After trying two apps for 60 days, Credit Karma totally beat out my Discover score tracker

I spent 2 months checking both Credit Karma and the free Discover credit score thing they give cardholders. Discover only showed me one bureau, Experian, and it was always 30 points higher than what lenders actually pulled. Credit Karma gave me TransUnion and Equifax side by side, and those matched closer to what I saw when I applied for a car loan last fall. The VantageScore on Credit Karma was way off from FICO, but at least I could see trend lines and alerts for free. Discover's app was cleaner but basically useless since it missed half my accounts. Has anyone else found Credit Karma's VantageScore to be useless for actual loan shopping?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesc7910d ago

Oh man, I feel you on the VantageScore thing. It's like Credit Karma is great for tracking trends and catching errors, but that score number itself is basically useless when a lender pulls your FICO. I'd rather have a rough idea of two bureaus than a perfect score from just one though, at least you get a fuller picture.

the_john10d ago

Totally agree @jamesc79. Credit Karma tricked me into thinking my score was 750 until a car loan pulled my actual FICO. That 680 hurt. But I still check CK every month for the TransUnion and Equifax reports. Caught a collections error on there last year. Would have missed it completely with just one bureau. So yeah the score is a joke but the monitoring part is solid.

sethm5810d ago

Same thing happened to my buddy @the_john. He walked into a dealership thinking he was a 740 and walked out with a 650 reality check. The VantageScore is like getting a participation trophy - it looks nice on the shelf but means nothing when the real test comes. I still keep Credit Karma around for the alerts and the TransUnion report. Caught a weird address listed on my file last month that I never lived at. So yeah, the score itself is basically a polite suggestion from a stranger. Use it for watching trends and keeping an eye on errors, but don't plan your loan around it. That Discover app sounds like it only gives you half the picture anyway.