Metro 2 Payment History Profile Code B: No Payment History Available This Month

Specification

Code	B
Meaning	No Payment History Available This Month
Field	Payment History Profile (Field 18)
Record	Base Segment
Length / position	24 chars · 112–135
Category	No History
CRRG reference	CRRG Base Segment field definition, Payment History Profile

B is the honest character for a month you cannot evidence. The alternative shortcut, filling unknown months with 0, manufactures a clean payment record and is the single most damaging defect in this field.
The standard use is padding. An account opened eight months ago has only eight months of history, so positions 1 through 8 carry real characters and positions 9 through 24 carry B.
B is also correct for a mid-window gap in your own data, for example months that predate a servicing conversion or a portfolio acquisition where the prior servicer's history did not transfer.
B is NOT the same as D. B says you have no history for that month. D says there is no history BECAUSE the account was already paid or closed. Same visual result, different fact, and the two are constantly swapped. If the account was live and you simply cannot evidence the month, it is B. If the account was already settled, it is D.
B is not a delinquency and not a positive. It carries no severity in either direction and should never be used to soften a month you know was late.

1A credit union opens a new 60-month auto loan; after the first reporting cycle, position 1 carries a real character and positions 2 through 24 are all B.
2A servicer takes over a portfolio mid-window and receives no payment history from the prior servicer for the months before transfer.
3A lender converts core systems and loses granular month-level history for a two-month window, so those two positions report B rather than an assumed 0.
4A furnisher onboards to Metro 2 reporting for the first time and has verified history for only the most recent few months.

Pad the trailing positions of a new account with B rather than 0. The account did not exist, so it cannot have been paid as agreed.
Never use B to hide a month you know was delinquent. That is a misstatement, and the delinquency will still be implied by the Date of First Delinquency.
Never use B for a month the account was already paid or closed. That month is D.
As real history accumulates, replace the leading B positions with real characters. A mature account that still reports mostly B suggests the feed is not carrying history forward.

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

Payment Rating does not publish a B value, so when position 1 carries B the position-1 rule must be read against Account Status rather than mechanically against Payment Rating. B in position 1 is unusual on a live account and normally means the current month has not been evidenced.
B in the trailing positions should be consistent with Date Opened. If the account was opened three years ago, a profile that is mostly B is a data-completeness problem rather than a legitimate new-account pad.
B does not satisfy the no-gaps rule on its own: the string still fills from position 1, and a real character sitting behind an unpopulated position is invalid regardless of how many B characters surround it.
B carries no delinquency, so it neither requires nor implies a Date of First Delinquency.