Intuit Credit Karma
That's where a little known start-up, Credit Karma steps in. Unlike the big players, Creditkarma.com provides free credit scores based on advertising rather than a subscription model.
One way to lower the ratio is to spread credit across multiple cards, said Kenneth Lin, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based Credit Karma. "Don't have one card that shows extremely high utilization with others that have zero utilization"
Two real strengths of Credit Karma are that they offer a plethora of statistics that let you know where you stand in a relative sense and they allow you to track your score over time such that you can see trends, and perhaps spot anomalies that might be signal negative information on your credit report. Oh, and one more thing... They're free.
The prospect of obtaining free credit scores was more than a little bit awesome, so I thought it wise to probe deeper to get an understanding of just how Credit Karma pulled it off.
Thanks to the credit crunch, your credit score carries a lot more weight than it used to, especially when you want to land a loan or open a credit card. Credit Karma offers free daily access to your credit score...
If you've already gotten your free, once-a-year credit report but want to see fresher numbers, CreditKarma, a free credit-tracking site, can give you month-to-month estimates without affecting your score.
Credit Karma is the only place I've seen that allows you to get a free credit score with absolutely no obligation. You don't have to enter a credit card number. You don't have to subscribe to a credit monitoring service. The credit score is absolutely free.
Credit Karma is a new Web site that gives you your credit score for free without forcing you to sign up for a trial offer or give your credit card number. It offsets the cost of the credit report it purchases for you by offering deals and advertising on its site.
Credit scores are key to your financial life, determining whether you can get a loan or a credit card and what interest rate you'll pay if you do, among other things. But not everyone knows their credit score, despite the importance of that three-digit number.
Credit Karma also provides you with a free credit score. The score comes from one of the three major credit bureaus. The site will also help you monitor your score over time. CreditKarma provides you with special offers based on your credit score. For example, you can get a lower interest rate on credit cards. You may also apply for offers from cable companies and other businesses.