Credit Karma Review
If you’ve ever done a google search for the term “Free Credit Report”, you’ll find dozens (if not hundreds) of sites offering a free credit report or free credit score. The only catch is, to get your free score, the sites require you to sign up for their credit report monitoring service. This monitoring services on the other hand, is not free. It usually carries a monthly service fee of anywhere between $5 – $20.
Credit Karma has decided to pull a 180 degree turn and truly offer a free credit score as well as a credit monitoring service. The approach they have taken to make this possible is similar to that of Mint.com and MoneyStrands.com. Rather than a monthly service fee there are affiliate offers presented based on your demographics/credit situation.
Because I’m a credit score nut and love to have a pulse on my own credit score I decided to give it a try and see what the buzz is about. It turns out the sign-up process was was a 3 Step process that was extremely simple and straight forward. Start by clicking the “Get Your Free Credit Score” button.
Step 1: Create Your Account – Enter your name, e-mail, a screen name and password.
Step 2: Confirm Your Email Address – After completing step 1 you will receive an email with a verification link to activate your account. Simply click the link to finish your account setup.
Step 3: Create Your Account – By clicking on the verification link you will be taken to step 3 of the account setup process. Here you will be required to enter somewhat personal information that allows them to pull your credit report from one of the 3 credit bureaus. They require a current address, phone number, birthday and social security number. I think the best part of the whole thing is that the don’t require a credit card.
In less than 5 mintues you’ll have an account setup and access to your current credit score.
After browsing through the site and the different tools available with an open account I saw a number of tools that may be useful. I think it could be a great tool for someone looking for a way to immediately improve their credit score.
However, one of the biggest disadvantages was that you can’t see your actual credit report. They break it down and show you what they think is most important, but I couldn’t find a way to download it myself. Also, I am not sure which credit bureau they requested my report from since I am only allowed one report per bureau per year..(I have already requested one from annualcreditreport.com myself this year).
Call me old fashion, but I think I am going to stick to pulling my credit score myself 3 times a year and doing my own monitoring. I will however, compile a few posts over the next week or so explaining some of the tools available within Credit Karma.
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