Credit Karma - Free Credit Score
Head over to Credit Karma to find out your credit score for free.
You can get a free credit report each year, but the difference with Credit Karma is the score (you generally have to pay for that). What I love most about Credit Karma is that you can see how various items affect your credit score. What will happen if you open another credit card, close a credit card, ask a car/mortgage company do an inquiry on your credit, etc? A credit score is hard to figure out and Credit Karma helps you learn exactly what your score is, how you can make it better, and what things you might do to make it worse.
It is easy to sign up and then you can start “playing” with your credit score! You can even compare your own score to national averages. This is one of my favorite programs! When you sign up you have the option of them sending you emails, it is a click box at the bottom.
They will give you ways to save (credit cards, refinancing). Many of these suggestions are from partners, but you decide if you want to look at them (they are in a new tab) or take the advice. You can also click on the Advice and Learning tab to see frequently asked questions, credit advice, and tools/calculators.
I learned that I would get a higher score if I had more on my credit card! I never knew that, but apparently the ideal amount is 20%. Less than that and your score goes down because you have too much credit to use and more than that it goes down because you spend too much. Credit Karma suggested that I call the bank and get a lower credit limit so the ratio is closer to 20%.
You can get your free credit score and advice at Credit Karma here or you can click the Credit Karma image in this post. What did you learn?
