As soon as I was 18, I couldn’t wait to do two things: buy a lottery ticket and get my own credit card. I lost my first $10 and gave up on the former, but I didn’t even have to try to get the latter. I got a phone call merely a few weeks after my birthday with a survey from a credit card company — they wanted to issue me my own card. Ten minutes on the phone and one week later, I had that little piece of plastic magic in my hand — and a whole new mess of troubles.
Credit Karma has launched a new, web-based tool that turns your credit score into an easy to read report card that grades your credit health. Best of all? It’s free. Credit Karma CEO, Ken Lin, was excited to talk about the new reporting tool that provides insight for consumers who don’t understand their credit score, but actively want to improve it. Taking into account the five major influencers on a consumer’s credit score (credit card utilization, length of credit, on time payment history, etc. ), it grades each metric and gives an overall grade.
It’s been seven months since we gave birth to the shiny new creation that is LifeStyler. As we trek further down the road looking back on the happenings of the past month — whether it was delving into Obama’s new stimulus plan, tips on surviving in NYC’s harsh employment landscape, or fun, free weekend ideas — our mission stays the same: to keep bringing smart, pertinent and helpful information about lifestyle and personal finance to the young and ambitious in NY. And in true LifeStyler tradition, here are some of our Editor’s story picks from February’s harvest.
In the age of the credit crunch, credit scores are the passport to your financial future. The new year has brought many things, and with it, a new scoring model. We spoke to Ken Lin, CEO of Credit Karma (a website that lets you check your credit score for free — anytime, anywhere) about the change in the FICO credit scoring model to get a better idea of what the changes are and how they will affect you.
It’s that time of year when the weather turns crisp and the proud citizens of New York bundle up in their winter gear. But before we head off into the mother of all holiday seasons, let’s take a look retrospective look back at some stories from the past month. Here are some of our favorite posts from around the net, as well as our more popular stories from October in this month’s Mashup.
I was introduced to Credit Karma a few weeks ago at a Quicken media event courtesy of a chance meting with a company representative who gave me the scoop on the site. 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. This led to an opportunity to chat it up with Credit Karma\’s CEO and Founder, Kenneth Lin to find out a little more about the company, its goals, and how it\’s able to produce no-strings-attached free credit scores any day of the week. Keep on reading for some behind the scenes info (and a few credit building tips!) on one of the most helpful and beneficial websites to hit the interwebs.
Obtaining credit scores has always been an enormous hassle. You go to Annual Credit Report and request it, then you get it and it shows you the report – but not the score. That’ll be an extra $8. The sheer amount of hoops you have to jump through just to get something that should come free of charge has reached a whole new level of ridiculous. But fear not, for today is a new day. And Credit Karma has forever changed the way you’ll get your credit score; making it quick, simple, and best of all free.
