ITSpotlight is designed to keep the campus up to date on ITS activities and services.
Credit Karma
Posted August 14, 2019
by Curt Price
I may be one of the last people that should be giving financial advice.
So I won't REALLy do that here.
However... with all of the security breaches going on and the looming threat that is identity theft, I'm going to suggest an online service you may want to check out. And seeing as how this is an onling service with an accompanying smart phone app, this easily fits into the "Tech News" theme we've got going on here.
Credit Karma is a site that will allow you to view your credit rating and also allow you to lock & unlock your accounts at the three main credit bureaus. Locking your accounts is something to consider, because if you lock your accounts, nobody can open a line of credit in your name...so your identity can not be stolen by those means. Granted, you also won't be able to open a new line of credit...but if you need to do that, you can easily go in and unlock your accounts so you can open that line of credit, and then lock them again when you're done.
They also offer free credit monitoring. So if you are in line to bring home a whopping $14 due to the Equifax settlement, you need credit monitoring in place to take part in that financial windfall. They'll alert you to any suspicious activity on your accounts.
Credit Karma also suggests the best credit cards for you based on your credit and credit history, among other things. So if you are in the market for a new card, this is a nice feature.
There is also a handy app for your smart phone that will allow you access to their services on the go. Now...with great power comes great responsibility. Which means create secure passwords for your account here, consider a password manager like LastPass to manage that, and by all means set up your phone to lock when it's not in use.
I'm by no means a financial expert. Far from it. But after registering with Credit Karma, I feel more informed about things surrounding my credit. Important things that I should have known before. So I think that's worth the price of admission for Credit Karma...which I forgot to mention, is 100% free. (I probably should have led with that nugget of info...kudos to those of you who are still reading...that is your reward)
