Intuit Credit Karma
Many Americans may be unaware that their social media conversations and posts are providing banks and lenders with a treasure trove of information. In fact, a growing number of banks and lenders are currently building a data repository – collecting, storing and analyzing data – in the hopes that one day it could help them determine your potential credit risk and also tailor marketing directly to you.
“There’s a tipping point where annual fees make sense,” Ken Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com, says. He explains that credit card issuers typically profit through interchange fees charged to merchants or through the annual percentage rates (APRs) of interest applied to balances.
You fill out a credit card application, but how certain are you that you’ll be approved for a new card? A new online tool from CreditKarma.com aims to take the guesswork out of that process.
There’s a certain mystery about applying for a credit card: Is your credit score good enough for the best card and rate? Just how much credit might you get if you are approved? With a new tool from CreditKarma.com, you can use information from a long list of credit card companies to find the best card for you, and figure out the one that you’re most likely to get approved for.
Credit card companies know where you shop, how much you spend on average and your credit history. But what do you really know about them? CreditKarma.com's new Credit Card Statistics tool, which launched Wednesday, is the latest online widget to pull back the curtain on those lenders.
Identity theft is a crime that offers a big payout with little risk of being caught. Inherent with the Internet Age, identity theft can be perpetrated virtually anywhere on Earth, and those that are victimized can be living on the opposite side of the globe from the perpetrator.
A report released Wednesday by CreditKarma.com, a free credit management website, shows that credit card debt nationally fell by a whopping 18 percent from August 2010 to last month. “The relative uncertainty of the current job market has forced consumers to live within their means and focus on being financially responsible,” said Kenneth Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com.
The average credit score nationwide is 666, according to CreditKarma.com. That's not only an ominous number, but can be a costly one. Based on CreditKarma.com's data, the trend amongst lenders shows that a 660 credit score is the threshold to be approved for a mortgage, auto loan and unsecured credit card. Digging deeper into consumers' credit health, nearly 40% of consumers have a credit score below 660.
“Your credit score would remain intact,” Ken Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com, says, because the bad debt is attributed to the lien holder who was responsible for the delinquency whether they’re still around or not.
If your personal finance knowledge were a pie, credit scores would be one of the most difficult pieces to swallow. That three-digit number can be confusing, so gaining a good understanding of the credit basics is important. It will give you a context for your credit score, and you’ll know what you need to do to improve your credit health.