Canadians are afraid to check their credit score.
Credit scores are confusing, and that’s a fact. We conducted a survey and discovered that 60% of respondents were afraid to check their credit score. And when it comes to tracking your score and monitoring your progress, this can be equally as daunting. How do Credit Karma and Borrowell help with your credit score check?
Looking after your credit score is an integral part of improving your financial health. If you have a good credit score, you can avail of lower interest rates on mortgages or credit cards and quicker loan approval. Actively boosting your credit score can provide you with relief, less-stress and plenty of empowerment knowing you’re actively keeping up your credit score.
In Canada today, we’re lucky to have a wide range of companies that will assist us in increasing, monitoring and tracking our credit scores. Whereas you can still obtain your credit score from any of the major credit reporting agencies such as Equifax or TransUnion, we now have the option to check our score from other companies such as Credit Karma & Borrowell.
Both companies provide you with a free monthly credit score, alongside other features that will help you on your way to excellent credit health. Let’s learn more.
Borrowell
Borrowell is a financial technology company founded in Toronto in 2014 and is one of the first companies to provide Canadians with access to their credit score for free. Now, one of Canada’s largest fin-tech companies serving over 1 million people, they are partnered with several popular financial institutions, including EQ Bank, CIBC, Equifax, Scotiabank, BMO, Capital One, Power Financial Corporation and more.
Borrowell Credit Score Monitoring & Coaching
Borrowell provides its customers with a free monthly credit score check and reports from their partner Equifax. Each month, your credit score will be updated and will reflect the progress you’ve made from the month previous, helping you track and monitor your score. It’s also important to note, checking your credit score will not hurt it.
Alongside this, Borrowell now offers its customers Canada’s first AI-powered Credit Coach, Molly, who shares personalized tips that may help you understand and improve your credit. They also developed a recommendation engine that analyzes your unique credit profile to make personalized financial product recommendations.
Borrowell Personal Loans
Borrowell provides personal loans to assist with debt consolidation, paying off credit cards, home improvement projects, car purchases, business costs, and other significant purchases. This is an online application, with approval and funding being as quick as 48 hours from signing your loan agreement.
With Borrowell, you can obtain unsecured personal loans up to $35,000 at fixed rates between 5.99% and 29.19% (APR). The APR includes both the interest rate and the origination fee charged following loan approval. Loan term rates are either 3 or 5 years, and you can pay off your loan quicker to obtain the lower interest rates.
Borrowell Credit Cards & Mortgage Comparison
Borrowell has a platform that enables you to compare credit cards, with the ability to apply for them too. This also goes for mortgages, where Borrowell allows you to reach regarding interest, fixed vs variable and more.
Borrowell Helping You Track Your Bills
Borrowell recently released Borrowell Boost, which allows you to link your bank account to the app, and see expected bills and balanced to help manage your cash flow. The feature sends you reminders and alerts when bills are due to help avoid late payments and NSF (non-sufficient funds), which can penalize you up to $50.
To sign up for Borrowell, click here.
Credit Karma
They are an American company that was established in 2007, now with further expansion to the Canadian market since 2016. Credit Karma offers free credit scores, credit reports, and credit monitoring. In Canada, this includes residents of Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, New Brunswick, PEI, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Credit Karma Credit Score Monitoring
They offer their users access to their scores and reports. The credit score and reports that Credit Karma provides are from TransUnion’s Credit Vision Risk Scoring Model.
Personal Loans
Credit Karma works with a loan partner in Canada called LoanConnect. LoanConnect works as a search engine with a search feature to help users find their right loan product for them.
Credit Karma Credit Cards
Alongside the loan search-engine, Credit Karma also allows users to search for the right credit card for them. This all depends on their credit score and financial history. They can search and filter in regards to secured vs unsecured, student credit cards, bad credit cards and more.
To sign up for Credit Karma, click here.
Borrowell vs Credit Karma and The Bottom Line
Both companies provide similar services, but the main difference is that they use different reporting bureaus. Credit Karma pulls your credit score and reports from TransUnion. Borrowell is partnered with Equifax to provide you with credit services.
We have previously spoken about how your credit score may differ depending on where you check your score, which is why you may sign-up for both companies. You can then see the exact way the reporting agencies score you. Following this, you can then figure out the difference between a TransUnion report and an Equifax credit report.
To find out more: TransUnion vs Equifax: What’s the Difference.
Marble Financial (CSE: MRBL; OTCQB: MRBLF). We are a group of forward-thinking financial technology experts that understand Canadian’s occasionally need help in achieving longer-term credit health. Through our industry-leading proprietary technology solutions Fast Track Loan, Score Up, and Credit Meds. We guide our customers back to mainstream credit 50% quicker than traditional methods. Since 2016, We are proud to have empowered thousands of Canadians to a positive financial future. With this, we continue to establish ourselves as a leader in financial wellness.
