Check Your Credit Score For Free
Believe it or not, there is a way to check your credit score for free. And no, it is not one of those 7 Day trials by Equifax or TransUnion. With Credit Karma, you receive a free weekly update on your credit score as well as a thorough summary on your credit report and factors impacting your credit score. Go to CreditKarma.com to sign up, it's completely free with no hidden fees or obligations. And no, they don't force you to give up your credit card information to sign up...
Benefits of Using Credit Karma
When you first log into Credit Karma after signing up for an account, you are taken to your financial overview dashboard page. Here, you will see your credit score as calculated by two of the major credit bureaus, TransUnion and Equifax. If you scroll down, you will see short summaries of recent updates on your credit history such as credit limit increases, hard credit inquiries, account balances as well as newly opened and closed accounts. All this information is updated weekly and will help you better understand your credit score and take wiser financial decisions. This will also help you be on the look out for any errors in your credit report and dispute them effortlessly. On the left column, right next to your credit scores, you see 5 more links pointing to additional features that Credit Karma offers. I will review key features one by one.
Credit Factors
One of Credit Karma's main goal was to break up the monopoly that the 3 major credit bureaus have on our financial information and provide people with all the tools to have full access to this information on a user friendly platform. Under "Credit Factors" you get visually rich, easy to understand table of major factors that impact your credit score. They are as follows:
- Credit Card Utilization.
- Payment History.
- Derogatory Remarks.
- Age of Credit History.
- Total Accounts.
- Credit Inquiries.
Based on your credit history, each factor will be graded using the Very Poor, Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent grading system. The degree of impact is also included for each factor. For example, credit inquiries and age of credit history bears the least burden on your credit score. If you click on one of the summarized factors, you get a complete thorough information on specific accounts, dates and companies issuing the credit lines.
Credit Report
Credit Karma also provides you with a full credit report on your entire credit history. It includes all the information mentioned above that affect your credit score as well as names used, accounts on collection and public records such as any bankruptcies or government proceedings. All this information is in a easy to understand layout with up to date information. You can easily print and access this information at any time.
Credit Score Simulator
Perhaps my favorite feature by Credit Karma is their credit simulator. Using all your current up to date credit information, Credit Karma allows you to pick from multiple scenarios such as getting a new loan, letting accounts go past due, opening a new credit card or the dreadful collection cases in order to estimate a credit score in case one of those scenarios were to happen. The scenarios are not just limited to the ones I just mentioned, they have plenty more such as paying off certain credit cards, closing accounts, and even a not paying taxes scenario. I currently have a credit score of 695 and I simulated to have two accounts go into collection, that caused my credit to drop almost 90 points!
