March 16th, 2010
Dear Credit Karma… More About Credit Karma!
Dear Credit Karma,
Is Credit Karma really a free service?
Absolutely.Credit Karma is free and is available at absolutely no cost to you. Credit Karma has no catch, gimmick, or secret subscription, and will never charge you now or later down the road. Become a Credit Karma member for free, and you can use the site as often as you want, play around with our financial tools, and pull your credit score daily without ever having to worry about getting hit with a subscription fee or any type of charge. We do promote money-saving offers featured by our advertisers that are specifically tailored to your credit profile, but you are never required to click on an ad or participate in an offer.
What’s in it for us? We’re supported by advertisers. The ads on our site enable us to make this service free for you, the consumer. Rest assured Credit Karma is truly a pro-consumer site interested in helping you manage healthy finances and healthy credit at NO COST to you.
March 15th, 2010
Monday Jumpstart to Personal Finance & Credit Report News
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working on a bill of sweeping regulatory changes to ward off future collapses in our financial system. The much-needed bill to protect consumers and industries is expected to address issues such as mortgages and credit cards, as well as an early warning system to monitor companies that pose a financial crisis with new mechanisms to prevent firms from getting too big that their failure would threaten our financial system, CNNMoney reports. This is definitely a step towards safeguarding the economy from Uncle Sam, but the bill will still have to make it through the Senate and Congress before we see it come into play.
This week’s personal finance and credit score roundup is full of helpful articles and blogs to keep you on track with budgeting, job-hunting, and fixing up less-than-perfect credit scores.
March 12th, 2010
Credit Karma To Talk Money At SXSW Conference Panel
Anyone who is anyone on the cutting-edge of new technologies—whether they are fans of it or part of the industry—will be following the ultra-cool South By Southwest (SXSW) Music+Film+Interactive Conferences in Austin, Texas. Which is exactly why Credit Karma is on a panel for this year’s conference to talk about fresh innovations in money, banking, and personal finance.
Credit Karma is sharing the floor with fellow leaders and visionaries of the personal finance world such as Lending Club, SmartyPig, and Mint. This panel fits right into SXSW Interactive, which hosts presentations and products on the latest products, trends, and issues surrounding new technologies and innovations. It’s the ultimate cool geek event that showcases the convergence of intelligent design and exciting creativity.
March 10th, 2010
Credit Cards Offering Perks For Good Credit Customers
While most customers are receiving costly bad news about annual fees or rate hikes from their credit card issuers, select cardholders are unexpectedly receiving new credit card perks such as more generous rewards programs.
Citigroup Inc. upgraded select customers’ American Airline-stamped credit cards to earn 1.2 miles for every dollar spent, up from 1 mile per dollar. JP Morgan Chase and Co. also improved their customers British Airway card to 1.25 miles, also up from 1 mile per dollar. Chase, and likely more issuers in the near future, did not disclose specifics but enhanced rewards earning power for their Marriott cards. Citigroup, and presumably other issuers, announced that these card enhancements are for customers with good credit standing.
Using reward incentives to encourage cardholders to spend more—rather than penalize cardholders or excessively charge them—is a new tactic to recoup money lost to the CARD Act without hurting customer loyalty. This move is certainly a 180 degree turn from the past months of cutting back rewards programs, implementing annual fees, unexpected charges, inactivity penalties, and more. These so-called “earning accelerators” are designed to get cardholders to use one credit card over another.
March 9th, 2010
What Does Your Email Provider Say About You?
You may have kept your AOL account since receiving a free disc in the 90’s, signed up for Yahoo! in college, got a Gmail invite, or moved to Comcast when you finally installed broadband, but what does it say about you? When categorized by email provider, the credit score and debt averages of users begins to tell a story. Do Gmail users take on larger mortgages? Do Yahoo! users have lower credit card limits? Credit Karma takes a closer look at how users of the most popular email providers stack up.
Disclaimer: Our analysis is for informational purposes. The data shows correlations for a number of reasons and is based on averages. As anyone who has taken a statistics class knows, causality and correlation are very different.
March 9th, 2010
Dear Credit Karma — All About Credit Karma
Dear Credit Karma,
Will checking my credit score on Credit Karma lower my score?
Absolutely not! Credit Karma aims to help you earn and maintain healthy credit without hurting your credit. When you pull your credit score via Credit Karma, it is categorized as a soft inquiry because you are essentially pulling your own score as a type of background check, similar to inquiries done by employers, landlords, banks, and more.
The type of inquiry that will ding your credit score is a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries are done by credit card issuers, mortgage lenders, and other lenders that are pulling your credit report for the purpose of assessing whether or not they should extend credit to you.
March 8th, 2010
Monday Jumpstart to Personal Finance & Credit Report News
The Wall Street Journal’s attention-grabbing headline is a sign of the times: Coupon Clipping Is Newest Extreme Sport. In a recession that’s left Americans struggling with at-risk loans, defaulted credit cards, slashed paychecks, and 8.4 million unemployed, penny-pinching is a practical and ever-more popular way to save money. The number of coupons redeemed rose to 3.3 billion last year, up from 2.6 billion in 2008. Sites like Groupon and RetailMeNot have taken coupon clipping high-tech, adding social networking and online access to offer consumers a fresh take on saving money the old-fashioned way.
Find more ways to make the most of your money with our personal finance roundup, plus articles and blogs to brush up on your credit health.
March 5th, 2010
Dear Credit Karma… More On What Affects Your Credit Score
Dear Credit Karma,
How could moving affect my credit score?
Moving from one home to another will not directly affect your credit score, but beware of any fallout that may occur with misplaced bills that could end up hurting your credit score.
When you move, make sure you update your new address for all financially-sensitive mail like credit card statements, utility bills, and loan payments. Remember, it takes a week or so to have your mail forwarded. These changes can get lost in the transition of moving and ultimately hurt your credit score. Missing or paying late on a bill just because you didn’t receive it at your new home and forgot to take care of it will deal an unnecessary blow to your credit score. Also, if you left your previous home because of an eviction (which may be reported on your credit report, depending on your landowner) or a foreclosure (can cost up to 160 points in damage to your credit score), it will negatively affect your credit score.
March 1st, 2010
Monday Jumpstart to Personal Finance & Credit Report News
CNN Money reports that personal income rose a modest 0.1%, equal to 11.4 billion total nationwide, in January. While the number is lower than economists’ expected figure of 0.4%, on the other hand, spending by individuals jumped 0.5% in January, equal to 52.4 billion total nationwide, which is above economists’ expectations. While these figures aren’t through the roof, increased spending and income is still a good sign the economy is slowly gaining momentum towards recovery.
Follow today’s roundup of personal finance and credit score topics for the latest news and advice.
February 22nd, 2010
Monday Jumpstart to Personal Finance & Credit Report News
After months of banks’ preparation and consumer anticipation, the final reforms of the CARD Act take effect today to change the way credit card issuers interact with cardholders.
Hoping to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive industry practices, the provisions in place today include banning double-cycle billing, stricter regulation of under-21-year-old customers, fixed payment due dates, and a 45-day notice before changing terms such as interest rates. While issuers are forced to comply to these laws, it also has the effect of changing credit card terms towards imposed annual fees, increased interest rates, and tighter credit score requirements as issuers scramble to recoup losses caused by the CARD Act reforms.
Keep up with more personal finance news and credit score help with the following roundup.
