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Credit Karma is free. Works great, and has no discernable dark patterns. They even have import features from major payroll companies like ADP. I had to quit

Credit Karma is free. Works great, and has no discernable dark patterns. They even have import features from major payroll companies like ADP. I had to quit turbotax because one year I was a 1099 worker and every year since, it pushes me to go with their "small business edition." Each year it got harder to avoid "upgrading." Seriously, just do it. Quitting TT is so much easier than quitting anything else.

kemitche 6y ago
> Credit Karma is free. That just makes me wonder what Credit Karma is getting out of the deal.
- minitoar 6y ago
  They tell you. Advertising dollars for financial products.
- vmception 6y ago
  “wonder” The DOJ forced them to sell that whole unit if they wanted to be acquired because of the super obvious data mining consolidation
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- isoskeles 6y ago
  They use your data (income, financial situation (do you have a mortgage, etc.)) to determine what financial products (which credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, etc.) to offer you. This would all be in addition to what they knew about your credit score or anything else you input on the other parts of their platform. But as others pointed out, that part of CK got split off when Intuit bought them.
- burkaman 6y ago
  It's extremely up-front, the home page is offers for credit cards and loans and such. It's also explained here: https://www.creditkarma.com/faq/howitworks https://www.creditkarma.com/faq/howitworks In several years of using it, they've never emailed me advertising anything, and while they're obviously sharing my info with credit card companies and banks, I haven't gotten any marketing from them either. If you don't care about the recommendations, as I don't, you can use it for your taxes and never think about it the rest of the year.
- Mountain_Skies 6y ago
  When I did my taxes through them, at the start they offered to transfer my data into Cash App. The wording was a bit shady as it wasn't clear what Cash App is or if it was part of the tax prep process or not. I already knew what Cash App is so I declined but I could see some people getting confused. At the end it also offered to load my refund into a Cash App account "in days instead of weeks", making it essentially a refund anticipation loan. The wording on that one was much more clear and I declined.
minitoar 6y ago
Didn’t intuit acquire credit karma? Will this be the last year of a separate ck tax product?
- jlongr 6y ago
  Square agreed to acquire Credit Karma Tax.
  - technofiend 6y ago
    Credit Karma got a lot more snoopy about personal details after Intuit acquired them. They won't get anything else from me until after that merger goes through, because I see no reason to give Intuit any more data than they already have. I moved to H & R Block's Tax Cut more than a decade ago thanks to Intuit doing something horrible I no longer remember.
vulcan01 6y ago
How does Credit Karma make money? I'd feel more comfortable using them if I understood this.
- theandrewbailey 6y ago
  Ads for credit cards, mortgages, and loans.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  If you apply for a loan or credit card via their app, they get a couple hundred bucks. Same way "The Points Guy" makes money.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
timr 6y ago
Having used Credit Karma in the past, you should know that it can be...dangerously confusing...for anything other than the happy path. Things like backdoor Roth contributions (which aren't that exotic, tbh) were very confusing in credit karma, to the point where I actually did my taxes with another service just to verify that the calculations were correct, then submitted with CK. I found several mistakes in the CK results that were due to bad/confusing UI. You likely won't hit this problem if you're just doing a 1040EZ or 1040 with standard deduction, no stock sales, etc. But if you have any complications...sometimes there's a reason to pay for software.
- pbuzbee 6y ago
  I do this too: I prep my taxes in both TurboTax and in CK, make sure they agree, then submit in CK for free.
  - timr 6y ago
    Yeah, I'm normally pretty cheap with this stuff, but this is painful enough that I just decided to pay for some software this year. At some point, "cheaper than an accountant" becomes the guiding principle... (definitely not defending Intuit here, though. Tricking people into paying is not cool.)
memco 6y ago
I got an email from Credit Karma advertising for TurboTax. This plus the glitch that exposed into [1] leaves me very little confidence in CK. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20699410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20699410
- jrochkind1 6y ago
  I thought I remembered TurboTax purchased CreditKarma, but googled,and now I'm confused... > Intuit Inc., owner of the popular TurboTax DIY tax preparation service, has moved forward with its $8.1 billion acquisition of Credit Karma, Inc., after satisfying the government’s requirement that Credit Karma divest its tax preparation business. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/anticompetitive-concerns-addressed-intuit-credit-karma-deal-moves-forward https://www.natlawreview.com/article/anticompetitive-concern... Divest their tax prep business? I just did my taxes on creditkarma, and it was the same website that was trying to market me credit cards that i prepared the taxes on. AHA, that article has a date "January 3, 2021", so I guess still in progress? But ok, divest their tax prep business... the WAY CK was providing free tax prep was by funding it with the rest of their portfolio, the credit card marketing and such. The tax prep got people into their system (and possibly got their data into their system, I'm not sure how much was opt-in or opt-out). Divest their tax prep business? Into it's own business? It won't possibly be able to provide the service for free anymore right? They will probably quickly go out of business. I don't know how the heck anti-trust regulators think this did anything positive. Intuit one way or another succesfully eliminated the competition from free creditkarma tax prep. Gah.
Bedon292 6y ago
Isn't Credit Carma owned by Intuit who also owns Turbotax? This is very odd to me that they do this, where one side is free and the other is not?
- teclordphrack2 6y ago
  It the appearance of capitalism.

