Credit Karma Also Adds a Chatbot

Financial institutions have become less reluctant to including smart virtual assistants. They even started to use these bots to improve customer satisfaction, especially to reach out for “Millennials”. Credit Karma –a fast-growing start-up valued at 4 billion dollars– is integrating Penny’s chatbot to further customise their user experience.

The Californian FinTech bought out a start-up called Penny less than a month ago. Its service rely on an interactive virtual assistant for personal finance management. Credit Karma has long been intending to become a “personal and digital financial coach”, which explains why Penny has been included in their Web and mobile interface.

The financial terms of their partnership haven’t been disclosed but a team of five engineers from Penny should be joining Credit Karma in California. The chatbot will be enabling Credit Karma’s users to spot credit offers most relevant for specific needs through actually “talking with” Penny. This bot will also assist the users with car loan repurchases via Credit Karma’s new dashboard.

Penny explained on their website that their conversational bot wasn’t taking new subscriptions but it would keep assisting existing users with PFM issues until early June. Penny will then be fully integrated to Credit Karma.

Comments – Credit Karma, from credit scores to PFM activities

Credit Karma has been rethinking its business model over the years. This FinTech started out as a tool for tracking and assessing credit scores, but aims to become an actual financial coach helping customers rationalise their debts and improve their budget management. To this end, a service for optimising car-related expenses was introduced several months ago; and they further stressed their ambition when acquiring Penny.

Credit Karma now has more than 80 million customers, 50% of which are so-called Gen’Yers. Their addition of a conversational agent should contribute to better understanding this target and addressing it more relevantly. As it enters the PFM market, this Californian FinTech will be facing competition from some tools including Clarity Money, SoFi and Varo Money. But Credit Karma should count on their extensive databases and Penny’s skills to stand out.

This initiative also points out the evolving part played by these American players whose core business used to rely on credit scoring activities. Their services have become more diversified, in line with customer demands. In fact, it seems they expect more assistance with handling credit contracts.