Intuit Credit Karma 4+

Very happy that CreditKarma provides my credit score and credit report for free.

You may notice that the scoring system is different than the major player in the market CreditExpert which points are between 1-999 whereas CreditKarma is 1-710.

The main issue I have is the email notifications don’t seem to match what the app shows, the email reads your score has gone up, you click the link in the email to open then app and you see the same score. I received multiple emails about new notifications and when I click the link it just takes to my home page with no notification so I spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out what’s changed. It makes me feel as this is a free app, they’re sending notifications to log into the app as that’s when they make their money, based on how many users are logging in and seeing ads to credit/loan products, which can be useful to but also the recommended cards on your Home Screen doesn’t match what you can get when you do check your eligibility. It reels you in with a low interest rate card on your Home Screen marked ‘Excellent chance you’ll get it’ but then it’s not available for you when you click on it.

To summarise; Thank you for a nice free app/service that many others charge for. Sort out the niggles above. And for people to log in more regularly maybe introduce a deals tab to offer discounts and offers from retailers that people save money with and earn your company commission. Win win.

As above, the app works well keeping track of this n that but the company itself is not your friend and probably does more damage than good. Firstly, it keeps asking you to take out further credit to help improve your score but I am happy with what I have got but no, not satisfied with that are they. They take 11 points off you if you go above 30% of your cards but they also deduct 11 points if you have a month of only spending very little(as they have done today), as you’ve saved instead and even though my bank accounts are linked, they don’t consider this. Oh and if you spend between 5% and 30%, they’ll give you a couple of points in a few month’s time. So, give you 4 points but take away up to 22 points. So, whilst my score is “Good”, it will never get to “Excellent” because CK won’t allow you to do so. They also send you emails, stating, “Your Score is ascending new heights” then tell you that you are only xx amount of points away from Excellent but when you check the app, there is no change to your score. It’s a way of tracking your logins. Unlike another major credit score company who give you more points if you only spend a small amount but also improve your affordability score, as your accounts are linked and can see you are saving regularly. Not sure why the “Karma” bit in their name, as they make my blood boil, keep messing with my score. As you can see from similar 1 Star reviews here, they do not reply to your review. Why? They don’t care.

This app is usable and fine to access the information held about my credit record. The big difference for me is the inconsistency with other credit reference agencies. I have credit monitoring accounts with Credit Karma, Experian and ClearScore and whilst I have a consistent score and rating with Experian and ClearScore, Credit Karma is always lower than the other 2 for exactly the same information. Only last month it stayed that my score had been reduced as they didn’t have information about payments made to a credit card (as ever I had paid my balance in full so no issue on my part) and this month, despite the information appearing, my score remains lower. I know the response will be that CK uses different criteria and algorithms but it still appears inconsistent to me that my rating is always lower than it is with both other major providers. So overall fine to keep an eye on my credit record, but recognising it will always be lower with CK than the others.