Credit & Financial Tools

Credit Karma Alternative Canada 2026 - Best Free Credit Score Apps

Credit Karma shut down in Canada in 2018 and never came back. Here's what actually works instead, and how to keep an eye on your score without paying for it.

By Ahmad Jamal · Published January 23, 2026 · 6 min read

If you've searched "Credit Karma Canada" and landed on a dead end, you're not doing anything wrong. Credit Karma pulled out of Canada in 2018 and never came back, even as it kept growing in the U.S.

The good news is that what replaced it fits Canadian credit better anyway: Borrowell, Mogo, and a few tools built right into your own bank's app. Here's what to use instead, and how to pair it with a budget so your score keeps moving in the right direction.

Quick Answer

Borrowell is the best Credit Karma alternative for Canadians because it's free, Canadian owned, and gives you a real Equifax score updated every week. Mogo is a good option too if you want a prepaid card or are loan shopping, and most major banks already offer a free TransUnion score to their own customers. Pair either with a budgeting app like Waypoint Budget to see your score and your spending in one place.

Why Doesn't Credit Karma Work in Canada?

Here's the short version: Credit Karma shut down all Canadian operations in 2018. It launched here in 2016, decided two years later to focus on the U.S. market instead, and pulled out completely. If you're in Canada searching for it today, there's nothing to find, and no indication that's changing.

What Happened to Credit Karma Canada

  • 2016: Credit Karma launched in Canada.
  • 2018: Shut down Canadian operations with little warning.
  • 2018 to now: Still hasn't returned, with no sign it will.

That was frustrating for the Canadians who relied on it for free credit monitoring. The upside is that the alternatives which filled the gap, Borrowell especially, were built with Canadian credit bureaus in mind from day one.

The Best Credit Karma Alternatives for Canadians in 2026

Canada runs on two credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion, and your score can differ between them. None of the options below cover both on their own, so here's which bureau each one uses and who it's genuinely best for.

1. Borrowell (Best Overall)

Borrowell is free, Canadian owned, and pulls your Equifax score every week, more often than Credit Karma ever updated. It also does something Credit Karma never offered Canadians: real credit-building tools, including Rent Advantage, which reports your rent payments so paying on time actually helps your score.

What You Get

  • Free Equifax score, updated weekly
  • Credit monitoring alerts for new accounts and credit checks
  • Credit-building tools like Rent Advantage and Credit Builder
  • Personalized product recommendations
Borrowell dashboard showing credit score and recommendations

Borrowell's free weekly Equifax score, with a breakdown of what's moving it.

Borrowell only shows your Equifax score, not TransUnion, and it doesn't handle the U.S.-style tax filing Credit Karma offers south of the border. Pair it with your bank's score (below) to cover both bureaus.

Best for: anyone who wants free, reliable credit monitoring built around Canadian bureaus, especially former Credit Karma users looking for something familiar.

Visit Borrowell

2. Mogo (Best for Financial Products)

Mogo pairs a free Equifax score with a wider product lineup: a prepaid Visa with cash back, personal loans, mortgages, and buying and selling Bitcoin if that's your thing. The score updates monthly rather than weekly, and Mogo leans harder into promoting its own loans and cards than Borrowell does.

What You Get

  • Free Equifax score, updated monthly
  • Credit monitoring and identity fraud protection
  • MogoCard, a prepaid Visa with cash back
  • Interface can feel cluttered next to Borrowell's

Best for: people who want credit monitoring alongside financial products, especially if you're shopping for a loan or mortgage and want to check your eligibility first.

3. Scotiabank Credit View (Best for Scotiabank Customers)

If you already bank with Scotiabank, Credit View is built into the mobile app: a free TransUnion score with no separate sign-up. It's thinner on features than Borrowell or Mogo, but it's convenient, and it covers the bureau the other two don't.

What You Get

  • Free TransUnion score for Scotiabank customers
  • Built into mobile banking, no extra app to install
  • Only available to Scotiabank customers
  • No credit-building tools

Best for: Scotiabank customers who want convenient monitoring without another app, and a solid complement to Borrowell if you want both bureaus covered. RBC, TD, and CIBC all offer similar free TransUnion tracking to their own customers.

How to Monitor Both Credit Bureaus (Equifax + TransUnion)

Lenders in Canada can pull either bureau, and your two scores can differ by 50 points or more. Here's the free way to watch both.

