In this day and age, it is essential to know your credit score.
New websites are launched every day. It can be difficult to tell if apps and sites like Credit Karma, are scams or safe.
Credit Karma is a simple and free way to view your financial history. Credit Karma has made my life so much easier since I found it earlier this year.
It’s best to check that the company you use is safe and legitimate before you jump in.
You should always be cautious when giving out your social security number to anyone.
This can lead to identity fraud or draining your bank accounts. Nobody wants to be a victim of identity theft or have their financial accounts drained.
Let’s look at the reasons why you would want to see your credit report before we discuss whether Credit Karma will be safe.
Table of Contents
Your credit score is very important. This is why:
Credit Karma
Can I trust Credit Karma with my information?
Credit Karma: How does it make money?
You can now view your credit score and report before Credit Karma.
Credit Karma Offers More Than Just Your Credit Score
Do I have to use Credit Karma?
Negatives of Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a great tool for creating a strong financial foundation
Credit Reports aren’t intuitive
Your credit score is very important. This is why:
Credit Karma is safe? How to monitor your credit for free
Companies need to know if you’ll pay back money you borrow. You can do this by looking at your past financial records to see if there are any hidden monsters.
Are you able to pay on time?
How much debt are you currently carrying?
Do you spend your money like a celebrity?
Have you ever defaulted on a loan?
What other reasons should someone be worried about lending you money to?
Credit scores and reports can help fill in this gap. It gives a summary of your current financial status and history.
A high credit score does not necessarily indicate that you are good with money, or have a solid financial foundation.
Your credit score is primarily designed to answer two questions: “Is the person financially responsible, and do they have debts?”
You can get a loan for anything, be it a car, a house, prepaid credit cards, etc. You want your credit score to be as high as possible.
Your credit score and history will determine your rates and credit limits. It is therefore in your best interests to stay on top your finances.
CreditRepair.com can help you fix your credit.
Incorrect information on your credit report could negatively impact your credit score. You can’t correct what you don’t know. It is important to monitor your credit report and score regularly.
You would not want to be denied a mortgage after applying for one. It’s possible that you may be applying for a new job and the company will check your credit history.
Be prepared! Check your credit report and score.
A stellar credit score will ensure that you qualify for the lowest possible interest rates, saving you potentially thousands of dollars on interest payments.
Need tips on credit scores and how to keep a high score? You need these tips!
Credit Karma
Credit Karma, a company that provides consumers with free credit scores on demand and at no cost, was founded in 2007.
The following is a summary of the services they offer:
VantageScore 3.0 allows you to view credit scores from Equifax, TransUnion and TransUnion.
Access Equifax TransUnion Credit Reports
View the balances of the accounts that you have opened and closed.
This article provides a method to dispute errors in your credit report
Sign up for new insurance, credit cards and loans based on the credit score.
Other features which are not as obvious include:
Estimated value of your vehicle
Your “insurance score” can be used to calculate your chances of reducing your auto insurance rate
Compare home loan rates to what you currently pay
Estimated rates and approvals on personal loans
Find out which credit cards are likely to be approved for you.
Tax filing service for free
Post and view reviews of credit cards
What is the best feature of Credit Karma, you ask? The service is completely free.
Since I began using Credit Karma I have made it a practice to log in every month. I like being able quickly to pull up my score and see what has changed over time.
Signing up for this service is a great way to see how your score has changed over the course of your financial history. It will save your credit score each time you check it, so you can always access it.
Credit Karma is a valuable tool that we will continue to use as part of our strategy for financial catch-up.
Recently, I closed several credit card accounts and noticed that my credit score began to drop a few points. Credit Karma has pulled my actual credit report, which I was expecting.
Can I trust Credit Karma with my information?
You should always consider the safety of your data when entering it into a system.
Credit Karma is proud to announce that it has taken all the necessary measures to protect your personal information.
They have 85+ millions members, and they are growing rapidly.
You know that the government will be watching closely how you use data, as you are a huge company. The main security measures that you’d expect from a large company are also covered.
They use DigiCert’s EV SSL certificates, the highest level of authentication available.
They limit access to your SSN by using 128-bit encryption.
The TRUSTe Privacy Policy is a detailed policy on privacy that has been certified.
Credit Karma does not share your personal information with 3rd party companies
Security audits are regularly performed by 3rd parties
Bug bounty programs are designed to reward people who find security vulnerabilities or issues within their systems.
Credit Karma’s top-notch security practices don’t guarantee that someone won’t gain access to your account.
You should use a strong password and set answers to your security question that are not easily guessable.
You’ll see that the Credit Karma IOS App has 130,000 reviews, with an average rating of 5/5. Credit Karma isn’t just a favorite of mine!
The mobile app for Credit Karma is amazing. Credit Karma’s mobile app is fantastic. They require you to set up a security pin. On my iPhone, Face ID can be enabled for a quick and easy login.
When you use their service, it is clear that they place a high priority on security.
Credit Karma, like any site or service, could be attacked and their systems compromised. But it is clear that they do everything possible to prevent that.
Sign up for Credit Karma to monitor your credit score without negatively impacting it. Sign up here to access the platform for free!
Credit Karma: How does it make money?
If a company was collecting your personal information and you were unsure of how they were making money, that would be a big red flag.
Credit Karma is not responsible for this issue.
Their services and website is 100% free.
They make money by recommending products and services to you once you have logged in.
Credit Karma pays a commission to anyone who signs up for credit cards, loans, or services through their website.
You can be sure that they make a lot of money, given the number of people who use their platform. According to the article, this company generated over $500 million dollars in revenue in 2016.
