Intuit Credit Karma
"This month's data succinctly illustrates the correlation between debt and credit score," CreditKarma CEO Ken Lin said in a release. "Consumers have charged more on their credit cards and as a result, credit scores are lower. We suspect as consumers begin to pay down their debts, credit scores will start to increase again."
Many banks are responding to the trend [payment volume for debit cards exceeded credit cards] by adding rewards programs and other features to their debit cards, says Ken Lin, chief executive of Credit Karma, a website that provides free credit scores.
Today Show mentions Credit Karma in their segment, Today's Money.
Today, Credit Karma satisfies LearnVesters' curiosity surrounding the relationship between your credit score and loans.
"There's obviously a benefit from [reaching] the 750 range," says Ken Lin, CEO of Credit Karma, a credit-score disclosure company based in San Francisco. But "once you hit that pricing tier, there really is no benefit" to a higher score.
I am a supporter of CreditKarma.com, a free service that shows you your TransUnion credit score, among other things, as many times as you want.
Credit Karma provides you with a credit report card (not credit report) and your credit score as calculated by TransUnion. One of the nice features is that the report card explains those factors that are either helping or hurting your credit score.
"The shareholders at the large banks that issue the cards are looking for continuing revenue growth, and when you take away $22 billion they make on fees, they'll look for another way to make it up," said Ken Lin, who heads Credit Karma.
I've been a fan of Credit Karma for about as long as they've been around. It's a cornerstone of my DIY identity theft protection strategy because it lets me view my TransUnion credit score for free about as often as I want to.
Today, we kick off Credit Karma's weekly wave of credit info, exclusive to LearnVest readers.