Credit Karma launches new personalized shopping experience

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The new marketplace aims to bring certainty, transparency & simplicity to today’s financial product shopping process

Today, the process of getting a credit card or loan has room for improvement. The lack of certainty, transparency, and simplicity make it difficult for consumers to shop for financial products that fit their individual needs.

How do you know which products are right for you? How can you make sure you’re getting the best for you?

In most cases, you have no idea whether or not you’ll be approved. In fact, our data shows if you have Subprime credit, there’s an 81% chance you’ll get rejected – that’s the majority of Americans! Even if you have excellent credit, there’s still a 16% chance your application will get rejected.

Credit inquiry. Rejection. Lower credit scores. So what’s a credit seeker to do?

Credit Karma’s mission is to champion financial progress for all. Since 2008, we’ve been trying to bring more transparency, certainty, and simplicity to consumer finance. Our new marketplace – which can show you credit cards and loans you’re pre-approved for, help compare your options, and make it easier to apply – is a big step in that direction. Pre-approval means that you meet certain criteria determined by the lender and typically you have about a 90% chance of being approved for the offer. Pre-approval is not a guarantee of approval, and the lender will still need to verify your income and other information before you can be approved.

Powering our marketplace experience is an industry-first platform that connects consumers to lenders in an entirely new way. This platform allows lenders to combine their proprietary modeling expertise with our vast member data assets in a secure, cloud-hosted model development environment. This enables them to easily create, target and present pre-approved offers to qualified members. Credit Karma then leverages machine learning algorithms to present the most relevant offers to our members. What’s more, our partners can easily manage and make changes to their offers directly within the platform.

Here’s why that’s beneficial for you, our members.

The road to Pre-approval

For years, Credit Karma members have had insight into their financial profile and chances of approval for various credit cards and loans. In order to determine your Approval Odds, Credit Karma looks at how your credit profile compares to members who were approved for the same product. Approval Odds are our prediction of the probability that you’ll be approved for a specific credit card or a loan from a specific lender. Of course, there’s no such thing as a sure thing, but knowing your Approval Odds may help you narrow down your choices.

With our new marketplace, you can now find out whether or not you’ve been pre-approved by the bank or lender for select cards and loans. We’re aiming to give all Americans access to shop for financial products with the best rates and terms for them – without impacting their credit scores.

It’s a win-win. Banks get the users they want. Consumers get the best offers.


The complete picture

Not only can you see offers you’re pre-approved for, but you can compare your options side by side, putting you in the driver’s seat. Our marketplace offers filter and sort options to narrow your choices using specific attributes, like travel or cash back rewards, sign up bonuses, and annual fee. It also has research tools like real user reviews, expert articles, and Credit Karma Editors’ Take: independent reviews from our editors. Knowledge is power, and our aim is to help you make a decision confidently by being a one-stop-shop for comparing financial products.     

Simple application experience

Finally, Credit Karma is making the process of applying painless through the new Easy Apply experience for credit cards. We know you have better things to spend your time on than filling out pesky forms. To save you a few minutes, we pre-fill your application with basic information from your Credit Karma profile, like your name, phone number, and address. When you hit submit, instead of waiting 10 seconds to be redirected to the lender’s site, you’ll stay on Credit Karma in a more seamless experience. You’ll learn the status of your application instantly, and if you’re approved, you’ll know your credit limit right away. We’ve optimized the experience for mobile, where we know many of you are accessing and getting your financial products today.

What’s next

We’re excited about these changes, but there’s much more to come. In the future, we aim to provide richer offers and Credit Karma exclusives through our partners, with offer terms and benefits customized to you. You’ll even see actual interest rates you’re pre-approved for before you apply, so you can better predict how much you might pay if you carry a balance.

Staff Product Manager
Shreya Oswal