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- After getting engaged, I started aggressively paying down debt and working to raise my credit score - I didn't want money to be an issue in my marriage.
- I paid off more than $8,000 in 10 months, but my credit score seemed to be stuck at 652.
- Then, I noticed a credit card balance of $12,000 that didn't belong to me - Credit Karma informed me that a family member had added me to their account as an authorized user years earlier, and the debt was theirs.
- With one phone call, I was able to get my name off the account and spike my credit score by 50 points.
- Start your own Credit Karma account today and check your credit score for free »
It's funny what you'll do when you're in love. My boyfriend of two years proposed in November 2018, and on January 10, 2019, I started working on reducing my debt. I did this so I could improve my credit situation, but also to minimize the chance of money causing discord in our marriage.
At the time, I had $18,628.93 in credit card debt, but by October 10, I was down to $10,401.60.
It took a lot of discipline and hard work, but thanks to a number of helpful tools, I was able to pay off $8,227.33 in 10 months. In addition to a side gig, monthly budget, and religiously tracking my spending with Google Sheets, one of the tools that helped me most was the Credit Karma app.
Even though I was successfully paying down my debt, I noticed that my credit score was stuck in the mid-600s. That is, until Credit Karma helped me solve a problem I didn't know I had and boost my score.
Getting to know Credit Karma
Credit Karma started giving out free credit scores in 2007, and in 2014, it added full credit reports.
Credit Karma gives you access to your VantageScore 3.0 credit scores, as well as weekly reports from two major credit bureaus: Equifax and TransUnion. It also sends alerts whenever your score increases, decreases, or there's something you should know about. As someone who's been the victim of identity theft, this credit-monitoring tool is invaluable.
Best of all, you can use Credit Karma's credit services for free; the company makes money when customers sign up for products or services it promotes, such as credit cards or loans, but doesn't charge you to check your credit score or read your full report.
How Credit Karma captured my heart and saved my credit
If not for Credit Karma, my credit score would still be 652 instead of 702. That's because on May 28, I noticed something.
I was looking more closely than usual at my Credit Karma app that night and saw that I had a $12,000 line item under a Discover account. Though it had been there for years, it took me that long to notice, but better late than never.
Credit Karma can help you identify accounts and line items that are dragging down your credit score. Open a free account today to get started »
Fortunately, it wasn't a case of identity theft; it turns out that a family member had added me to their account years earlier to help me build up credit, and the debt was theirs.
The Discover operator I talked to was able to promptly remove me from that account - which reduced the credit card balance on my credit report by $12,000 - and the next day, my credit score went up 50 points.
Untapped resources
Credit Karma offers a number of other useful resources:
- DirectDispute: A feature that allows you to dispute items that shouldn't be on your credit report
- Unclaimed Money. A way to search for money that may belong to you that's sitting with state and local governments (it's under the "Resources" tab)
- Free tax filing
- Credit Karma Savings: A new high-yielding savings account from Credit Karma
- Educational articles to draw advice from
How Credit Karma made me a better person
I know I'm not alone in saying that it's often easier to live in denial than it is to face something hard. Well, when I started working on my debt, I had to ask some very hard questions.
Though I signed up for Credit Karma in summer 2015, I didn't actually use it until January 2019 when I started monitoring my score. I became obsessed with watching my credit score increase. Seeing how my actions (paying $1,200 towards my credit cards each month, for example) impacted my score motivated me to keep paying off my massive debt that used to debilitate me.
Soon, I realized it was far more rewarding to chip away at my debt than it was to accumulate things I didn't need.
I have a feeling that, with the help of the Credit Karma app, I will reach a top score of 850 in no time at all.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
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