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How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

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Anonymous
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How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

I'm curious how services like this work. How are they able to do a soft pull on your credit reports on your behalf? Do they have some kind of relationships with the credit buearus or is there some kind of service that they use?

Message 1 of 8
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Anonymous
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Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

There's nothing that really prevents anyone for doing a SP at any time outside of perhaps freezing your reports, but I've never done that so I can't really speak on it.  CK just does a weekly SP in order to generate the report they provide for you.

Message 2 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

Thanks for your reply, BrutalBodyShots. My question, though, is around how they do that on behalf of their customers? Do they have some kind of like partnership with the bureaus to do that or is there like some kind of integration or something that the bureaus offer for them to obtain that data from their users?

Message 3 of 8
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History


@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for your reply, BrutalBodyShots. My question, though, is around how they do that on behalf of their customers? Do they have some kind of like partnership with the bureaus to do that or is there like some kind of integration or something that the bureaus offer for them to obtain that data from their users?


They pull directly from the bureaus.  Same as anyone else, though presumably they have a heavily discounted price on their volume would be my guess.  They don't report anything; that said though a lot of the original free score places were backed by individual bureaus, and I will simply state I'm absolutely not touching the Chase credit monitoring product: you want my TU file you go pull it yourself Chase but I'm a serious outlier in that... but maybe out of the ones still sponsored by a bureau, the bureaus might get some data from that as they do more than just FICO when it comes to their analytics products.

 

Not sure what they could tell them and that falls under the lines of paranoia to be sure, but I'm just suggesting what's possible; as far as I know Credit Karma is one of the few relevant independent ones.  Right place right time I guess, they've done seriously well.




        
Message 4 of 8
bettercreditguy1
Established Contributor

Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

Apps like Credit Karma, Credit.com, Quizzle, etc. can obtain soft pulls on your credit. The purveyors of these sights make money (commission) when you apply for a cc, loan, or other product throught their site. As Revelate stated, CK is very accurate. The only differential I have noticed between CK and My Fico is that the unpaid/remaining balances on my automobile loan and mortage sometimes lag with CK. Not a biggie in my book since loans don't swing your credit score monthly when paid on time. Good luck in your journey.

Updated scores 3/7/21 TU 849, EQ 829, Ex 818 (all Fico scores) Remember the Three P's: Pay early in Full, Pay on Time, Patience
Message 5 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

And, even if loans did, credit scores from CK are pretty worthless anyway.

Message 6 of 8
bettercreditguy1
Established Contributor

Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

CK Vantage Scores are not widely used. However for "free" you can at least see your personal trend lines. It shows weather you are improving or tanking your current  credit profile.

Updated scores 3/7/21 TU 849, EQ 829, Ex 818 (all Fico scores) Remember the Three P's: Pay early in Full, Pay on Time, Patience
Message 7 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: How Do Online Apps Like Credit Karma Soft Pull Your Credit History

Absolutely, I agree that CK is great for weekly monitoring of your TU and EQ reports.  I was just pointing out that their scores have little to no relevance, generally speaking, compared to FICO scores for example.

Message 8 of 8
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