Metro 2 ECOA codes
The ECOA code says how you're connected to an account and who is legally responsible for it. It's reported separately for each person on the account, which is why the same tradeline can show as individual on one person's report and authorized user on another's. The name comes from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. A wrong code here can put someone else's debt on your file, or make a debt you co-signed look like it isn't yours. Two of the codes, T and Z, are instructions about a person's link to the account rather than descriptions of it.
All 9 ECOA codes
- 1IndividualYou alone are contractually responsible for the account and owe the whole balance.
- 2JointYou and at least one other person signed for the account, and each of you is responsible for the full balance, not a share of it.
- 3Authorized userYou're allowed to use someone else's account, usually a credit card, but didn't sign for it and don't owe it.
- 5Co-maker or guarantorYou signed to back someone else's loan or account.
- 7Maker (primary borrower with a cosigner)You're the primary borrower on an account that someone else guaranteed or cosigned.
- TAssociation terminatedYour connection to the account has ended.
- WBusiness or commercialThe account is business or commercial credit rather than consumer credit.
- XConsumer deceasedThe person this code is attached to has died.
- ZDelete consumer from accountAn instruction rather than a designation.
Other Metro 2 code families
- Account status codes 23
- Payment rating codes 9
- Payment history profile characters 15
- Compliance condition codes 10
- Special comment codes 37
If a code on your report is wrong, you can dispute it with the bureau or with the company that reported it. Start with how to dispute a credit report error, then use the free letter builder to write it. Look up any code.