Metro 2 Payment History Profile Code 6: 180 Or More Days Past Due

Specification

Code	6
Meaning	180 Or More 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

The ladder stops here. An account at 210 days, 300 days or two years past due all report 6, because there is no deeper numeric character.
Because 6 does not advance, a long run of identical 6s across many positions is normal and is not a sign of a frozen feed the way a long run of 3s would be.
6 describes payment behaviour only. It does not say what you did about the account. If you charged it off, placed it for collection, repossessed the collateral, or completed a foreclosure, the month of that event carries L, G, K or H instead.
Does NOT mean the account has aged off the credit report. The seven-year reporting period runs from the Date of First Delinquency, not from the payment grid.
Does NOT mean the debt is uncollectable or forgiven. Those are business outcomes reported elsewhere.

1A card issuer reports a cardholder more than six cycles behind on an account that has not yet been charged off.
2A credit union reports a deficiency balance on an auto loan where the borrower has made no payment for over six months.
3A mortgage servicer reports a borrower more than 180 days behind while a lengthy foreclosure process runs.
4A debt buyer reports a purchased account that was already more than 180 days past due at acquisition and has received no payment since.

Once an account passes 180 days, report 6 every month it remains that far behind. Do not invent a deeper character.
Do not substitute 6 for a terminal outcome that has occurred. A charged-off account reports L in the charge-off month even if it is also 200 days past due.
Keep the Date of First Delinquency fixed at the original delinquency. It is the field the seven-year purge date is calculated from, and moving it extends the reporting period incorrectly.
Continue reporting Amount Past Due and Current Balance accurately while the account stays at 6.

A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Payment History Profile Code 6 has to satisfy.

Position 1 must match the current Payment Rating. A 6 in position 1 pairs with Payment Rating 6 (180 or more days past due).
6 in position 1 corresponds to Account Status 84 (180 or more days past due).
A Date of First Delinquency is mandatory and is the field that drives the account's purge date, so its accuracy matters more here than anywhere else in the ladder.
If the account has been charged off, Account Status 97 and the L character take precedence for the charge-off month, and Original Charge-off Amount must be populated.
No character milder than L may appear in a position more recent than an L, so a 6 following a charge-off in the newer direction is the improvement-after-charge-off defect.