Consumer complaint received 2026-03-08 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Problem with additional add-on products or services — 
Company: Credit Karma, LLC
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
Credit Karma presented me with XXXX loan offers through their platform that were labeled as pre-approved. XXXX offer was from XXXX and another was from XXXX XXXX. The XXXX offer displayed the Credit Karma Guarantee badge when it was presented to me. I clicked on the badge to read the terms and conditions, which state that if Credit Karma shows an offer with this badge and the consumer is denied after applying, the consumer may qualify for compensation under the Credit Karma Guarantee. Because the offer was presented as pre-approved and included the Credit Karma Guarantee badge, I reasonably relied on Credit Karmas representations when deciding to submit a loan application. When I applied through the Credit Karma platform, I was immediately denied by XXXX. There was also a strong preapproval listed for an unsecured loan with XXXX XXXX. I applied and was only approved for a secured vehicle title loan. This resulted in a hard inquiry on my credit report. After the denial from both lenders, I contacted Credit Karma support and explained that the offer I applied for had the Credit Karma Guarantee badge displayed at the time of application. Credit Karma is now denying that the badge was ever present on the offer and is refusing to honor the guarantee. After raising this issue with Credit Karma, I reviewed my account again. My dashboard still shows that I have several loan offers categorized under the Credit Karma Guarantee. However, when I click into the individual loan offers themselves now, the Credit Karma Guarantee badge is no longer visible on those offers as they were before. This creates an inconsistency between the dashboard summary and the individual offer pages and is very suspicious. When I originally viewed the XXXX offer, the Credit Karma Guarantee badge was displayed next to the individual offer, which influenced my decision to apply. Because the badge is no longer visible on the individual offer pages, it raises concerns about whether Credit Karma maintains accurate and truthful records of how offers and guarantee badges are presented to consumers at the time they apply. Consumers should be able to rely on the representations shown to them when deciding whether to submit a credit application. This situation is concerning because Credit Karma markets loan offers as pre-approved and sometimes displays a guarantee badge to encourage consumers to apply. Consumers rely on these representations when deciding whether to submit credit applications that may affect their credit profile. Because I relied on Credit Karmas representations, I applied for a loan I believed I was highly likely to receive approval for. If the guarantee badge had not been displayed, I would not have applied. Credit Karma is now denying that the badge existed after the fact, which leaves consumers with no protection when they rely on the platforms marketing representations. Consumers should not be encouraged to apply for credit through representations such as pre-approved offers and guarantee badges if the platform will later deny those representations when a consumer seeks accountability.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief