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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Standards

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Tools

X12 248 — Account Assignment / Inquiry and Service / Status

The 248 transmits a customer account assignment in collections — from creditor (issuer) to a collection agency — or queries an existing status.

Purpose

The 248 documents the assignment of a delinquent account to a collection agency: debtor identity, amount due, aging, history of collection attempts, contact info. It also serves to query the status of an already-placed account.

It is governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in the US. Acknowledged by 997. Critical for the credit issuer → collection agency → consumer chain.

Envelope structure

The 248 travels within the three X12 envelope levels (ISA/IEA, GS/GE with functional group AS, and ST/SE). Didactic example in release 004010:

x12 example-248.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*CREDITOR      *ZZ*COLLECTIONAGY *260515*0900*U*00401*000000248*0*P*>~
GS*AS*CREDITOR*COLLECTIONAGY*20260515*0900*1*X*004010~
ST*248*0001~
BGN*00*COLL-2026-ASSIGN-9911*20260515~
N1*CR*ACME BANK*24*EIN-CREDITOR~
N1*CA*XYZ COLLECTIONS LLC*24*EIN-AGENCY~
NM1*IL*1*JOHNSON*ROBERT*B***34*SSN-LAST4-9911~
REF*ZZ*ACCOUNT-2024-AB-9911~
AMT*ZZ*4250.00~
DTM*036*20251215~
NTE*ZZ*180-DAYS-PAST-DUE~
SE*10*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000248~

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BGN.
  • Creditor / Agency — N1*CR, N1*CA.
  • Debtor — NM1*IL.
  • Account / amount — REF*ZZ, AMT*ZZ.
  • Aging — DTM*036 (oldest delinquency), NTE.
  • Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

  • FDCPA validation notice: the collection agency must send the 30-day validation notice; a 248 without a valid flag misses the trail.
  • Mini-Miranda: every agency contact must include the mini-Miranda statement — a mishandled 248 blows up CFPB compliance.
  • SCRA flag: a debtor on active military duty has SCRA protections — a 248 without SCRA check exposes to a Section 533 violation.

Documentation

The code 248 and the name Account Assignment / Inquiry and Service / Status are public and listed on x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The complete structure of loops, qualifiers and code lists is distributed by DISA via the proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3). ediverse.io covers only public concepts, the envelope and didactic examples.