kemitche 6y ago

> Credit Karma is free. That just makes me wonder what Credit Karma is getting out of the deal.

minitoar 6y ago
They tell you. Advertising dollars for financial products.
vmception 6y ago
“wonder” The DOJ forced them to sell that whole unit if they wanted to be acquired because of the super obvious data mining consolidation
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
isoskeles 6y ago
They use your data (income, financial situation (do you have a mortgage, etc.)) to determine what financial products (which credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, etc.) to offer you. This would all be in addition to what they knew about your credit score or anything else you input on the other parts of their platform. But as others pointed out, that part of CK got split off when Intuit bought them.
burkaman 6y ago
It's extremely up-front, the home page is offers for credit cards and loans and such. It's also explained here: https://www.creditkarma.com/faq/howitworks https://www.creditkarma.com/faq/howitworks In several years of using it, they've never emailed me advertising anything, and while they're obviously sharing my info with credit card companies and banks, I haven't gotten any marketing from them either. If you don't care about the recommendations, as I don't, you can use it for your taxes and never think about it the rest of the year.
Mountain_Skies 6y ago
When I did my taxes through them, at the start they offered to transfer my data into Cash App. The wording was a bit shady as it wasn't clear what Cash App is or if it was part of the tax prep process or not. I already knew what Cash App is so I declined but I could see some people getting confused. At the end it also offered to load my refund into a Cash App account "in days instead of weeks", making it essentially a refund anticipation loan. The wording on that one was much more clear and I declined.

minitoar 6y ago

Didn’t intuit acquire credit karma? Will this be the last year of a separate ck tax product?

jlongr 6y ago
Square agreed to acquire Credit Karma Tax.
- technofiend 6y ago
  Credit Karma got a lot more snoopy about personal details after Intuit acquired them. They won't get anything else from me until after that merger goes through, because I see no reason to give Intuit any more data than they already have. I moved to H & R Block's Tax Cut more than a decade ago thanks to Intuit doing something horrible I no longer remember.

vulcan01 6y ago

How does Credit Karma make money? I'd feel more comfortable using them if I understood this.

theandrewbailey 6y ago
Ads for credit cards, mortgages, and loans.
ceejayoz 6y ago
If you apply for a loan or credit card via their app, they get a couple hundred bucks. Same way "The Points Guy" makes money.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

timr 6y ago

Having used Credit Karma in the past, you should know that it can be...dangerously confusing...for anything other than the happy path. Things like backdoor Roth contributions (which aren't that exotic, tbh) were very confusing in credit karma, to the point where I actually did my taxes with another service just to verify that the calculations were correct, then submitted with CK. I found several mistakes in the CK results that were due to bad/confusing UI. You likely won't hit this problem if you're just doing a 1040EZ or 1040 with standard deduction, no stock sales, etc. But if you have any complications...sometimes there's a reason to pay for software.

pbuzbee 6y ago
I do this too: I prep my taxes in both TurboTax and in CK, make sure they agree, then submit in CK for free.
- timr 6y ago
  Yeah, I'm normally pretty cheap with this stuff, but this is painful enough that I just decided to pay for some software this year. At some point, "cheaper than an accountant" becomes the guiding principle... (definitely not defending Intuit here, though. Tricking people into paying is not cool.)

memco 6y ago

I got an email from Credit Karma advertising for TurboTax. This plus the glitch that exposed into [1] leaves me very little confidence in CK. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20699410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20699410

jrochkind1 6y ago
I thought I remembered TurboTax purchased CreditKarma, but googled,and now I'm confused... > Intuit Inc., owner of the popular TurboTax DIY tax preparation service, has moved forward with its $8.1 billion acquisition of Credit Karma, Inc., after satisfying the government’s requirement that Credit Karma divest its tax preparation business. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/anticompetitive-concerns-addressed-intuit-credit-karma-deal-moves-forward https://www.natlawreview.com/article/anticompetitive-concern... Divest their tax prep business? I just did my taxes on creditkarma, and it was the same website that was trying to market me credit cards that i prepared the taxes on. AHA, that article has a date "January 3, 2021", so I guess still in progress? But ok, divest their tax prep business... the WAY CK was providing free tax prep was by funding it with the rest of their portfolio, the credit card marketing and such. The tax prep got people into their system (and possibly got their data into their system, I'm not sure how much was opt-in or opt-out). Divest their tax prep business? Into it's own business? It won't possibly be able to provide the service for free anymore right? They will probably quickly go out of business. I don't know how the heck anti-trust regulators think this did anything positive. Intuit one way or another succesfully eliminated the competition from free creditkarma tax prep. Gah.

Bedon292 6y ago

Isn't Credit Carma owned by Intuit who also owns Turbotax? This is very odd to me that they do this, where one side is free and the other is not?

teclordphrack2 6y ago
It the appearance of capitalism.