It is really easy to sign up for Credit Karma. They need to be able to match your identity with your TransUnion and Equifax credit files. You will need to give the Credit Karma some personal information, including your name, address, and birth date. You'll also be asked to provide the last four digits of your social security number.
Credit Karma needs this information for them to access your credit history from Equifax and Transunion.
I have Credit Karma notify me of any changes to my Credit by email. You can go to "My Profile" in CK. Then go to "Communications and Monitoring". The "Notification" page will come up. Here I have activated most of the options.
Credit Karma sends me an email if there are any changes in my Credit Score or my Account.
I recently applied for and got a new credit card. Credit Karma notified me by email that there was new credit applied for.
I charged an expensive item on one of my credit cards. This dropped my score by 28 points. Credit Karma notified me by email that my score had changed.
This is how I monitor my credit. Any changes and Credit Karma notifies me.
By using Credit Karma you will have free access to your credit history and your Vantage 3.0 credit score. Credit Karma is always free. Some services will want to charge you.
If you are using Credit Karma to check your Credit Score it will have no effect on your credit score.
You can also use Discover, Chase, Nerdwallet and a couple of other websites to check your credit score for free. I would only sign up for one service to check for free. Keep it simple.
No, I would not pay to check my credit history. It is free with Credit Karma and others and you can check it every day if you want. It makes no sense to me to pay to check my credit.
When you apply for a loan and the lender checks your credit history to determine if they are going to loan you money it will affect your score. It will have a small negative effect and that impact will not last very long. After two years the loan applications (AKA Hard Credit Inquiry) will disappear completely.
As you build credit sources and your score ages, your score will increase and decrease. As you borrow or use your credit your score will drop. It is fun to see how your score changes as time goes on.
I have been saving up for a big purchase. I have a fairly old credit history and several credit cards. I spent $8,000 on one of my credit cards that has a $15,000 credit limit. I will pay it off as soon as the bill comes due. The credit card statement from the card I spent $8,500 with just printed. The purchase showed up on my credit history as a debt. This dropped my score from 820 to 792.
I paid off my $8,500 purchase and it showed up on my credit card statement this week. The new statement showed a balance of $220 which I have charged on that card since the last statement. This dropped my overall credit utilization to under 2%.
This shows how even with a long credit history your credit utilization will have a big impact on your credit score.