Credit Karma is a web platform that offers credit and financial management tools to consumers for free. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows you to get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three national credit bureaus, Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX), TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) and Experian plc (EXPN.L), through AnnualCreditReport.com. Credit Karma, on the other hand, allows you to track your credit continuously without the expense of having to pay for credit reports.
Credit Report Updates
Credit Karma provides unlimited access to free copies of your reports and scores from Transunion and Equifax. You can easily log into your Credit Karma account from your computer or smartphone app to see updated versions of your credit reports every seven days. Most creditors generally report account changes to the credit bureaus every 30 days, so some changes might not show up in your Credit Karma account for at least a month. Credit Karma also helps to protect you from identity theft by sending you alerts about suspicious activity in your accounts.
Benefits of Credit Karma
One of the main benefits of checking your Credit Karma account regularly is that the interface allows you to stay fairly current on information that your creditors send to the credit bureaus. The user interface also keeps you informed about how various factors impact your credit scores. Credit Karma provides information to help you dispute errors in your reports with the credit bureaus. The site also helps you use your credit rating to get the best interest rates and terms on credit-based products by offering personalized recommendations on home and auto loans, credit cards and car insurance. You do not need a credit card to sign up for the site. Credit Karma stays free because it gets paid for referring qualified users to its financial services partners.