Metro 2 Payment History Profile Code 4: 120 Days Past Due

Specification

Code	4
Meaning	120 Days Past Due
Field	Payment History Profile (Field 18)
Record	Base Segment
Length / position	24 chars · 112–135
Category	Serious Delinquency
CRRG reference	CRRG Base Segment field definition, Payment History Profile

Four scheduled payments outstanding. In most consumer portfolios this is deep default territory.
A 4 in a profile that never reaches a terminal character usually means either the account was eventually cured, or it was still being worked when the window rolled past.
The presence of 4, 5 and 6 in a string is a strong indicator that a Date of First Delinquency was set roughly four to six months before the most recent of those positions.
Does NOT mean the account is closed. Closure is the Account Status and Date Closed fields, not the payment grid.
Does NOT mean the debt was sold. A sale is reported through the Account Status and the K2 segment, and the payment grid keeps describing payment behaviour.

1A credit union reports an auto loan four instalments behind in the month before the vehicle is repossessed.
2A card issuer reports a cardholder 120 days past due while charge-off is scheduled for the following cycle.
3A mortgage servicer reports a borrower four payments behind after a trial modification failed.
4A retail lender reports a promotional-financing account four cycles behind before the balance is placed with a third-party agency.

Continue the ladder month by month. Freezing an account at 4 while it keeps deteriorating understates the history.
If you charge the account off in a given month, that month gets L, and the preceding months keep their numeric characters.
Keep the Date of First Delinquency fixed. It should be roughly four months older than the month reporting 4.
Do not use 4 as a stand-in for a terminal outcome that has already happened. If you repossessed the collateral, that month is K, not 4.

A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Payment History Profile Code 4 has to satisfy.

Position 1 must match the current Payment Rating. A 4 in position 1 pairs with Payment Rating 4 (120 to 149 days past due).
4 in position 1 corresponds to Account Status 82 (120 to 149 days past due).
A Date of First Delinquency is mandatory and should predate the month reporting 4 by about four months.
Amount Past Due should reflect four outstanding payments; a small or zero Amount Past Due alongside a 4 is an amount-versus-history contradiction.
The improvement rule applies: no character less severe than L may appear in a position more recent than an L.