# YNAB: Thank you Credit Karma for being so terrible **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [March 2, 2024, 5:00am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557 "2024-03-02T05:00:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sbro4630](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@sbro4630](https://community.clark.com/u/sbro4630)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 5:00am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/1 "2024-03-02T05:00:13Z")
I’ve been budgeting with Mint for 14 years. They are having customers switch to Credit Karma. It is truly terrible IMO. It’s a website to sell you credit cards and loans, not to budget. So I tried YNAB. I tried it in the past and couldn’t wrap my brain around it and gave up. I tried it again out of desperation and something clicked this time in my mind. It is a billion times better than Mint ever thought of being. It’s basically a digital form of the cash-envelope method and you assign a job for every dollar that you have. I tried it for the first month and have never done so well sticking to my budget and saving so much money. Plus, I can save a little each month for those annual expenses, instead of being caught flat-footed by them. YNAB is $99/year, but for me that will quickly pay for itself in how it has shifted my mindset. ---
**Author:** ![robertpri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@robertpri](https://community.clark.com/u/robertpri)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 5:54am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/2 "2024-03-02T05:54:42Z")
> [@sbro4630](#): > > Credit Karma. It is truly terrible IMO. It’s a website to sell you credit cards and loans, not to budget You are so correct. CK’s prime goal seems to be selling credit cards. ---
**Author:** ![SonoranSilkies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SonoranSilkies](https://community.clark.com/u/SonoranSilkies)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 7:26am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/3 "2024-03-02T07:26:09Z")
I use credit karma to check/track my credit score; I ignore their “offers” For budgeting/income/expense tracking, I use an Excel spreadsheet. ---
**Author:** ![FerrariClunker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@FerrariClunker](https://community.clark.com/u/FerrariClunker)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/4 "2024-03-02T18:20:57Z")
Many online banks offer free credit score and monthly spending summary for years. I no longer see the need to use Credit Karma. ---
**Author:** ![sbro4630](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@sbro4630](https://community.clark.com/u/sbro4630)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 10:57pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/6 "2024-03-02T22:57:14Z")
Oh man! I’m sad I missed that boat. It’s incredibly powerful budgeting software and will be worth the cost for us. I’ve used spreadsheets along side mint, because Mint was not exactly a really good budgeting software. (I used to copy and paste the transactions from Mint into the spreadsheet.) But it just doesn’t compare to YNAB. ---
**Author:** ![JLH](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.clark.com/jlh/32/785_2.png) [@JLH](https://community.clark.com/u/JLH)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/7 "2024-03-07T00:43:13Z")
Excel spreadsheet, works great for me ---
**Author:** ![steve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@steve](https://community.clark.com/u/steve)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 12:17pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/8 "2024-03-08T12:17:58Z")
Ramsey has a free (and paid) budget called Every Dollar. I used it briefly and it seemed pretty decent. I don’t use an app anymore, hence, the briefly. ---
**Author:** ![tamfam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@tamfam](https://community.clark.com/u/tamfam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/9 "2024-03-09T20:58:47Z")
We too used Mint for over a decade. At this point we are lucky enough to not worry about budgeting( because we did for so many years). We are doing a double app study of our own, CK vs Simplifi with the Mint incentives. So far they are both getting the job done. I do wish I hadn’t imported our accounts as it created too much work. Both apps renamed the accts and it took unnecessary time trying to figure out which was which. We primarily use it to track our net worth and wishlists, family, travel etc. You might be happy to realize if you are diligent budgeters in your early years in retirement you might just need an app to remind you to spend money on the things you value. ---
**Author:** ![glasspilot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@glasspilot](https://community.clark.com/u/glasspilot)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2024, 11:28am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/ynab-thank-you-credit-karma-for-being-so-terrible/4557/11 "2024-09-19T11:28:59Z")
Ratbert, why do you do that?