4DOpen Accounts
Account Type Code 4D: Telecommunications / Cellular
Account Type Code 4D means "Telecommunications / Cellular". A wireless, landline, internet, or cable service account billed in arrears, where the consumer owes the full balance each cycle rather than repaying an advance. It is reported in Account Type (Field 15) of the Base Segment, 2 characters at position 84.
Specification
| Code | 4D |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Telecommunications / Cellular |
| Field | Account Type (Field 15) |
| Record | Base Segment |
| Length / position | 2 chars · 84–85 |
| Category | Open Accounts |
| CRRG reference | CRRG Exhibits 1 & 2 (Account Type Codes) |
What Account Type Code 4D means
- A service account, not a loan. The carrier extends service and bills for it; there is no principal advanced and no amortization.
- Covers postpaid wireless, wireline, broadband, and pay-television accounts furnished directly by the service provider.
- Does NOT cover a device installment plan. When a carrier finances a handset over 24 or 36 months, that obligation is a separate installment tradeline with its own Account Type and Portfolio Type I, even though it appears on the same bill.
- Does NOT mean a collection of a telecom bill. Once the balance is placed with an agency, the agency reports Account Type 48 under its own subscriber code.
- Prepaid service creates no credit obligation and should not be furnished at all.
When to report 4D
- 1A wireless carrier furnishes postpaid service accounts monthly, showing the balance due for the cycle.
- 2A cable operator reports a broadband and television account that went 90 days past due before the consumer paid it current.
- 3A regional telephone company reports a landline account closed at the consumer's request with a zero balance.
- 4A carrier reports a service account that was disconnected for non-payment and carries an unpaid final bill.
- 5A carrier reports both a service account under this Account Type and a separate device-financing installment tradeline for the same consumer.
Reporting rules
- Report the amount currently owed as the Current Balance and the highest amount ever owed as the Highest Credit. There is no Credit Limit on a service account.
- Do not merge the device installment plan into the service tradeline. Two obligations with different structures need two tradelines.
- Do not report an early-termination fee as a new account. It belongs to the balance on the existing service tradeline.
- Set Date of First Delinquency the first month the account went past due and never caught up, and leave it fixed even if the consumer makes partial payments later.
- Do not report a suspended-for-non-payment account as closed while a balance is still owed and the account can be restored.
Codes and fields that must agree
A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Account Type Code 4D has to satisfy.
- Portfolio Type must be O (Open). The balance is due in full each cycle, which is exactly what Portfolio Type O expresses.
- Portfolio Type O expects a Terms Duration of one period and a Terms Frequency consistent with a monthly bill due in full, typically M. A multi-month Terms Duration on a service account contradicts the portfolio type.
- Credit Limit should be blank or zero. Populating a limit on an Open account triggers utilization and over-limit edits that have no meaning here.
- Scheduled Monthly Payment on an Open account is either blank or the full amount due; it is not an amortized installment payment.
- If the carrier also finances a device, that tradeline carries Portfolio Type I with its own Terms Duration and Scheduled Monthly Payment, and the two must not share an Account Number.
- An account in the name of one consumer with an authorized user on the line ships the authorized user in a J1 or J2 segment with the appropriate ECOA code, never as a second Base Segment.
Common errors involving 4D
Vocabulary
Keep browsing
- All 56 account type codes — the full set with categories and cross-field rules.
- Metro 2 codes cheat sheet — every CRRG code set on one page.
- Account Type field reference — position, length, and validation rules.
- Metro 2 format reference
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