In reply to Susan Slaughter.

Susan,

Before Y2K (2000), in the consumer banking industry, I was working with Full File Credit Bureau transaction files (multiple records per applicant or customer). I recall that one of the bureaus was using 3 digits to reflect an account open date and possibly for charge off dates. If I recall, at that time, bureaus would only keep transaction records for per applicant for up to 7 years. You had to read the date as a character variable to get the correct DATE information along with interpreting special codes for over 5 years and over 10 years. Not sure if it is done that way after Y2K.