Is this accurate?!

[jgallego13]

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this (I apologize if this isn't it). I recently took out a loan in the amount of $25,000 to consolidate my credit card debt. Although the loan has not begun reporting on my credit report just yet, and a hard inquiry did not hit the report (Lending Club) my scores have dramatically increased this morning on Credit Karma.

As of this morning my Credit Karma TU score jumped 98 points to a 749 and EQ jumped 92 points to a 731. I also subscribe to score watch and that EQ score has yet to change and remains at 687.

So my question is, is Credit Karma a reliable source to base my scores on? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I don't think Credit Karma is that reliable when comparing to your actual Fico scores. Credit Karma has my TU score 77 points less than my real Fico score, and it has my EQ score 93 points less than my real Fico score. Credit Karma uses tha Vantage scoring model--not Fico. You can monitor all 3 of your real Fico scores here on MyFico for $25 a month, or there are a few cards that give you your Fico free every month; like Walmart, Barclay, and Discover give a TU Fico score, and Chase (Slate) gives Experian I believe.

[DrZoidberg]

The score the provide is useless in a sense. It's not a FICO score, which is what most lenders use. My FICO score is 800 and my CK score is 750 something. 

[Revelate]

CK scores aren't FICO, they're the best of the secondary scores though to be certain and are used by some fraction of pulls by some fraction of lenders.  Chase (known, I got it personally on my initial letter pre-recon) and Cap 1 (recently reported) have used it to underwrite some products.

That said, if your revolving utilization was high to begin with, you might see a big jump on your FICO scores too... many people do if they were maxxed out and using LC for something like that is nothing but smart both for FICO and for the more important personal financials too.

Well done!