50Specialty and Industry-Specific
Account Type Code 50: Family (Court-Ordered) Support
Account Type Code 50 means "Family (Court-Ordered) Support". A court-ordered family support obligation, such as spousal support or a combined family support order, furnished by the agency or entity responsible for collecting it. It is reported in Account Type (Field 15) of the Base Segment, 2 characters at position 84.
Specification
| Code | 50 |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Family (Court-Ordered) Support |
| Field | Account Type (Field 15) |
| Record | Base Segment |
| Length / position | 2 chars · 84–85 |
| Category | Specialty and Industry-Specific |
| CRRG reference | CRRG Exhibits 1 & 2 (Account Type Codes) |
What Account Type Code 50 means
- The obligation is created by a court order, not by a credit agreement. There is no application, no underwriting, and no contract between a lender and a borrower.
- Distinct from Account Type 93, which is specifically a child-support obligation. Use 50 for spousal or family support and 93 where the order is child support.
- Reported as Portfolio Type O because each period's ordered amount is due in full. Arrears accumulate as an unpaid balance rather than as an amortizing loan.
- Does NOT mean a voluntary support arrangement. A private agreement with no court order behind it is not a support obligation for Metro 2 purposes.
- The amount ordered can change by court modification. A modification changes what is owed going forward, not the history of what was owed before.
When to report 50
- 1A state support enforcement unit furnishes a court-ordered spousal support obligation that is current.
- 2An enforcement agency reports a family support order that has accumulated arrears after several missed periods.
- 3An agency reports a support obligation that was satisfied in full after an arrears payoff, closing the tradeline at a zero balance.
- 4An agency reports a support order that was modified downward by the court and continues furnishing at the new ordered amount.
- 5An agency reports an obligation being satisfied through wage withholding, current in every period.
Reporting rules
- Report the accumulated arrears as the Current Balance and the periodic ordered amount in the payment fields, so the tradeline distinguishes the recurring obligation from the amount behind.
- Do not report the total future value of the order as a balance. Only amounts actually due and unpaid belong in Current Balance.
- Reflect a court modification prospectively. Retroactively rewriting prior cycles to match a new order misstates the payment history.
- Do not use this Account Type for a debt owed to a private party that merely resembles support; the court order is what qualifies it.
- Report the obligation as satisfied with a zero balance when the arrears are cleared, rather than dropping it from the file mid-history.
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 50 has to satisfy.
- Portfolio Type must be O (Open). Each ordered period is due in full, which is the defining behaviour of Portfolio Type O.
- Portfolio Type O expects Terms Duration of a single period and a Terms Frequency matching the court's ordered interval, most often M (Monthly) but legitimately W, B, or S where the order says so.
- Credit Limit must be blank or zero. There is no line of credit behind a support order.
- Date of First Delinquency is the first period the obligation went unpaid and never caught up. It anchors the FCRA purge window exactly as it would on a credit obligation.
- Amount Past Due should equal the arrears that are currently delinquent under the order, and must reconcile with the Payment History Profile rather than contradicting it.
- ECOA reporting is individual. A support obligation is personal to the ordered party, so a joint ECOA code or an associated-consumer segment claiming shared liability is a contradiction.
Common errors involving 50
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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