January 8th, 2013
Happy New Year from the Credit Karma team! By now, you’ve probably settled into a few resolutions, some of them maybe even financial (like the Debt Movement, perhaps?). To help you kickstart your credit in 2013, we thought we’d give you a handy checklist to follow. Here’s how to make sure your credit is in tip-top shape this year.
Step 1: Schedule your three free credit report checks.
You might know that you have a right to a free copy of your credit report each year, but did you know that you can get three? Each of the three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—is required to let you check your credit report for free once a year.
Instead of checking all three at once, we recommend spreading out your three reports over the year. Start with whichever one you like now and then mark on your calendar a time to check a second one four months from now (in May) and the third one eight months from now (in September). Then, when January 2014 rolls around, you can start all over again.
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July 5th, 2012
It’s hard to kick bad habits, whether it’s something simple like biting your nails, or something with larger implications, like impulse shopping. No matter the bad habit, getting rid of it is a task in itself. If you consider the consequences of certain bad habits on your credit and financial life, it may motivate you to never give into their temptation. Here are just three bad habits that are easy to form, but hard to break.
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February 21st, 2012
If credit scores were a subject in school, we here at Credit Karma would ace every test. We spend our days reading up on new credit legislation, updating you on the
new credit score rules, and obsessing over
credit card rewards. When it comes to writing about credit scores on the Credit Karma Blog, we focus on clarifying credit misunderstandings.
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December 19th, 2011
Credit Karma’s
Facebook community members always come up with great credit questions. Sometimes they’re so good, we share the answers here on the
Credit Karma blog. This time, the question is about debt, something many of us can relate to.
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November 21st, 2011
Most all of us rely on credit at some point in our lives. While you may already know your credit is checked when applying for a loan or credit card, it may have also been checked when you signed up for a new cell phone plan, applied for a new apartment, or opened an account at a credit union.
Since credit affects so much of our adult lives, it’s important to know what factors go into your credit score, including open credit card utilization, percentage of on-time payments, number of derogatory marks, average age of open credit lines, total number of accounts and total hard credit inquiries. (Read more about these six factors here.)
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November 16th, 2011
According to statistics published by the Federal Reserve and reported by
Businessweek, non-revolving credit experienced an $8 billion dollar boost during the month of September. This gain was comprised of school loans, mobile home loans and
car loans. While downgrading to a mobile home and borrowing money for school makes sense, especially in September, an increase in car credit may seem out of left field at first glance.
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November 9th, 2011
We don’t usually toot our own horn at Credit Karma, but we came up with something cool and thought you should know about it.
Our latest feature, launched yesterday, is a big step forward in helping you save money and keep your credit history free of errors.
The
My Accounts tab is now live on Credit Karma and it shows you all of your credit accounts in one place.
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November 7th, 2011
Have you checked out our
Credit Advice Center lately? We get new questions everyday from people just like you wondering what makes credit scores tick. We took three of the most common questions and we’re giving you a quick and succinct answer, in 100 words or less.
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November 5th, 2011
Whether you want to buy a house, a house of pancakes, or a shrine dedicated to House of Pain’s 1992 hit “Jump Around,” good credit will get you the loan you need at the lowest interest rate possible.
But even if you have a bad credit score from unpaid hospital bills after an unfortunate jumping around-based injury, there are still lots of things you can do to improve your score.
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October 31st, 2011
Last week, I experienced my own credit card nightmare.
I was making an online purchase. I filled out my credit card information and clicked the “purchase” button. Just then, something terrible happened.
“Denied???” The words appeared in blood-red text at the bottom of the page. “How is that possible?” I asked myself.
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