Credit Karma

Upon joining Credit Karma I have learned a lot , the first thing I learned is credit karma doesnt give you an accurate credit score, while I understand different scoring models are used by different lenders and such just know that your credit score can be off by 50 points from a complete real credit score used by different lenders , so when something says you have a good or fair chance of getting approved beware of using a hard inquiry against yourself and save yourself some points on down the rd, also beware of these loan companies they offer on their websites read the fine print and do your research online before accepting any offers that you may get, One Main Financial for example, they will screw you faster and harder than anyone here far as loans , don’t be fooled by being approved for a loan of any kind large or small, if you borrow 10,000 expect to pay 25,000 back and for God’s sake do not do a secured title loan thru them, I was approved and almost fell for the offer I was given but thank god I started doing some reviews afterwards, while I hate that I didn’t do more research before I did the application I’m still thankful that I was smart and did my research, if I would have done that while building my credit I would never have gotten out of debt , nor be able to build my credit score as good as I still am , don’t be fooled by these lenders please read their terms and agreements and read up on how these people prey on us that are in desperate measures trying to get out of Debt or get ahead or consolidate debt! Credit cards can be good for you if you use them the right way and keep your debt ratio 30% or lower and make your payments on time every month! Be sure to pay in full each month if you can! It’s a plus! Also if you want to build your credit and you are a member of a credit union I highly advise you take out a secured loan thru your bank to begin with as a credit builder to help you or get a cap 1 secured card! Don’t get a credit 1 these are 2 completely different companies by the way with 2 completely different terms and agreements, do not get more loaned to you than you can afford to pay back! Check interest rates before commiting to anyone! Do strong research before accepting any cc offers you may get! If possible take one with a cash back rewards! It’s more bang for your buck while building credit at the same time, also if you have 3 returned payments from cap 1 in a row let’s say maybe your payment comes out your savings act but you forgot to move your money there before the payment tries to withdrawal from your account they will automatically terminate your cc! I know from experience, it was an accident, but it was my own fault for not being more responsible and thinking ahead..something I didn’t know they would do but learned the hard way! My bank also charged me about 30$ each tome I had a returned payment for insufficient funds as well,I’m currently trying to build my credit to buy a house in the next year and I’m now only an authorized user on a cap 1 act from my wife and have a 2500 Loan from badcock furniture I’ve had for 7 months , I have disputed over 3k in medical bills thru credit karma and have kept my debt to ratio below 30% as much as possible and try to pay off my complete balance in full every month the best I can I started with a 499 credit score less than 9 months ago and according to Credit karma I have a 691 Equifax and 680 trans union now, while that score may not be as accurate as it says I do know I have atleast a 625 to 650 credit score give or take... I’m hoping to be in the 700s in the next 6 months so I can have a good interest rate when me and my wife decide to buy our first house together, we started out with secured cap 1 cc’s with $300 limits and after 5 payments and good history they doubled it to 606 and it turned unsecured! Of course it got terminated due to 3 returned payments as previously stated I paid my balance off in full but when it got shut down my credit score dropped atleast 30 points on both Trans and equi, just be very careful while building your credit and do the best you can , I would only advise you to get a credit card if your looking to build it to buy a house or a car, other than that , don’t accept offers you will be susceptible to screwing yourself over in the long run, cc’s are good to have if you can manage your money and use them the proper way! It takes self control and building your credit becomes kind of like a fun game to play! Check your score as much as possible and use credit karmas tips to help you succeed! 1 year ago I knew nothing about this entire process all I knew is having good credit was a goal of mine, today I am now helping orhers I know build their credit and teaching them good pointers and tips on how to build it up fast as they can and the best ways possible! I hope I have given some good insight to someone that is in the same shoes I was less than a year ago! Keep your credit inquiries below 4 in the first year and no more than 4 more in the 2nd year, it takes 2 yrs for them to fall off so choose wisely as to what you would like to be accepted in far as cards or loans or etc.. don’t just apply for stuff for fun because T.J.Maxx tried to talk you into applying at the checkout line for a 25$ discount on your purchase , unless you already have atleast a 600 to 650 credit score you will not get approved for any store cards like that , Victoria secret or Walmart , Lowe’s , tj Maxx , etc .. start secured with the cap 1 card you will have great benefits and won’t be sorry u listened to me! Then move to the cash back card as soon as possible after building your credit! If you get a loan get it wisely! And do not do it unless absolutely necessary and still don’t do it then if you don’t have too or can wait! Other than all this I have tried to teach someone reading this today I hope I was a help to someone out there, just beware of your score and the system each company uses they are all different!

