Metro 2 Creditor Classification 06: Insurance

Specification

Code	06
Meaning	Insurance
Field	K1 Creditor Classification (Field K1-4)
Record	K1 Segment (Original Creditor Name)
Length / position	2 chars · 33–34
Category	Specialty Creditors
CRRG reference	CRRG Creditor Classification code table (K1 Segment)

Covers unpaid auto, health, property, and life premiums, premium-finance balances written by an insurer or its finance affiliate, and deductible or subrogation-style balances the insurer is owed.
This is the payer side of health care, not the provider side. A balance owed to a health insurer for premium is 06; a balance owed to the hospital that treated the consumer is 02.
Does NOT mean the account was insured. Credit insurance attached to a loan does not make the loan an insurance account; classify by the lender.
Does not describe a claim. A denied claim is not a tradeline; only a debt the consumer owes the insurer is furnishable.
An auto policy lapse followed by a premium balance placed for collection is the most common shape this code takes in practice.

1A collection agency reports an unpaid auto-insurance premium balance placed after a policy cancelled for non-payment.
2A debt buyer purchases a portfolio of unpaid premium-finance balances from a specialty insurer.
3A recovery vendor furnishes an unpaid property-insurance premium owed after a mid-term cancellation.
4A collection attorney reports a health-plan premium arrears balance the insurer placed for legal collection.

Classify by the creditor, not the risk. An insurer that lends is still an insurer for this field only when the obligation arose from the insurance relationship; a separate lending affiliate is 12 (Financial).
Do not use 06 for a medical provider balance. That misclassification obscures the medical nature of the debt and defeats the handling that medical accounts are supposed to receive.
Name the insurance carrier on the K1 as the consumer knew it, not the underwriting entity buried in the policy documents.
Confirm the balance is a genuine consumer obligation, not a disputed claim amount, before furnishing anything.

A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Creditor Classification 06 has to satisfy.

Report only where a K1 segment is present, meaning the insurer is not the entity furnishing the tradeline.
Pairs with Base Segment Account Type 48 (Collection Agency/Attorney Account) or 0C (Debt Buyer Account) depending on whether the balance was placed or purchased.
Portfolio Type O (Open) suits an unpaid premium balance; a genuine premium-finance contract with a fixed term is I (Instalment) and needs consistent Terms Duration and Terms Frequency.
If the account is a health-plan premium, do not let its health context pull the classification to 02. The medical-information reporting constraints attach to provider debt, and mixing the two makes both harder to interpret.
Where a portfolio changed hands, add the K2 (Purchased From / Sold To) segment. K1 continues to name the insurer.