Credit Karma must be thrilled with the amount of revenue they generate, as you can imagine security is a major concern. This confirms that they have enough money to ensure your data is secure and safe.
There are no guarantees, however, that a breach of data won’t occur in the future.
Credit Karma, based on what I’ve seen and heard, is not at greater risk than any other bank or large company.
The risk is that someone will guess your password. Use a strong password.
You can now view your credit score and report before Credit Karma.
Before Credit Karma, I was accessing my credit reports for free through AnnualCreditReport.com. You can view your credit reports from the three largest companies on this site once a calendar year for free.
The issue in using AnnualCreditReport.com is that you don’t get access to your credit score, and you can only view your credit reports once per year.
I also accessed my credit scores via the credit card websites, which provided a feature for credit scores.
The process was fine, but it took a lot of time to pull up each score. Most often, your credit score is only updated once per month.
Other companies that offer credit scores and reports often charge a monthly fee.
Credit Karma saved me from signing up for a service that I had seriously considered.
Credit Karma believes that everyone should have access to their credit scores and reports.
You can make better decisions for your future if you are more informed about your financial situation. This information can be used to help you create a realistic and sustainable budget.
Credit Karma Offers More Than Just Your Credit Score
You might initially think that the biggest benefit of CreditKarma is to be able view your credit score.
Credit Karma’s best feature is its credit monitoring service, which is FREE. You will receive an email notification when your credit report is updated.
You can also get a team of minions to work for you, who will send you notifications whenever something important happens in your credit report.
This is a huge deal.
Imagine someone gets your information and opens a new card. You would only know if you manually viewed your credit report or received a letter about a new bank account you did not open.
Credit Karma will send you an email or mobile notification when a new account appears on your credit report. This alert allows you to act quickly on this identity theft.
This feature was tested a few weeks back. I received two emails a few weeks after I had signed up for the new card. The new account appeared on both my Credit Karma reports.
Anyone who has experienced identity theft will tell you that this is an enormous benefit.
Credit Karma’s credit card monitoring is yet another reason to open an account as soon as possible. You used to have to pay monthly fees to receive this service. Not anymore!
Do I have to use Credit Karma?
Credit Karma is not the only way to view your credit report and score.
Credit Karma is a good place to get a free credit report, but it’s not the only one.
It doesn’t really matter how you check this information periodically to ensure it is accurate.
There are other services that do not charge a fee but don’t offer the same benefits as Credit Karma. It is worth looking into to determine which option is best.
Credit Karma was not only secure, but also more useful than other “premium services” I have used before.
The minimum you should do is view your credit reports for free on AnnualCreditReport.com once per year.
This information is only available once per year. However, it’s better to do something than nothing. You can also access all three reports.
Credit Karma: Negatives
Credit Karma offers a lot of value for free. Credit Karma is a legitimate and safe company. I could not find any information indicating that your information was at risk.
Credit Karma has one major downside.
You can only access your credit report and score from TransUnion and Equifax. TransUnion, Equifax and Experian credit reports are available.
Most of the time, changes in your credit score will be reported by all three agencies. But there is a chance something could only go to one report, and so I would suggest pulling up Experian’s credit report once per year from AnnualCreditReport.com.
With this plan, you will be able to catch any errors in your credit report.
Is it a major issue? Is this a big issue? Experian may have a unique report but it is likely that the same information will appear in other credit reports. It is best to be safe and make sure you cover all bases.
Credit Karma, aside from this issue, is an excellent service. It is safe and reliable.
Credit Karma’s UI is Increasingly Optimized to ‘Sell You’ Products
You should know that the user interface, or UI (what you see while using the service), is being tailored more and more to encourage people to sign up for loans, credit cards and other services via the service.
This is the way that I see it.
This is important because, if you’re the type of person who makes impulsive purchases and sign up for a credit card just by seeing an ad, spending time on sites that constantly promote these products could be risky.
Credit Karma will keep your information as secure as possible, but that does not mean your financial future will be protected if you are pushed to take out loans you do not need.
If used correctly, this tool can make you more aware of ways to improve your financial situation.
Credit Karma is a great tool for creating a strong financial foundation
Credit Karma won’t magically improve your score or history of credit.
It does give you a great bird’s-eye view of your finances.
You can use this to make sure that your payments are shown on your credit reports. Your credit score will increase over time.
It was also useful to know the average age of my credit cards. This information is used to calculate your credit score. It is also useful for determining if you want to close specific credit card accounts.
If you close your oldest card, this could dramatically reduce the average.
You can also see your debt in relation to the credit available. See the example below to see how it looks.
Credit Karma is safe? How to monitor your credit for free
The mobile application has all the same data that I can access on my desktop browser.
You can find out a lot about your financial history.
Credit Reports aren’t intuitive
You may have noticed that credit reports are not always easy to understand. It can be difficult to understand a list of accounts.
Credit Karma makes it easy and safe to access your credit report details in your account. It is incredibly intuitive.
Now I have a much better understanding of my credit history. Now I look forward to my credit score and report!
In the past, I never felt this enthusiastic about my credit score. It was always a chore. Now I am passionate about checking all the details and making sure the information on my credit report is accurate.
Make sure you both sign up for an account if you’re married. You might find something unusual in your credit report.
Credit Karma accounts are free. There has never been a better moment to get your finances in order.
It can be frightening to enter your personal and social security numbers into a web form.
Credit Karma has a long history and they’ve gone to great lengths to secure your information. You can be confident that it is safe.
There are no guarantees in life or on the Internet. The biggest risk is the strength of your password and the answers to the security questions.
Credit Karma is a great tool. I recommend you give it a shot. It’s safe and I can get useful information at any time.
This article was originally published on Your Money Geek and is republished here with permission.
