R.L. Dane 
🍵 
Any thoughts on #CreditKarma or alternatives out there?
I used to like using it, but now that it's owned by Intuit (a company I despise), I'd rather look for alternatives, or just do without. XD
Joe Steinbring 
@rl_dane If your goal is just to make sure nobody is using your identity to sign up for a credit account, I would freeze your credit reports with Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. If you need to buy a car or sign up for a credit card, you can do a 48hr thaw, go ahead and do it, and let it refreeze. It's free to do, and the way I heard it put, if you can't sign up for new credit because of the freeze, somebody pretending to be you can't either.
I was mainly using it just to get an idea of where my credit was at.
@rl_dane If you are concerned about the credit score itself, there is the vantage score and the fico score (which are very different from each other) and most banks offer one or the other for free through their member portals. You might have that available to you already without realizing it. I have that available in multiple places. Once you set up your accounts for the freezes, they will start sending you notifications when the score changes and the reason why it changed.
That's a good idea. I'll have to ask my local banker if they offer services like that, thanks! :)
StarNebula@rl_dane There is also Credit Sesame - I think they went live within a couple years of each other. I don't actively use either anymore, but seem to recall there was enough feature parity between them, where it was just down to personal preference.
Good to know, thanks!
Tim ChaseWhat do (did) you use it for? Just getting credit scores? I know our credit-cards offer free updates on our score.
Or do you have particular needs to improve your credit? Usually that's pretty doable through responsible use of credit.
Just getting the score, and indicators of why it goes up or down.
You're right, the credit card itself does do that, and my credit card is my only line of credit at the moment.
If you're paying off the balance in full each month rather than carrying a balance, and not opening new lines of credit, the credit-utilization ratio is the main driver of changes in the credit score. Keeping it under ~10% tends to keep the score higher (so if you have $20000 of credit, and put less than $2k on the card), your score should be fine. As that percentage creeps up, your score tends to go down.
Paying it off before the statement-close date can intercept the high-usage reporting, if the score matters. If you're not planning on applying for credit, it might not matter…ours often fluctuates ±10 points in any given month depending on utilization, and a recently expensive month sent it plummeting almost 30 points, but it'll pop right back up to the usual ~820 next month.