San Francisco-based Credit Karma, which provides free credit scores to consumers, announced it is launching its mobile app in Canada.
Founded in 2007, Credit Karma uses predictive, data-driven insights to allow users to access free credit scores and manage their finances. The company expanded into Canada in November 2016, and has since established over 1.5 million users, providing over 13 million credit scores and credit reports to users.
“Our users are seeking access to some kind of financial product to improve their lives.”
“Our users are seeking access to some kind of financial product to improve their lives,” said Ray Philipose, general manager for Canada at Credit Karma “The way we complete the loop is we show you what your credit score is, we help you track your improvements, and then based on what we know about you and your credit report, we suggest financial products that we think are a good fit for you, that we think are likely to be of interest to you, and likely for you to be approved.”
Credit Karma said it is launching its mobile app in Canada because over 70 percent of Canadian traffic comes from the mobile web. The Credit Karma mobile app will allow users on iOS devices to keep better tabs on their financial progress.
Currently, the app features credit monitoring and credit reports, mobile notifications about changes to a user’s credit, and access to a marketplace for new credit cards. The platform also tracks a member’s TransUnion credit reporting on a rolling basis and notifies users of any significant changes, such as if a new account is opened in their name or if a creditor reports a delinquency.
“There’s this enormous knowledge on how to take advantage of machine learning and data science to provide the very best recommendations for both our partners and our members.”
“A mobile app is a no-brainer for us, something that we should be prioritizing,” said Philipose. “We are just like the website, full credit, all the alerts. We also have push notifications with the mobile app to make it that much easier for people to stay on top of changes to their credit report. The app makes for a cleaner, more high-performing user experience. People tend to come back a lot more to check on their scores.”
Credit Karma is not the only credit score provider in Canada, as companies like Toronto-based Borrowell also provides free credit score monitoring to its clients through its online platform, and through its partnership with CIBC.
While there are other players in the field, Philipose said Credit Karma differentiates itself through a mission-driven approach and technology.
“By virtue of having been in this business for 10 years, we’ve learned a lot about how to leverage data at scale and optimize needs of our members and our partners,” said Philipose. “There’s this enormous knowledge on how to take advantage of machine learning and data science to provide the very best recommendations for both our partners and our members. We are taking advantage of this in our US business and Canada business and we feel like it’s our unfair advantage in the marketplace.”
Photo via Credit Karma