Seems like there is a too much time fluctuation in balances and also inconsistencies . If a person temporarily puts something on a card, it seems the scores go down immediately whereas if one pays the card down, it has to crawl back up the chart at a snail’s pace. Also, one has long term debts as well as credit card debts that affect one’s score. I’ve noticed one might pay a lot on a long term debt and affect his score very little in comparison as a credit card debt. Granted, more than likely, this debt is spread out over time, but if one pays off quicker, the score should follow quicker. I also, realize the situations I mentioned are more just passed along as the rating companies do as they want, but it still adds to or takes away from the working experience on CK’s site.

Adding to the above review, which obviously doesn’t get read anyway, I have a card that I use that has no credit to it whatsoever— I get paid on this card and transfer money from it as I use it to purchase things as one would with cash. Anyway, my card information was compromised and I had to utilize “credit”cards until a new card was issued and the situation was addressed. Of course my score took another hit because that’s the way it works. It immediately goes down but takes forever to go back up even if the card is immediately repaid. Exactly, how can a person use a card and not get punished even if he pays off often?

Added comment 04/17

Thank you to Credit Karma for a response to my post. I have to correct what I previously posted. After looking at the list you sent me of tax forms your accept it wasn’t the 1099-sa as I mentioned it was the 5498-sa. I know the form isn’t issued until the following year after Apr 15 but there was no place to enter my current year contributions to my HSA. Since I wasn’t able to input that (maybe I was doing something wrong) I had to go to Turbo Tax. I wish your support team would have been able to help me with this.

Thanks again. I’ll try again next year.

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This is a great app. So much so I tell everyone I can about it because it truly is free unlike the others out there. Also I love the new feature of informing us of any compromises we may have.

Reason the app is not getting 5 Stars is because for the second year in a row I wanted to complete my taxes through Credit Karma but the HSA form 1099-SA was not available for me to enter. I even contacted support this year and they told me they don’t allow for that form. There has to be a lot others out there that have a Health Spending Account.

Can’t understand if the app says free reporting for both state and federal no matter what my status and here I can’t because they don’t allow people with a HSA account to use it.

Hopefully I’ll give it another year and maybe just maybe they will get with the program.

While it can be a way to track your general credit status, CK uses vantagescore, which isn’t appropriate if you’re actually trying to do something beneficial for your financial situation, like paying off debt.

This app is riddled with paid advertisements from credit companies, banks, and lenders. It should be clear to anyone with half a brain that this app’s ultimate purpose has nothing to do with the consumers’ best interests. It’s created and maintained by a company who receives most of its profits from banks, lenders, and creditors by enticing consumers into taking on more debt or opening additional lines of credit.

It approached predatory, how they present credit, mortgage, or personal loan offers to you. Heaven forbid you click on a link in search of more affordable auto insurance, or you’ll be subjected to a dozen phone calls every day from ravenous insurance salesman.

If you’re just looking to keep an eye on your credit report, or using it’s free features, then sure I can see value in this. The caveat, is that you’ll be inundated with ads for bad financial advice. If you’re trying to get out of debt, don’t fall into the trap of opening a new loan account or credit card.

Remember: independently wealthy people don’t get there by using credit cards! Be smart! Change your lifestyle! Take back control of your money and give a big middle finger to the corrupt and predatory credit system pervading our society.

