Knowing one’s credit score is the first step towards managing one’s finances. But how do you learn your credit score? Most of the ‘free’ credit reporting services are not really free. Why does FreeCreditReport.com require your credit card? Most of these companies are borderline scammers. I myself got scammed by a credit monitoring service called PrivacyGuard.
When I learned about CreditKarma, I was skeptical, considering my past experience with PrivacyGuard. But I was truly amazed by the usefulness of CreditKarma. I did not have to provide my credit card number, nor did I have to sign up for anything. The site makes money from ads and from affiliate links if you decide to use their recommendations for say a credit card. Here’s a quick review of CreditKarma…
Sign up Process
You’ll have to provide details about yourself including your SSN, which is not stored by this service. Once the information is verified, a personalized credit score report is provided with relevant offers from various companies. I think this is quite useful.
Screenshots!
Your score history
Report card
How you compare statewide and nationally
Effect of changes to your credit history
Tools and calculators
Where does CreditKarma provide the score from?
According to the faq, this is the TransUnion score
Other ways to get your credit score for free
Check with your bank. Some credit unions like DCU provide your credit score monthly at no cost. Alliant Credit Union provides quarterly reports.
Conclusion
Highly recommended.
Those aren’t credit scores. A real credit score, as used by banks and lenders, is a FICO number. The numbers you show don’t have FICO written next to them so I know they are generated using some proprietory algorithm that noone uses. The nickname for these kind of scores is a FAKO ie fake fico.
Todd, thank you for your input. CreditKarma doesn’t generate these scores, they are provided from TransUnion credit bureau. Regarding FICO, CreditKarma has a detailed explanation in their Credit Advice section.
If you want to check your FICO score for free, see my post here: http://www.moneycone.com/dcu-now-offers-free-equifax-fico-credit-score/
How to learn your credit score without spending a dime http://bte.tc/bcAX #RTW
How to learn your credit score without spending a dime http://bte.tc/bcAX #RTW
How to learn your credit score without spending a dime http://bte.tc/bcAX #RTW
Have you considered submitting this post to a credit blog carnival?