A common question that many people have is whether they need to worry about their score dropping after using Credit Karma to check it. This is quite a reasonable concern. After all, multiple hard inquiries on the credit report can negatively affect the credit score of the consumer. Does this mean that when I check my credit score using Credit Karma, I get a hard inquiry and my score drops?
The short answer is no, checking your credit score using Credit Karma does not affect your credit score. Credit Karma is a perfect example of an organization that uses soft inquiry to obtain information about your credit. Soft credit checks do not reflect on the credit report and as a result, they do not in any way affect the credit score.
What is the meaning of the term Soft Inquiry?
It is important to know that not all inquiries into your credit are the same. Soft inquiries and hard inquiries are the two major categories of credit checks. The difference lies in who is pulling your credit report and for what purpose.
A soft inquiry occurs when you or a creditor who already knows you pull your credit. For instance, your current credit card company may monitor your credit status to determine whether you are eligible for a higher credit limit. Some employers may also conduct credit checks on the candidate as part of the background check process. A landlord may also use a soft inquiry to check an applicant credit too sometimes.
Any searches for your credit report carried out through these soft inquiries do not impact your score in any way. Thus, they are not reflected on your credit report at all. These inquiries are only visible to you.
On the other hand, when a new creditor checks your credit that is a hard inquiry. This often occurs when a person applies for a new credit card or loan. This does appear on your credit report and does make your score drop by a negligible extent. Several hard inquiries within a short duration of time may be an indication of high risk to the lenders.
Credit Karma works by pulling your credit report gently hence it does not affect your credit score in any way.
Why Credit Karma Uses a Soft Pull
Credit Karma can forgo making a hard inquiry since you are not applying for another line of credit through the service. Credit Karma is just allowing you to view your credit information and credit score – just like your current creditors are doing with those soft inquiries.
Since you are not applying for a credit card or loan through Credit Karma, that means there is no way they will pull your credit report for a hard check. They are immune from the usual need to decide whether or not to grant you credit.
Credit Karma receives your credit information from the bureaus of credit. It makes them offer you free credit monitoring as a way of demonstrating their authority. The free credit score comes with a cost, as they display advertisements and credit card offers through the platform. However, it is also important to know that merely using Credit Karma to check one’s credit score does not affect the score in any way.
On this article, the writer explains the Benefits of Credit Monitoring with Credit Karma
Not only it does not hurt to check your credit score on Credit Karma, but it also can be useful for monitoring and boosting your score.
Credit Karma offers credit scores from Equifax and TransUnion for free to consumers. They offer an option of checking your scores often through their service which makes it possible for the credit to be checked for any suspicious activity. If you find that there is a huge drop on your score in what you expected, you can also look for details and challenge inaccuracies on your reports.
Another remarkable feature of Credit Karma is that it offers full credit reports for free. You can detail in your reports, to know within a detail what factors are affecting your scores. While their interface allows you to review your reports and pick out the positive and negative items with relative ease.
Moreover, the services offered by Credit Karma contain specific suggestions on how one can enhance their credit. They will use credit monitoring tools to point out the areas that need attention. Some of the ideas included are credit card balances, paying off credit report mistakes. These improvement actions can help you get better and improve your scores over time.
It also highlights errors on credit reports that could be detrimental to your credit score. Just as with Equifax, Credit Karma also enables users to quickly dispute errors with the credit bureaus. This is good news because it means that you can easily correct reporting mistakes which in turn can add many points to your score.
The Takeaway
You will not damage your credit when using Credit Karma to check your credit report. They offer their service through which you can get your latest scores and credit reports often without any harm. In fact, the use of Credit Karma does not decrease your credit score but can assist you in a monitoring and sustaining of the credit status for the better. The soft inquiries used by Credit Karma merely let you see your credit reports while simultaneously not affecting those scores.