Few things. First Credit Karma may give you “some kind of idea” where your credit is. But it’s not accurate. Second they have a feature where you can use credit karma money. I had it for around 7 months. I opened it when I did my taxes last year as credit Karma and Turbo Tax partnered up. Well I had my paychecks set up to Credit Karma Spend. I received my first check. Didn’t receive my second. I called Credit Karma they informed me my account was locked. They told me they would have it unlocked or contact me in 24 hours I emailed them everyday for a week and they had not fixed it. I couldn’t get a new check until my account was closed or unlocked so I had to close my account. I tried to open a new one because again I HAVE to have one for tax purposes. They informed me they can’t open a new one or the old one. “It’s just the way they work.” My fiancé as soon as he set up his tax refund to go in there received an email saying his account will be closed in 15 days with absolutely no way to now change his tax stuff. So we will have to wait for months for him to get his refund. They have the WORST customer service I have EVER experienced. Which is my third thing. Their customer service is awful. They won’t let you speak with a supervisor immediately. They have to “contact you back.” And then they never do. Stay FAR away from credit karma. And until Turbo decides they aren’t partnering with Credit Karma stay Away from them.

I tried to get on the app a few months ago for obvious reasons but the app somehow logged me out which was strange but it's fine because it's me and I know my email and password no problem. The problem came when they said they couldn't verify my identity. Strange considering I had just input my last 4 a week earlier to make the account on the app but okay I'm me so I don't see the problem. Yet. Then it prompts my camera and asks for a picture of my license. Okay, strange but sure. 6 pictures later and it locks me out saying it couldn't verify the ID. I didn't stand at the DMV for 3 hours for a fake license but okay. I sent an email to the email address the prompt gave me and I immediately got a response saying that the email address wasn't one I could actually email. A little frustrating but okay I get on the website itself to find the actual email and I find out it's all through the website. Okay, fine I fill out the form and send it. It's been about a month and I haven't heard back from them yet. I emailed them again today thinking I was got sent down to the bottom because of new complaints that have piled up over the last month and I actually found that a lot more people than me have had unpleasant experiences with this app. An astounding amount. Don't waste your time ask your bank for a report instead. Probably more accurate than 2 of the 3 reporting bureaus anyway. They'll probably reply to this before my email from a month ago.

I never write reviews but I’m so frustrated with their customer service regarding my issues it has to be done.

TurboTax had suggested I deposit my return to credit karma as it should arrive sooner than normal banking deposit. So I did. I requested a new debit card because I never used my old one and it was miss placed. Waited almost 3 weeks for it to come in. When it did the debit card numbers were the SAME AS MY OLD ONE! therefor it could not be activated. When I called asking them to expedite a new card they argued with me and refused the first time. Called back they said they put it through and it must be reviewed but I was able to use my digital card for the time being.

The digital card was accepted on things like Amazon, however when I went to pay off debt and bills the payment would say processed and give me a confirmation number BUT WAS NEVER ACTUALLY PAID. upon contacting the bill companies they said they had no records of the transaction and I would have contact credit karma.

When I did they could not understand what I was trying to say, they constantly read from a script and when I asked the about the status of my physical card I was told there was no records of me ordering a new one. It has been a complete nightmare to say the least and I will refuse to use this system again.

It is unfortunate because I’ve used it for building my credit up for years absolutely loved it! I am extremely disappointed and it was made very clear they do not care about customer’s problems or concerns nor are they willing to help in the slightest way!

Boy this thing was 60 points off on my score. I get that they approximate the score but 60 points off? I was using it until it came time to actually apply for credit. I decided to pay for the actual score and found that my score was 60 points higher.

Response to developer:

Really? Then you’d better have a talk with those credit bureaus cause I just checked your app again and the score in your app is still 60 points less than the score I got from Equifax just yesterday.

On top that, the link you posted is to an article that talks about different scores from bureau to bureau. It did not educate me on why I’m seeing a score that’s 60 points lower on your app.

Makes me wonder if those high interest credit cards that you recommend for people with “low scores” provide a larger referral fee to you.

My recommendation: if you are going to use your credit for a purchase, just go right to the source.

2nd Response:

That is a better answer. After researching numerous articles, I’ve learned that Vantage and Fico can be VERY different. Like 60-100 points different...especially if you’ve modified a mortgage in the past. Fortunately most banks still use Fico scores which has helped me to receive the credit I needed. Credit Karma uses Vantage Score.

