Credit Karma Integrates Spend Account With TurboTax In First Post-Acquisition Move

Credit Karma app

Newly acquired by Intuit, Credit Karma is integrating its checking account tool with TurboTax in the companies’ first joint project following the tie-up in December. 

“We believe consumers should have a checking account that helps them make financial progress, which is why we created Credit Karma Money Spend,” Kenneth Lin, founder and CEO of Credit Karma, said in a Thursday (Feb. 11) press release.

“We’re starting 2021 off by leveraging our relationship with Intuit to bring Credit Karma Money to millions of tax filers this tax season. A tax refund is the biggest paycheck for many Americans and with this TurboTax integration we can help them put that money to work avoiding unnecessary fees and helping to guide healthy financial decisions to maximize their day-to-day spending and billpay,” Lin said.

TurboTax users will have the option of having their tax refund directly deposited into their Credit Karma Money Spend account. Users without an account will be able to open one from within the TurboTax platform.

Credit Karma has more than 110 million members in the U.S., Canada and U.K. and was founded in 2007 by Lin, Nichole Mustard and Ryan Graciano.

Intuit closed its $7.1 billion acquisition deal with Credit Karma last year. It also acquired Quickbooks, TurboTax and others in recent years. In February 2020 Intuit was worth about $74 billion. Credit Karma generated around $1 billion in revenue in 2019 and had been considering an initial public offering.

As part of the merger deal, Credit Karma had to divest its tax unit to Square over antitrust concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice. In November, Square agreed to buy Credit Karma Tax for $50 million in cash.

Credit Karma’s tax unit had roughly 2 million customers. Intuit’s Turbo Tax division has about 42.7 million in the U.S. Credit Karma has approximately 110 million customers in total.