Credit Karma

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Credit Karma is an aptly named personal finance service. If you pay your credit card bills in full and on time every month, don't open and close accounts frequently, stay current with loan payments, and avoid negative events (such as bankruptcies and tax liens), you'll be rewarded with an enviable credit score. Since most of us don't have perfect credit habits, we need to know where we stand and how to improve that critical number. Credit Karma helps on both counts. It keeps you up to date on that all-important credit score, but it also informs you of potential credit breaches and provides tools that help you find and secure the best credit card, loan, vehicle, and auto insurance deals. It does all of this for free, paying for itself by the recommendations it makes to you based on your overall credit profile.

Since we last reviewed Credit Karma, its subscriber base has grown to over 110 million—including roughly half of all US millennials, according to the company. It’s added new services since then, such as a no-fee checking account and other financial services. It also introduced the Relief Roadmap, a feature that provides links to local resources for consumers struggling with their finances. Credit Karma is good at what it does, but it’s not a full-service personal finance management solution like our Editors’ Choice picks for this year, Mint and Quicken Deluxe.