What is Credit Karma and why does TurboTax insist on pushing it?

[FrankTC]

6. Credit Karma and Other Similar Programs

From personal experience they are customer recruitment platforms. They encourage you to be very serious about your credit score and to engage with borrowing opportunities such as credit card and auto loan purveyors. In return for frequent updates to your credit score and analyses of the factors underlying its calculation, you’ll be slagged with loan and card offers. They are presented as rewards and achievements: Congratulations! Lookey here! As a result of your reliability and diligence in paying your bills, you are now awarded a credit rating that may qualify you to obtain this super special card that comes in a unique color with perks and miles and stars, oh my. You will be trained to experience indebtedness as a privilege. The whole scheme is a scam. Just think for a moment: The more credit accounts you have, the higher your score. And assets like savings accounts or retirement accounts never ever figure into your creditworthiness computation. You can own your house outright, have substantial retirement savings, and have a comforting financial safety net but still be considered a greater credit risk than someone without those resources but instead mortgaged to the hilt and arrayed with a wallet full of credit cards. Credit Karma? It’s a manifestation of the consumer credit industry coming to harvest you like a cabbage.