Credit Karma promises a really free credit history and report, but what’s the catch? Everything you need to learn about CreditKarma.com before you subscribe.
You’ve probably seen it advertisements for Credit Karma on late night TV. Make your free credit history and report, no strings attached!
But is Credit Karma really legit? What’s the catch?

Yes, Credit Karma is the best free website that delivers you with your credit history and report, no strings attached. It’s really free, and you don’t need to put in your credit card number or be sure you cancel your trial offer.

So how exactly does Credit Karma generate income?
So how exactly does Credit Card Karma offer you a absolutely free credit history when other services want to charge $20 per month or more?

The answer is advertising. Specifically, very targeted advertising predicated on your financial habits. For instance, if you have excellent credit, banks are prepared to pay big bucks to focus on you with their finest loans and bank cards because it’s finally cheaper to them over running generic advertisings to millions of folks who may never qualify for their products.

If there’s a downside to Credit Karma, it’s the actual fact that, yes, they’re using your personal credit data to market for you. It’s no different than Facebook making use of your loves to serve ads based on your interests. Having said that, I would agree that the financial data makes it somewhat more personal.

Should you use Credit Karma?
Ultimately, Credit Karma is safe. I’ve been using the service for over five years. Even though they could use personal information to serve ads, they’re not sharing it with third parties (to my knowledge). And, by the end of the day, Credit Karma provides really useful insights into the credit health.

Enjoy it or not, your credit score plays a major role in your financial health. So it’s important to learn your credit score and watch about how it’s changing over time.

While most services charge upwards of $15-20 to see your own credit score, Credit Karma enables you to check and track your score with no need for a debit card, free trial, or any other catches.

Credit Karma performs what’s known as a “soft” inquiry on your credit reports, so this will never be reflected on your reports as a credit pull or cause your score to decrease at all.

You’ll have to make an account and offer your individual information… including your social security number to verify your identity and pull your credit, but unlike other so-called “free credit score” sites there’s NO CREDIT CARD or any purchase required.

What else does Credit Karma provide?

A graph showing your credit score over time
How your credit score compares to others by age, income and state
A credit file card that presents you how certain factors-like your payment history and debt utilization-impact your credit history
Tools to enable you to simulate how paying off debt or applying for new credit changes your score
Access to your free