I normally get my credit score from www.Creditkarma.com because it's free and doesn't do anything to your score. I've used it for a few years and there hasn't been any negative impact. If it even shows up, it'll be under requests by you. So it's never as a request by a creditor.

I also occasionally get my credit score from Experian. Not because they're the most reliable, but because most of the companies out there use Experian. I've actually found that sometimes they'll give out the lowest score of all three major companies.

Because of financial issues in the past my score had gone down drastically and now it's slowly but surely creeping it's way back up.

The lowest my score has ever been was with Transunion on 17 Mar 2009 at 517.

Now my scores are:

CreditKarma: 655 (1 Dec 2012)
Experian: 567 (14 Nov 2012)

*since 14 Nov I've paid off a credit card so Experian might actually be higher now

I've been diligent about building up my credit. It will take a while. My goal short-term goal is to have a 650 all across the board so that I may purchase a house in the next five years or so.

At least with Transunion I may have succeeded, but I want the same for all three.

This is just one more way for me to have verified that I'm doing the right thing when it comes to my credit.