How to use Credit Karma, the popular site that gives you real credit scores for free and shows you the best ways to save money

Credit Karma has exploded in popularity because of one core feature: it gives you two free real credit scores, and tells you the exact factors that go into them.

This means that instead of just saying your credit score is 700, it tells you how you scored on things like payment history, age of credit history, credit card utilization (how much of your credit limit you spend each month), and number credit inquiries (how many people are checking your credit).

Credit Karma also tells you how much each of these six factors it looks at affects your score, and how you rank next to your peers.

In short, Credit Karma is valuable because it provides a detailed way to understand where you are with your credit score, and the ways you can improve.

Why is your credit score useful? Because it's what determines whether you'll get approved for a new credit card, apartment lease, car or house loan, or any other type of credit.

But telling you your credit score isn't all Credit Karma does. Here's what it's like using Credit Karma, the site that wants to democratize personal finance.