Knowing the difference is important because lots of people get blindsided when applying for credit by putting too much trust into Credit Karma.

I asked the lenders which bureau they use and will also ask in the future if they use FICO or Vantage.

My only wish is that getting the info wouldn’t feel like pulling teeth.

They really don’t do anything to help you when someone is scamming your credit report with a fake or not even your negative report. And I’ve followed all their links to report the fake negative review put against me and nothing.

They still allow this company/lender to sent in false report on me every month which is affecting my credit score. Credit karma could stop this since they allowed them to repost a false report on me every month for a personal loan I NEVER MADE! And they don’t even have the paperwork with copies of this state’s requirements to give out a loan with.

To give an idea how they don’t care about their customers in this app, this has been going on for a few years and in the report against me it even states the false loan was wrote off a couple years ago. But Credit Karma still lets them post false reviews on me to keep my credit rating low.

And when you ask someone through the emails you get day to days later from C Karma you get the strong feeling that they really don’t care, and if ask them if this was happening to them what would happen.. nothing back. I bet it would be resolved that day it happened to them.

OTHER THAN THAT, this app does have some good things in it. But they do have the vin#’s of my vehicle and my family’s vehicles for some reason and I can’t get any of the family’s vehicles removed from my information even though I don’t have anything at all to do with those vehicles. It even shows what was paid for them, how much the payments are and how much is left to pay off. I don’t and my family members don’t need to know all this information. March8-2022

My score dropped 33 points with Equifax and 59 points with TransUnion. I select see what changed and it shows I paid down a credit card by $2,563. Not sure why my score would drop for paying down an open account. In addition, my debt to ratio on credit cards is 17%, I have NO new charges and NO new open accounts. So at this point I’m at a lost for words.

The purpose of me using this app was to keep an eye on any new changes and be vigilant on of my score regularly.

However, if the app isn’t going to accurately show me what has changed and an explanation of why there is drastic change in my score, what is the purpose of my using it?

Additionally, I have read the developers response to some reviews and the response states “Since we don't calculate your scores (only credit bureaus have that power), we can't say exactly what dropped your score. Credit scores are complex because they are based on many different factors and can change for unanticipated (and oftentimes unclear) reasons.None of us want to open our new credit report to see a drop in our score
(especially when it isn't clear why) so I can understand your frustration.

If little brother (Credit Karma) is watching big brother (Equifax and TransUnion) and is responsible to report the news (see what has changed), then assist the consumers and report the news accurately, (Tell me what has changed so I may make an informed decision on what to do about the change).

Yes, the app is free, but if I need to contact Equifax and TransUnion directly to see what has changed (and pay a fee), I may as well use them and delete this app and also inform / encourage ALL I come in contact with to also delete the app.

Please make it make sense.

Update: Response to contact about the issues below. Unfortunately, their is NO information on contacting a supervisor or complaints about customer service. Hence, I have locked my cards and transferred funds out to a far more customer friendly, far more responsible bank. By all means, use for credit scores. But I strongly discourage anyone from opening a credit or bank account with them.
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I have used them for my scores and finally decided to open an account. Biggest mistake EVER! Do not use them for checking! It takes forever for deposits to show. Debits show instantaneously. I made a mobile deposit and it said it was good. Two days later and after I cut a check on it, it wasn’t accepted. Why? Because I didn’t specifically write, “mobile deposit credit karma”. What? I chat. Nope. Won’t accept. Then I find out my first house payment at a brand new home is rejected because they failed to clear my check…. Not because the check was bad but because I made a mobile deposit on my mobile phone to credit karma but didn’t write on the check that I was making a mobile deposit on my mobile phone. WTH? First I chat. Nice enough but can’t do anything and tells me to call. I call and get Drey who refuses to give me her employee ID and REFUSES repeatedly to get a supervisor! Then I get Sandy who hangs up on me upon requesting a supervisor. Chat said they would transfer and then disconnect. The WORST customer experience ever! Never in my life, and I’m elderly, have I had such an incredibly horrible experience. I’ve just finished writing and submitting a complaint to the FTC. They’ve lost my business. I definitely don’t recommend this company. Save yourself a major headache or worse, just say no.

