LTerminal Outcomes
Payment History Profile Code L: Charge-Off
Payment History Profile Code L means "Charge-Off". You charged the account off in that month, writing the balance off as a loss on your own books. L is the most severe character in the set and the one the no-improvement rule is built around. It is reported in Payment History Profile (Field 18) of the Base Segment, 24 characters at position 112.
Specification
| Code | L |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Charge-Off |
| Field | Payment History Profile (Field 18) |
| Record | Base Segment |
| Length / position | 24 chars · 112–135 |
| Category | Terminal Outcomes |
| CRRG reference | CRRG Base Segment field definition, Payment History Profile |
What Payment History Profile Code L means
- Charge-off is an accounting decision you make, not a day count that happens automatically. Report L in the month you actually charged the balance off.
- L does not close the debt. A charged-off account can still be collected, sold, or paid, and the tradeline continues to report while it is on file.
- The no-improvement rule is specific to this character: once L appears, the history cannot show improvement behind it. Payments received after charge-off change the balance and the status, they do not turn the account back into a current one.
- L is NOT the same as G. Charge-off is your accounting treatment; collection is a servicing posture. An account can be one, the other, both, or neither.
- L does NOT restart the reporting clock. The seven-year period runs from the Date of First Delinquency that preceded the charge-off, and moving that date forward to the charge-off month is exactly the re-ageing defect furnishers are warned about.
When to report L
- 1A card issuer charges off a revolving account at 180 days past due and reports L for that month.
- 2A credit union charges off the deficiency balance remaining after an auto repossession was liquidated.
- 3A personal-loan lender charges off an unsecured loan after recovery efforts failed, then continues reporting the balance while it is worked.
- 4A lender charges off an account and later sells it, so its own tradeline reports the charge-off and the sale while the debt buyer reports its own tradeline.
Reporting rules
- Report L in the month of the actual charge-off, and populate the Original Charge-off Amount in the same record.
- Do not report L in advance of the charge-off decision because the account is deeply past due. Until you charge it off, the character is 6.
- Never allow the history to improve behind an L. If a post-charge-off payment brings the account current in your servicing system, that is a balance and status change, not a rewrite of the grid.
- Keep the Date of First Delinquency fixed. It should be roughly six months older than the charge-off month for a portfolio that charges off at 180 days.
- If you subsequently sell the debt, report the sale through the Account Status and the K2 segment rather than deleting your tradeline.
Codes and fields that must agree
A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Payment History Profile Code L has to satisfy.
- Position 1 must match the current Payment Rating. L is one of the characters Payment Rating does publish, so an L in position 1 pairs with Payment Rating L (charge-off).
- L in position 1 corresponds to Account Status 97 (unpaid balance reported as a loss, charge-off).
- Original Charge-off Amount must be populated. A charge-off character with no charge-off amount is an incomplete record.
- A Date of First Delinquency is mandatory, and it is the field that determines when the account purges. It must predate the charge-off, and it must not move.
- The improvement rule is enforced against this character specifically: no character milder than L may appear in a position more recent than an L in the same string.
Common errors involving L
B019B026B014
Original Charge-off Amount Missing on Charge-off
Account Status is 97 (charge-off) but no Original Charge-off Amount is reported
Date of First Delinquency Missing on Delinquent Account
A delinquent or charged-off account has no Date of First Delinquency
Invalid Payment History Profile
The payment history profile contains invalid characters or format
Vocabulary
Keep browsing
- All 15 payment history profile codes — the full set with categories and cross-field rules.
- Metro 2 codes cheat sheet — every CRRG code set on one page.
- Payment History Profile field reference — position, length, and validation rules.
- Metro 2 format reference
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