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Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

thefintechtimes.com

61–70 of 112 posts

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#62
post #22

Can we guesstimate that fine as "days of profit" ? one month? one year?

My guess is that they aren't profitable at all.

Credit Karma provided intuit with $475m in revenue for its Q4’22 earnings. Inuit posted a loss but I suspect credit karma was break even or slightly profitable.

https://s23.q4cdn.com/935127502/files/doc_financials/2022/q4...

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm American and 90% of my banking/bill payment is done on the US side. I still get plenty of snail mail to my US address, as well. I don't think the credit reporting agencies are aware of my physical location.

Is your snail mail address an actual residence, or is it something like a PO Box?

Actual residence. Childhood home.

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#64
post #60

I have zero debt. Absolutely zero. However, I left the States soon after graduating university, and thus also have (had) no credit history there. Since I've been planning to return soon, I've been trying to build a history, so when the time comes, I can get a mortgage loan. The process of building a credit history has been enlightening and frustrating. I'm in the tech world, as most people in this forum is as well. I…

> I've been planning to return soon > However, I qualify for zero unsecured credit cards. That’s normal. You don’t live in the US so American banks have zero recourse if you decide to default. For comparison, I had a very easy time getting 3 unsecured cards back when I was a 18 year old student with nearly zero income. It also helped that I had checking/savings accounts with the same banks and years of deposit histor…

> That’s normal. You don’t live in the US so American banks have zero recourse if you decide to default.

I'm American, and have no reason to believe the credit reporting services are aware of my physical location. This is evidenced by conversations I have had with various agencies (governmental, credit bureaus, etc.) over the past year.

> For comparison, I had a very easy time getting 3 unsecured cards back when I was a student with nearly zero income. It also helped that I had checking/savings accounts with the same banks and years of deposit history.

I've used the same primary bank for 20 years and counting.

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you plan to buy a car? A car loan will establish your credit history. Car lenders will lend to anyone because they can always repossess the car. If you could buy a car with cash, take out a auto loan at any interest rate. Pay off the entire balance except $1. You’ll have no balance due each month, but each payment will be recorded as having been made on time. Then pay off the last $1 in the last month. Double chec…

Your first paragraph is largely true if you're able to make a down payment (your car depreciates a ton as soon as you drive it off the lot, lenders will be much more willing to lend if amount of the loan is less than the value of the car sold _used_). The second is close to true, but you should actually leave a little over one month's payment, not $1. This SE answer explains it better than I ever could: https://money…

> ignore the "Accepted" answer which contains awful advice

Yep. I love how the accepted answer with 130 votes totally ignores how credit scores work. I suppose it would be excellent advice if the OP never intends to get a home/car/cards and is too mentally impaired to handle a $1 loan.

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#66
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been planning to return soon > However, I qualify for zero unsecured credit cards. That’s normal. You don’t live in the US so American banks have zero recourse if you decide to default. For comparison, I had a very easy time getting 3 unsecured cards back when I was a 18 year old student with nearly zero income. It also helped that I had checking/savings accounts with the same banks and years of deposit histor…

> That’s normal. You don’t live in the US so American banks have zero recourse if you decide to default. I'm American, and have no reason to believe the credit reporting services are aware of my physical location. This is evidenced by conversations I have had with various agencies (governmental, credit bureaus, etc.) over the past year. > For comparison, I had a very easy time getting 3 unsecured cards back when I wa…

> have no reason to believe the credit reporting services are aware of my physical location

So did you lie about your address on the credit card application? If not, that’s how the bank knows you don’t live in the US and that’s why you were rejected.

Lemme simply: Either you need credit history in the US or you need to live in the US. You fail both criteria. Maybe your rejection letter only mentions the first reason, but banks definitely issue cards (with very low limits like $2k) to students with zero history. Speaking from experience.

> same primary bank for 20 years

Then walk in there and apply for a card after you get back in the US.

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#67
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I started fresh I had a 500 credit score (which sounds like what you have). No, when your credit history is non-existent, the free credit score sites will happily tell you it’s much higher than that (mine was reported as 720-740 when I lacked history), but you’ll still get auto-rejected for everything. Interestingly, I emailed Arnold Kling, an economist writing about the subprime market at the time (2007) and…

Did you ever get the situation sorted? If so, any tips?

If you have the cash flow, you can get a secured credit card or secured loan, which is giving a bank the money to lend[1] back to you at no risk to them. i.e. if you give them $500 as security, they'll give you a credit card with a $500-limit, which you still need to settle like any other credit card. Most people who didn't miss payments get their security back after a year.

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#68
post #18

>> Preserve records: To help prevent further use of deceptive dark patterns, the order requires Credit Karma to preserve records of any market, behavioral, or psychological research, or user, customer, or usability testing, including any A/B or multivariate testing, copy testing, surveys, focus groups, interviews, clickstream analysis, eye or mouse tracking studies, heat maps, or session replays or recordings. That’s…

I worked in an industry where we were required to use a bunch of euphemisms throughout our internal documents for just this reason - if we were investigated by the government, all of those documents would be evidence and using words like “war room” would be used as proof of (channeling the DOJ press release team) “anti-competitive actions akin to a war where the enemy would be destroyed, and the defendant would have…

Wouldn't any judge see right through such bullshit?

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that they aren't profitable at all.

Your guess is wrong, their Q2 revenue this year was reported $444M

Revenue is not profit. Revenue - expenses is profit. You can pump your revenue as high as you want by selling dollar bills for 90 cents.

Re: Credit Karma fined $3M by FTC for misleading consumers with credit card offers

#70
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That’s normal. You don’t live in the US so American banks have zero recourse if you decide to default. I'm American, and have no reason to believe the credit reporting services are aware of my physical location. This is evidenced by conversations I have had with various agencies (governmental, credit bureaus, etc.) over the past year. > For comparison, I had a very easy time getting 3 unsecured cards back when I wa…

> have no reason to believe the credit reporting services are aware of my physical location So did you lie about your address on the credit card application? If not, that’s how the bank knows you don’t live in the US and that’s why you were rejected. Lemme simply: Either you need credit history in the US or you need to live in the US. You fail both criteria. Maybe your rejection letter only mentions the first reason,…

You seem hostile. Not sure if it's your intention, but ease up.

> So did you lie about your address on the credit card application? If not, that’s how the bank knows you don’t live in the US and that’s why you were rejected.

I didn't lie on anything, and frankly a bit offended you would even assume such. I travel back and forth to the US, often. My home address (one of the properties my family owns, and where I lived my entire childhood) is the one I use on everything US related. It's my actual physical address in the US.

People can have multiple residences across countries. Is that "simple" enough to understand?

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