I think Credit Karma is a scam

[mccarty-richard]

In order to link to your local bank they require the username and password to access your local bank account.  Totally absurd ! I’m

[Opus 17]

Obviously, if you want to use the Credit Karma Money feature to send and receive money from your regular bank account, have to use the password to give that permission.  If you don;t want to use the Credit Karma Money Spend and Save, then don;t use that. 

[mccarty-richard]

That's not it. Credit Karma Uses Plaid. In order for you to link CK and your personal bank together you must give Plaid your Username and the Password for that Bank plus give them permission to mine all the information they find in all accounts associated with that username and password. The only way for me to get my tax refund is to close the CK account and have them mail me a check. That's been "in process" for a month with no action so far

[Opus 17]

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@mccarty-richard wrote:

That's not it. Credit Karma Uses Plaid. In order for you to link CK and your personal bank together you must give Plaid your Username and the Password for that Bank plus give them permission to mine all the information they find in all accounts associated with that username and password. The only way for me to get my tax refund is to close the CK account and have them mail me a check. That's been "in process" for a month with no action so far

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But the point is, you are trying to link your bank account to Credit Karma Spend and Save.  That has nothing to do with your tax refund, unless you selected that option.  My tax refund goes straight to my regular bank account and I'm not a member of CK.

I don't know why your tax refund would be linked to CK, maybe there was a deal or offer you were trying to take advantage of?  I don't keep track of those deals and offers.  It's almost always a bad idea to put someone else in between you and your tax refund (paying your fees from your refund so your refund has to go through SBTPG is also a bad idea and just because Turbotax makes a profit from it, I will still keep saying it is a bad idea.)

If you agreed to some deal so that your refund needs to go through Credit Karma, you would need to call customer support, or have the IRS mail a paper check. 

[vanya42]

It is absolutely a 100% scam.  I can't believe TurboTax uses this non-functioning, predatory "service." The box you click when checking out of TurboTax is highly misleading - it makes it sound like you'll still get a direct deposit straight to your bank, just faster if you choose to have it processed via Credit Karma.

What actually happens is you're automatically enrolled in a new checking account through Credit Karma (a fake "bank"), and have to deal with them to access your funds. They make transferring to your bank account impossible - they say they need to verify your identify and have you send photos of your ID and SS card (SKETICHY!!!), say they sent out debit cards that never arrive, and then if you contact them too many times, they close your account with no warning and say your account is "under review" and if you contact them about it, they say a "higher department" is investigating and you have to wait for them to contact you, and they have no idea when that will be. Customer service reps flagrantly lie and give contradictory information (for example, I had one tell me to contact the IRS about my "missing" refund, after numerous reps had confirmed the funds were indeed in the CK account), and if you get annoyed, they'll simply transfer you to another clueless, useless rep for the process to start anew. There are thousands of complaints online and on BBB about these issues. I hope they have a massive class action against them soon - they are basically stealing by making it impossible to access your refund money, on the hope that most people will eventually give up.

[cherlo]

The refund is still yours.  CK is making it difficult to get to it without paying them some fee.  Today you are limited to only being able to transfer $1000 per day to your account.  Not sure if that transfer has a fee.  So the statement on Turbo Tax that you can get your refund faster is a straight up provable lie and grounds for lawsuit.  You are able to get your full refund faster than $1000 per day if you close the account, but this info will only be disclosed by CK if you press them.  And you have to correspond directly with a representative to find out about this and initiate the close as there is nothing on their web site to explain this or close the account.

[DV420]

Have you received your check? Im having the same issue. They told me it can take up too 120 days to close the account and send me my money. 

[DV420]

Exactly the nightmare im going through with last years tax return!!! CK uses MVB banking. Im at the point were i feel i should contact a lawyer. I get the same useless run around every time i call. Not sure why it takes so long to close the account and get the money returned. They told me they have up to 120 days to close my account and give me my tax return since plaid isn’t compatible with my bank. I tried to make a transfer and it got cancelled. Yet hackers were able to transfer my money no problem. Couldn’t get my money from the CK account but the CK account transferred money from my bank.. what i thought was gonna help build my credit has been nothing but a hassle and zero help. 

[ZZ620]

Absolutely a scam. I couldn't click any other option when doing my taxes with TurboTax than the credit karma crap. When I tried putting in my bank info it said it wasn't compatible and I didn't want to wait for a check. Nope should have waited for a dang check from the IRS. I'm now stuck dealing with these idiots freezing my account because I used the card... tried closing my account and they said it up for review. The review team will email me. Never have I received emails other than BOOST YOUR CREDIT SCORE hooey from them.  They refuse to unlock my account to take out the money, they refuse to even give me a date on when I could even close my account. Absolute scam. 

[wwthomas78]

Based on my own experience and seeing my scores on Credit Karma vs FICO score I've noticed a huge discrepancy and view them as unreliable. My actual score is between 99 and 111 points lower using FICO. I can only presume that they are posting higher scores to illicit applications for the credit and services they promote to potential customers that would otherwise not apply. In fact they don't even acknowledge the Experian score's impact on overall score or how much it is used to determine revolving credit acceptance. It's at best a manipulative untrustworthy service and I'm disappointed in TurboTax for its relationship with Credit Karma. I will no longer be using TurboTax services in the future.