My Trans Union score from Trans union is 35 points more than what Credit Karma says. Credit karma is trying to push secured credit cards to me when i just got a new credit card with a $500 dollar credit limit. they say i can get a car loan for &”$13000 when capital one just offered me yesterday a pre approved car loan $4000 -7$55000 dollars. Aspire credit card is railroading me and trying to ruin my credit score by posting every single day im delinquent and derogatory and i owe them $400 and out of the blue they started charging more money on my account to $700 dollars Trans union fixed it . i tried to pay Aspire and i got a pop up saying that i am not authorized to make a payment and i have a screenshot. Credit karma asked me why i owe $180 to credit one . i just got the credit card last month and it not due till February 3 and i pay my entire balance every month on all my credit card’s and not secured ones either. i’ve had capital one for 3 years and my they other credit card 6 years they don’t even know i own a house and its paid off. my state declared an emergency during Covids beginning and no one was allowed to work except emergency people and groceries stores i didn’t work for months every credit card company screwed me except Capital one and they didn’t ditch me and put rotten stuff on my reports. rich selfish greedy people . credit one ditch me and 2 months ago they offered to give me my credit card back and i haven’t paid them totally back yet. only because experion asked me why i can’t pay my credit card’s and they let me put my reason on my credit report for all to see . covid was a national disaster and that’s what i said . don’t take credit karma seriously they are just way off

I’ve used Credit Karma for years and the app itself is very useful and handy. HOWEVER, I got a new phone and forgot to change my number on all of my apps and this one was just the one I completely gave up on. The support team is so ridiculously tedious and impossible to work with. For some reason the app wasn’t working for me after I got a new phone, I’ve changed passwords multiple times and still nothing. I was getting multiple system errors I even tried the desktop version and the same thing happened. I finally tried reaching out to support and it was virtually non existent, they handle things through email and strictly email. No phone number, no chat support, nothing! They rely on all their FAQs on their website as “support” but if it is a very specific issue like mine that requires being escalated to actual people then good luck. I contacted them through email a couple times and everyone I got ahold of was tremendously incompetent. My issue was never resolved, before even acknowledging anything that I was telling them they asked to identify myself and one of the ways I tried doing that was sending in my drivers license but that wasn’t enough for them for some reason. They asked for a picture of my social security card, now keep in mind I was comfortable just sending them my social number but they kept pushing for a picture of my social. After multiple attempts and terrible customer support I decided to just give up because I wasn’t about to risk identity theft and yeah they can tell you it’s for security reasons all they want but just the fact that trying to get them to help you was like pulling out teeth is enough for me to not want to use their services anymore.

TL;DR: Great app when it works, but if something randomly goes wrong then you’re screwed because their support team is ridiculously incompetent. See you guys later, thanks for the good few years. Your actual product is great but your support team is awful, I’m out. ✌️

Thank you so much 760Plus Credit Score for helping me increase my credit score and delete derogatory remarks. It took just within 2 weeks for them to get my credit back to excellent. Now I’ve been pre-approved for a mortgage and I’m currently home shopping! It’s a dream come true and a personal goal accomplished with your help. THANKS! I’m recommending them to any person in dire need of credit fix (760pluscreditscore @ gmail dot com). You can thank me later!

I used the mobile deposit feature on the app and read disclosures completely. It stated if under $225 the funds would be available next business day. Check was far less then that. 4 hours later I received an email stating funds were available. Checked my balance and funds are not available. Contacted customer service they told me give it 24 hours. I did. I call back now they say 7 business days but because the app did in fact say 1 day and I did receive the email they would give me a provisional credit. Wait a couple hours and nothing so I call back and they say they don’t know what I’m talking about and they never sent me an email even though I sent the email back to them. I had to endorse that check to credit karma on the back so that check is completely useless now. I feel they stole from me and now this shady company has my other bank account account and routing number.

