Originally Posted by
FT_Reader
Credit Karma is not a FICO credit score. The score you get from Credit Karma is only from TransUnion which is only one of the big three.
The FICO score is what matters to creditors and what they see when they pull your credit. A change in CK score does not mean anything other than....uhm...actually it means nothing as far as your credit score goes. Scores from CK are good for, again, nothing. Okay, maybe just a general idea of what your score might be. I have heard of people receiving the exact score from FICO and CK, but I have also heard of CK scores being over 100 points off.
Pay no attention to CK. If you want your real Equifax or TransUnion scores, go to MyFICO.com.
Well, to elaborate on this helpful explanation a little bit, whatever score you get on myfico.com is also likely NOT what your bank will use. Except for one of myfico's most expensive products, the score you will buy from myfico.com will be based on either your Equifax or TransUnion credit reports. But if your lender runs your Experian report, your bank may very well see a fairly different number.
That being said, myfico's TransUnion-based credit score is certainly a much better projection of what your bank will see than creditkarma's TransUnion-based credit score.