Sponsored Content • Written By: Credit Karma Money

Published: June 26, 2023 • 3 min read

Image: Woman making a purchase online with her credit card

Today, tens of millions of Americans are faced with the challenge of a low credit score or of no real credit history at all. Having poor credit can make qualifying for an auto loan, credit card, or home loan difficult or even impossible. However, for those that do qualify, terms may be unfavorable with high interest rates, relatively low limits, or low loan amounts.

Put another way: maintaining a low credit score could restrict your ability to make purchases with credit and could result in more interest paid, effectively making purchases made with credit more expensive.

If you currently find yourself with low credit (a TransUnion score of 619 or below), don’t worry Credit Karma Money^TM has your back. Read on to learn what steps you could take right now to help improve your credit score in 4 days!

Our Mission

Credit Karma was founded back in 2007 with the mission of making credit scores more transparent and free for people to access. 

Since then we’ve made some pretty big strides in helping people along their financial journey. And today, that means helping our members with a low score improve their credit the easy way.

Building Credit

Making payments on time (and getting credit for it) is one of several factors that can lead to a high credit score. This process has two critical components: 

• You must make an on-time payment.
• The entity that you make that on-time payment to must have the ability and willingness to report the payment to the credit bureaus.

Credit card companies, auto lenders, and even mortgage lenders report on-time payments to the bureaus. But what if you pay for bills and goods with cash or a debit card? And, what if you rent your home and don’t have a mortgage? Unfortunately, these types of on-time payments typically don’t get reported to the bureaus and therefore aren’t usually factored into your credit score, even if you pay on time.

Here’s what’s next

Enter Credit Builder² from Credit Karma Money. It’s our fee-free³ credit building tool that could raise your credit score by an average of 21 points in 4 days⁴  — seriously. It works like this:

Get Started 

Create your Credit Karma Money™ Spend account.⁵ Next, apply for Credit Builder and create your plan by:

Build Credit

Here’s the cool part: you simply then repay as little as $10/per paycheck back to us so that we have a valid payment to report back to the credit bureaus. It’s really kind of like paying yourself back and then getting the bureaus to recognize that as a positive credit action. 

That’s it. That’s the whole process.

So, get started right now. All you need is a Qualifying Direct Deposit⁶ or a connected paycheck⁷ and in 4 days you too could see an average increase of 21 points on your credit score!

¹ Members with a credit score of 619 or under may see an increase in 4 days of activating the plan. Late payments and other factors can have a negative impact on your score, including activity with your other credit accounts.

² Credit Builder plan requires you to open a no-fee line of credit and a no-fee savings account, both provided by Cross River Bank, Member FDIC. Credit Builder is serviced by Credit Karma Credit Builder. You’re eligible to apply for Credit Builder  if your TransUnion credit score is 619 or below at the time of application. A connected paycheck or Qualifying Direct Deposit is required for activation. For Qualifying Direct Deposit, must be received in the current or prior month before application, or 90 days after application submission.

³ There are no fees for the Credit Builder plan. For Credit Karma Money Spend: Third party fees may apply. Please see Spend Account Terms & Disclosures for more information.

⁴ Members with a TransUnion credit score of 619 or below who opened a Credit Builder plan and had it reported on their TransUnion report saw an average credit score increase of 21 points in 4 days of activating the plan. Late payments and other factors can have a negative impact on your score, including activity with your other credit accounts.

⁵ Banking services for your Spend account are provided by MVB Bank, Inc, Member FDIC. Maximum balance and transfer limits apply per account. Credit Builder is not provided by MVB Bank.

⁶ A Qualifying Direct Deposit (“QDD”) is a single deposit into your Credit Karma Money Spend Account that is initiated from outside of the Credit Karma Money Platform. Transactions that are not QDD include: Promotional deposits into your Spend account made by Credit Karma; transfers from your Save account; or transfers initiated from the Credit Karma Money platform. 

⁷ Credit Karma Money partners with Pinwheel to securely  connect you with thousands of payroll providers.