Facts

• ECOA stands for Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The ECOA establishes that individuals should be granted credit based on their credit histories rather than their race, religion, or gender.
  
  

Features

• The ECOA assigns codes to different types of accounts. For example, a joint credit account would have an ECOA code of "2," whereas an individual account would be coded as "1." ECOA codes may appear as either letters or numbers, depending on the type of account.
  
  

Function

• ECOA codes help lenders determine how much responsibility a consumer has to each of the debts listed in his credit report. This has an impact on the amount many lenders will permit an individual to borrow.
  
  

Considerations

• ECOA codes do not affect your credit score in any way.
  
  

Prevention/Solution

• If you notice that any accounts on your credit report are incorrectly coded, you may notify your creditor of the error in order to have it remedied.