is paid off and not reporting zero yet, 2 real estate. AAOA is 5-6 yrs. I have some over 30s that are 6 yrs old, and one collection for $500 paid (SPRINT). I recently completed a refi on my house that has not shown up yet. Cut my interest in half! I really feel like I need a prime card before I close the old USAA acct that has served its purpose. I have some Fako scores already in the 700's (USAA Exp and TU) and really hope to be in the Fico 700 club by Spring/Summer.

Bottom line, I think CreditKarma gets paid for apps whether they are approved or not.

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I ignore their suggestions.

[Anonymous]

CK is good for monitoring alerts.  Their scores are useless.  Mine is 100 points lower than my Fico scores

[nkrishdtt]

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@Anonymous wrote:

SO this month I got rid of my last derog comments account (charge off) and one other collection that was 6 yrs old.. That leaves one charge off for Sprint that was paid. My Fico score shot up 40 points to 685 (true Fico) but  CreditKarma dropped 9 points to 648. Now last month at 657 they said my chances of getting a Chase Freedom or Discover IT were "poor". Now all of a sudden, they say my chances of getting a Chase Freedom or Discover IT are "very good" even though the score has dropped. Now they are also adding BOA as a "good" chance.I just don't get it. How can all of these chances get better when the score has dropped? I am not thinking that this crap is too reliable and i don't want to burn a hard inquiry to prove my theory.

The pre-qual sites do not work since I was opted out until last month and the opt back in has not yet taken effect. I'm thinking I wouldn't want to attempt Chase or BOA without a succesful pre-qual. I just want a Prime Card before I start gardening for the next year. I have a NFCU for $8K that is 4 months old (just got a $2K increase), a Barclay's $1K that is 3 months old and a USAA secured for $300 that is 13 months old. I also have 2 installments reporting even though the big one is paid off and not reporting zero yet, 2 real estate. AAOA is 5-6 yrs. I have some over 30s that are 6 yrs old, and one collection for $500 paid (SPRINT). I recently completed a refi on my house that has not shown up yet. Cut my interest in half! I really feel like I need a prime card before I close the old USAA acct that has served its purpose. I have some Fako scores already in the 700's (USAA Exp and TU) and really hope to be in the Fico 700 club by Spring/Summer.

Bottom line, I think CreditKarma gets paid for apps whether they are approved or not.

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I have  started ignoring their scores OP. All i use it is to look up my CR. Anyways their score is a FAKO, so it's pretty darn useless in that sense

[wacdenney]

+1 to what others have said about CK scores being useless.  I had an unpaid medical collection fall off TU this month and my CK score didn't change at all.  It's about 100 points lower than the TU score provided by Discover.

[Jerry45]

I agree with others here. CK is good for alerts and the weekly TU Credit report they now include. I was like you a while back, pulled my hair out over CK's wacky score system. They are at least 40+ points lower than my TU Fico score these days. They really nail you on any balances etc...

TU Fico is the way to go.

[elim]

i tracked mine for awhile. not pretty...

[mongstradamus]

Just to add some data here, My CK score is about 30 points less than my TU fico that i receive from here, Discover, Walmart, and Barclays. I do like the free TU monitoring even if its an bit slow :-) I got an notification for an HP when i appled for my US airways card, even though that card was already reporting on my credit report lol

[Polonius]

CreditKarma is reporting the TransUnion® New Account Score,  which it considers the appropriate scoring model to use for determining whether you're going to be eligible for a new credit card.  It's not a FICO score and doesn't claim to be one.

Here's the Credit Karma description of that score:

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TransUnion Credit Score

This score, which ranges from 300-850, is calculated from TransUnion's proprietary scoring algorithm. It is used by lenders to assess a consumer's creditworthiness, or the chance you'll default on a loan or line of credit, and can influence lending decisions. Your TransUnion credit score is derived from the following factors:

• Open credit card utilization (high importance)
• Percent of on-time payments (high importance)
• Number of derogatory marks (high importance)
• Average age of open credit lines (medium importance)
• Total number of accounts (low importance)
• Total hard credit inquiries (low importance)

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Remember, there are many FICO scoring models.  As a general rule, we can't even see the model that a particular bank uses for evaluating a credit card application.  Even if you pay for an "official" FICO score here, you'll only get one of those many scores

[TheGardner]

Balance and AAoA are huge factors with CK. My score is 82 points lower than my Fico. They don't include closed accounts into the age!