Free Monitoring Strategy

  • Equifax: Borrowell (weekly updates) or Mogo (monthly updates), both free.
  • TransUnion: your bank's app. Scotiabank, RBC, TD, and CIBC all offer a free TransUnion score to their own customers.
  • Together: one Equifax app plus your bank's TransUnion score covers both bureaus at no cost.

Quick Comparison: Credit Karma vs Canadian Alternatives

FeatureCredit KarmaBorrowellMogoScotiabank
Available in Canada
PriceShut downFreeFreeFree
Credit BureauN/AEquifaxEquifaxTransUnion
Update FrequencyN/AWeeklyMonthlyMonthly
Credit MonitoringN/ABasic
Credit-Building ToolsN/A
RequirementN/AAnyoneAnyoneBank customer

You're in good company

Don't take our word for it. See what people are saying about us on Trustpilot.

Maxime
Ryan Plester
Jodi Harbarenko
Byra Dineshkumar
Stevie Baker

Trusted by 8,000+ budgeters

4.6/5 on Trustpilot

Combine Credit Monitoring with Budgeting

Credit Karma never connected the dots between your spending and your score. That's worth doing yourself, because a lot of what moves your score is stuff your budget already tracks.

How Your Budget Affects Your Credit Score

  • Payment history (35%): paying bills on time is the single biggest factor. Track due dates on a budget calendar so nothing slips.
  • Credit utilization (30%): keep card balances under 30% of your limit. A budget makes it obvious when you're creeping close.
  • Length of history (15%): keep older accounts open rather than closing them.

This is where a budgeting app like Waypoint Budget earns its keep alongside Borrowell or Mogo. It won't pull your credit score, that's not what it's for, but it tracks the habits that move it: due dates on a calendar, categories that show where your money actually goes, and smart insights that flag a category running hot before it turns into a missed payment or a maxed-out card.

waypointbudget.com/dashboard
Waypoint Budget dashboard showing spending and upcoming bills

Track the spending and bill-paying habits that move your credit score, right alongside your budget.

The Bottom Line

Credit Karma isn't coming back to Canada, but what replaced it is arguably better suited to how Canadian credit actually works. Sign up for Borrowell for your Equifax score, check whether your bank already gives you a free TransUnion score, and use a budgeting app like Waypoint Budget to stay on top of the payment habits that move your score in the first place.

If you're also hunting for a Mint replacement, that one shut down too, and we've covered the Canadian alternatives there as well.

While you're at it, our credit card payoff calculator shows how fast you can bring down a balance that's dragging on your utilization.

Calculate your debt payoff timeline

See how long it will take to pay off your debt, and how that plays into your credit utilization and score.

Calculate Debt Payoff

Ready to track your finances properly?

Pair credit monitoring with a real budget. Free to start, built for Canadians.

Try Waypoint Budget Free

No credit card required. Track the spending that affects your score.

FAQs: Credit Karma Canada

Credit Karma shut down its Canadian operations in 2018, two years after launching here in 2016. The company chose to focus on the U.S. market and closed Canada completely. If you're searching for it today, there's nothing to find, and no sign it's coming back. Borrowell, Mogo, and Scotiabank Credit View are the closest Canadian alternatives.
There isn't an official one since Credit Karma shut down here in 2018. The closest alternatives are Borrowell (free Equifax scores), Mogo (free credit scores plus financial products), and bank tools like Scotiabank Credit View or RBC's credit score tracker. All offer free credit monitoring and score tracking similar to what Credit Karma provided.
Borrowell. It gives you a free Equifax score updated weekly, credit monitoring alerts, and credit-building tools, and it was built around Canadian credit bureaus rather than adapted from a U.S. product. There's no paid tier or upsell wall on the core credit-monitoring features.
Not in a single login, but you can get close. Link your Borrowell or Mogo account for credit monitoring, and use a budgeting app like Waypoint Budget alongside it for spending, bills, and goals. Together they show you the full picture: how your day-to-day spending affects the score you're watching.
For Canadians, it covers the same core job, free credit monitoring, and adds things Credit Karma never offered here, like weekly Equifax updates and credit-building tools such as Rent Advantage. It's Canadian owned and has been operating since 2014. The one gap is that it only shows your Equifax score, not TransUnion, so pair it with your bank's score if you want both bureaus covered.

Keep Reading

Disclaimer

Waypoint Budget is an independent company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Borrowell, Mogo, Scotiabank, RBC, Credit Karma, or any other company mentioned in this article. All trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners and are used here for informational and editorial purposes only.

Need a Credit Karma alternative?

Track credit + budget in one place

Try Waypoint Budget Free