Metro 2 Account Type Code 00: Auto Loan

Specification

Code	00
Meaning	Auto Loan
Field	Account Type (Field 15)
Record	Base Segment
Length / position	2 chars · 84–85
Category	Secured and Collateralized Installment
CRRG reference	CRRG Exhibits 1 & 2 (Account Type Codes)

Covers purchase-money auto financing: the lender advances a fixed amount, the borrower repays it over a fixed number of months, and the vehicle is the collateral.
Applies whether the paper was originated directly by the lender or bought from a dealer under an assignment. The account type describes the product, not how the receivable was acquired.
Does NOT cover an auto lease. A lease is code 3A, and the difference matters because a lease has a residual value and a lessee, not an amortizing principal balance and a borrower.
Does NOT cover a refinance of an existing auto loan by a different lender as a continuation of the old tradeline. The refinancing lender opens a new account with a new Date Opened, and the paid lender closes theirs.
Repossession is an event on an auto loan, not a separate account type. It is carried in Account Status and Special Comment, and the account type stays 00.

1A credit union reports a 60-month new-auto loan on a member who financed a vehicle at the branch.
2A captive finance arm reports retail installment contracts assigned to it by franchised dealers, one tradeline per contract.
3A subprime auto lender reports a 72-month used-vehicle loan that later goes to repossession, keeping Account Type 00 throughout the charge-off and deficiency cycle.
4A bank reports a private-party vehicle purchase loan where it perfected a lien on the title.
5A lender reports a simple-interest auto note where the payoff moves with payment timing but the scheduled payment is fixed.

Report the original amount financed in Highest Credit / Original Loan Amount and let Current Balance amortize down from it. Do not restate Highest Credit each cycle.
Do not populate Credit Limit. An installment auto loan has no revolving line, and a populated Credit Limit on Portfolio Type I is a classic validation reject.
Keep Account Type 00 after repossession and after charge-off. Changing the account type mid-life orphans the tradeline's history at the bureaus.
Use 3A instead when the consumer signed a lease, even if the lease has a purchase option at the end.
Report the deficiency balance after a repossession sale on the same tradeline rather than opening a second one.

A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Account Type Code 00 has to satisfy.

Portfolio Type must be I (Installment). That pairing drives everything else on the record.
Portfolio Type I requires a Scheduled Monthly Payment Amount and a Terms Duration expressed as a number of months (048, 060, 072). Terms Duration REV or LOC on an auto loan is a contradiction.
Terms Frequency is normally M (Monthly); B (Biweekly) and S (Semimonthly) occur on payroll-aligned auto programs and are legitimate, but the Scheduled Monthly Payment must still be stated as the monthly equivalent the CRRG expects.
Credit Limit must be zero-filled. Portfolio Type I plus a non-zero Credit Limit trips a portfolio-type validation edit.
If the vehicle is repossessed, Account Status moves to 96 or the charge-off statuses while Account Type stays 00, and Date of First Delinquency must already be populated from the delinquency that led to the repossession.
The K1 segment (Original Creditor Name) becomes relevant only if the receivable is later held by someone other than the originating creditor.