The “date of last activity,” also known as the DLA, is often discussed within the field of credit repair in a way that is inaccurate or misleading. Because of this, many consumers do not understand the true significance (or lack thereof) of the DLA as it relates to their credit reports and credit scores.

Credit expert John Ulzheimer busted some myths about DLAs in a Credit Countdown video on the Tradeline Supply Company, LLC YouTube channel. Here’s what he had to say about DLAs on your credit report.

What Is a DLA (Date of Last Activity)?

The date of last activity is exactly what it sounds like: it is the most recent date on which activity was reported for an account.

It is a “legacy” data point that used to be included on credit reports for users (lenders), but this is not the case anymore, In fact, DLAs have not been shown on credit reports for lenders in decades, according to John.

Why Does a DLA Appear on Your Credit Report?

If John is saying that DLAs do not appear on credit reports, then why do you see DLAs when you pull your own credit report?

Two Types of Credit Reports

If you’ve watched our other Credit Countdown YouTube videos, then you may recall that there are two types of credit reports: “real” credit reports, and credit report disclosures.

Credit Report Disclosures

When you check your own credit report from annualcreditreport.com or from the credit bureaus, you are actually looking at a credit report disclosure.

Disclosures are provided to consumers and presented in a format that consumers can understand.

This is not the same as the version of your credit report that lenders see, and it contains different types of information, such as DLAs, that may be helpful to you as a consumer.

Credit Reports

Real credit reports are written in code using software known as Metro 2 and these documents are provided to “users” such as lenders, insurance companies, collection agencies, credit unions, credit card issuers, and mortgage brokers.

Actual credit reports do not contain DLAs. If you were to search the Credit Reporting Resource Guide (CRRG), which is essentially the Metro 2 manual, you would not find any information about DLAs because they do not exist within this credit reporting system.

Credit reports provided to lenders are communicated using the Metro 2 language.

Conclusion: Do DLAs Affect Your Credit?

You can rest assured that you do not need to worry about DLAs as they pertain to your credit reports and your credit scores (although they may be important for legal reasons, such as determining the statute of limitations for old debts).

Since DLAs do not appear on your actual credit reports that your credit scores are based on, they cannot impact your credit.

If you’d like to watch the video version of this post, hit play below. You can find the rest of our Credit Countdown videos over on YouTube!

Read more: tradelinesupply.com