A new site called Credit Karma offers free credit scores to consumers. Learning your credit score is easier now, thanks to the financial reform bill signed into law this month. Financial reform legislation, otherwise known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, needs lenders to show you the credit reports they used to turn you down. If you know what your credit score is already, you can make changes so you won’t get turned down. Credit Karma, along with others, make your credit score accessible at any time you would like to check it.
Advertisement with Credit Karma
Advertising supports Credit Karma so it can be free. That makes it different from most sites that offer free credit information and then make an effort to lure you into paying for your credit score. Consumer Commentary reports that Credit.com offers a similar free service. Credit Karma will give a different grade depending on more categories than credit.com. However, credit.com offers a range for a number of different types of credit scores. Credit Karma only offers one score directly from one of the reporting bureaus that is not a FICO Score.
Can I fix my credit with Credit Karma?
Some question how useful Credit Karma is when working on credit repair. It’s not a FICO score, reports mymoneyblog.com. The Credit Karma score will be a “FICO clone” ranging from 300 to 900. FICO scores range from 300 to 850. Credit Karma, which says it pulls data from Experian, Equifax and Transunion, doesn’t say which bureau supplied the data your credit score is based upon. Also, all the info you receive from Credit Karma is what your credit score is.
Can I really get my credit score free?
Credit Karma and credit.com can be very helpful when trying to build or repair your credit. If you don’t want to pay $ 89.95 a year for FICO’s Score Watch, the data can be very useful. AnnualCreditReport.com will give you free info on your credit as well. It shows you what your credit score is affected by although it won’t give you a number for a credit score. Freecreditreport.com and creditreport.com should be avoided. They say you can sign up for free, but after seven days they start billing your credit card $ 14.95 per month until you make them stop.
Further reading
Consumer Commentary
consumerismcommentary.com/credit-report-cards-credit-com-vs-credit-karma/
mymoneyblog.com
mymoneyblog.com/free-credit-score-monitoring-with-creditkarma.html
AnnualCreditReprt.com
annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
