Each of the three major credit reporting agencies are obligated to provide you with a free copy of your credit report once a year. This has been phased in, with the East Coast not scheduled to go live at annualcreditreport.com until September 1. It’s live a few days early.

Unless you’re buying a house or doing major credit repair work — in other words, if you’re just monitoring — the best strategy is to request one report each every 4 months rather than requesting all 3 at once.

Details are available from the Federal Trade Commission.