My Credit Karma spend account was closed very shortly after I called them about $1500.00 of my deposited return had been stolen from my account. Date it was closed 2/24/2023. Absolutely no explanation as to why they closed it. As for my tax return money, I still have gotten no one to help me in getting my hard earned money back. This has been going on since mid February of 2023. Here it is 5/1/23 and I still don’t have my money and no answer to my many questions.

I recently had the pleasure of working with JerryLink Credit Group and I can't say enough good things about my experience. At first, I was considering a DIY approach and had spent countless hours researching credit repair strategies on YouTube. However, I quickly realized that the expertise and personalized service Jerry offered far surpassed anything I could achieve on my own. I reached out to them via mail: jerrylinkgroup @ gmail.com. Their dedication, expertise, and personalized approach made a tremendous difference in my credit situation (500s to 760s across all three bureaus). I highly recommend their services to anyone in need of credit repair, as they outperform DIY methods and generic dispute templates every time.

Intuit (Turbo Tax) uses Credit Karma for tax refunds. They send you a debit card. This debit card needs to be activated on their APP or website. This should only take about an hour to accomplish after battling your way through their automated phone system, eventually ending up in a Indian call center with people that barely speak English. Once you account is set up you can transfer the money to your bank account after you link your bank account. But they set a 1000.00 limit on transfers and only one transfer per day. So in my case 4200.00,

will take 5 different days to drain my account plus another 5 days for them to "process" it. They also say I could withdraw money from an ATM at 500.00 per day in cash. But this is also false. Both ATM's rejected the card. Tried calling back and when he had exhausted his script, was of no help. Basically it looks and feels like a giant scam. I am only one person but obviously multiply this times a couple of million Turbo Tax users and you can see the magnitude of this fraud.

Credit Karma regularly sends completely misleading emails suggesting something negative has occurred on your credit report when nothing has happened at all. They're doing this to scare people into signing on to their website. I've noticed they seem to do this if I haven't visited their site in a while. They really should STOP doing this. It's extremely annoying.

Have had credit karma money for a while but have only used it once because it takes money too long to post once added. So I used my credit karma spend account to get an advance on my hard earned tax return money just to have it deposited and with no notice at all sent to me, no notice at all placed on the credit karma account I look at everyday they just up and locked my account unbeknownst to me. So here I am at the store trying to swipe my debit card looking like a whole fool with people behind me in line repeatedly having this card declined. Thankfully I had alternate funds I was able to use but immediately went on credit karma to find the problem. Tried to use transfer apps to transfer the money, that didn't work, so I decided maybe something was wrong with the card so ordered a new one assuming I could get a virtual card in the meantime or be able to use the checking account and routing numbers. That wasn't the case at all. I tried ccalling, was unable to get anyone on the phone after an hour of being on hold, had to make a few attempts to use the chat feature but finally got through and was told my account was under review, they didn't have access to anything further than that and would escalate it to the correct department and said I would get a follow up email with further information. After receiving an email almost 24 hours later stating unfortunately there was no new information I attempted to call again. I got through by requesting a call back and was told there was nobody that I could speak to in the department that handles these issues and I would just have to wait for an email! That is absolutely ridiculous to me! Why do I have to wait on an email to see what is going on with my own money? Why can't anyone tell me over the phone and help me access it? This is no way to run a company especially when dealing with people money! Nobody wants to sit waiting for an indefinite amount of time on their own money. I could have been traveling or really stuck and needed that money and would or could have jist been stuck on the side of the road unable to get gas or something and just stranded with no access to my own money and there's nobody you can even talk to? Listen don't use credit karma money period, let alone for something as big or important as your income tax refunds! Unless you just freshly opened an account in doing so. Just use h&r block or jackson hewitt or kiterally anyone else because credit karma will have you sick wondering about your own money!

This company refuses to update my phone number despite numerous files of my identification to prove I am who I am to them. They reject them or not getting them through thier 'secure link' by email. I have uploaded my documents to them at least 8 seperate times and continue to get emails from them about uploading the documents as if I have not done this. They refuse to update my phone number and after so many times uploading the documents as asked exactly as outlined in their guild to how to upload the documents they refuse to update the phone number.