Student Loan Metro 2 Reporting Guide
- Portfolio Type I, Account Type 12 (Education) or 15 (Federal student loan).
- Income-driven repayment (IDR) plans with $0 scheduled payment are CURRENT — use status 11.
- In-school deferment: status 11 + Special Comment D.
- Forbearance: status 11 + Special Comment CP.
- Transfers (servicer change): report via DA on old account + new tradeline on new servicer; do NOT bridge.
Portfolio + Account Type cheat sheet
Student loans split into federal (Direct, FFELP, Perkins) and private. Both use Portfolio I; account type differs only marginally. Federal IDR plans are the trickiest case because $0 scheduled payment can be qualifying-current — not delinquent.
| Scenario | Portfolio Type | Account Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Direct, in repayment | I | 12 | 11 |
| Federal Direct, IDR $0 payment | I | 12 | 11 (current) |
| Federal Direct, deferment | I | 12 | 11 + Special Comment D |
| Federal Direct, forbearance | I | 12 | 11 + Special Comment CP |
| Private, in repayment | I | 12 | 11 |
| Private with cosigner | I | 12 | 11 + J2 segment / ECOA 2 |
Status code playbook
Student loans have idiosyncratic patterns because of the long lifecycle (in-school -> grace -> repayment -> deferment / forbearance -> repayment -> payoff). Use the Special Comment field to disambiguate.
- 11 — Current (use during in-school, deferment, forbearance, AND IDR $0)
- 61-65 — 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 days past due
- 78 — 60 days past due, paying as agreed
- 94 — Account paid via consolidation / Public Service Loan Forgiveness
- 97 — Defaulted (federal: 270+ days; private: 120 days)
Special Comment codes
Student loans rely on Special Comment more than any other vertical. The bureaus use SC to drive the right scoring treatment.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| D | Deferment (in-school, military, etc.) |
| CP | Forbearance |
| AT | Account closed at consumer's request (uncommon for student loans) |
| AC | Account modified — used for consolidation |
| AS | Active military duty |
Required segments
Base segment + J2 (and ECOA 2) when there's a cosigner. Federal loans backed by FFELP that you service can include K3-like fields, but the K3 segment itself is mortgage-only — do NOT emit K3 for student loans.
Compliance landmines
The most-disputed student-loan scenario is the IDR $0 payment being misreported as delinquent. The Department of Education's guidance is clear: IDR $0 = current. The bureaus' algorithms agree. Servicers that report IDR $0 as 'no payment' rather than '$0 scheduled / $0 actual paid' will trip up consumer credit scores.
- IDR $0 payment: scheduled_payment_amount = 0, actual_payment_amount = 0, status = 11. This is qualifying-current.
- Servicer transfers: do NOT bridge a tradeline across servicers. Old servicer reports DA; new servicer opens a fresh tradeline with the same date_opened.
- PSLF discharge: report status 94 (Paid in full) with Special Comment AC. Balance goes to zero.
- Bankruptcy discharge (rare for federal): status 71 + Special Comment AT.
- Defense-to-repayment / borrower defense: freeze furnishing on disputed loans until adjudication.
Dispute pattern responses
Three dominant patterns: 'I'm on IDR / forbearance / deferment why am I delinquent?', 'My loan transferred to a new servicer — both are reporting!', and 'I consolidated — why does the old loan still show?'.
- IDR misreporting: confirm scheduled_payment_amount = 0 and status = 11. If status is 61+, you have a bug — fix the file generator's IDR path, don't fix per-record.
- Dual-reporting after transfer: old servicer must report DA in the cycle after transfer. Verify the cutoff date matches the transfer agreement.
- Post-consolidation: original loans must report status 94 + Special Comment AC in the cycle after consolidation booking.
Sample CSV column dictionary
Servicer exports vary by platform. The seeded template handles the common columns from FedLoan, Nelnet, MOHELA, and EdFinancial.
| Your column | Metro 2 target |
|---|---|
| loan_id | consumer_account_number |
| origination_amount | highest_credit_or_original_loan_amount |
| current_balance | current_balance |
| disbursement_date | date_opened |
| repayment_term_months | terms_duration |
| scheduled_payment | scheduled_payment_amount |
| actual_payment | actual_payment_amount |
| deferment_status | (maps to Special Comment D when in-school) |
| forbearance_status | (maps to Special Comment CP when active) |
Test checklist
Before going live:
- Confirm IDR $0 accounts report status 11 with scheduled_payment_amount = 0.
- Confirm deferment accounts have Special Comment D.
- Confirm forbearance accounts have Special Comment CP.
- Confirm cosigner accounts emit J2 with ECOA 2.
- Validate no records emit K3 (mortgage-only).