Creditors have multiple collections options available, one of which is to garnish your wages. Usually creditors do this only if you can't work out a payment plan or don't have any other assets of value. Courts try to settle debt issues as soon as possible, but because there is a formal process required for garnishment to occur, it likely will take a little over two months for garnishment to start even if all goes well for the creditor.
Complaint, Summons and Hearing
Credit card companies cannot garnish your wages legally unless they prove to the court that you in fact owe a debt and are delinquent on your payments. A credit card company thus must file a formal complaint against you to start the wage garnishment process. Once the credit card company does this, the court schedules a hearing for your case.
Generally, courts make every effort to schedule hearings as soon as possible. Even so, the Fair Debt Collection and Bottom Line Collection Services websites indicate that as much as one to three months may pass between the date when you get your notice to appear in court and when a judge renders his verdict, depending on the court's backlog.
Grace Period for Payment or Plan
Even when a creditor receives a favorable judgment against you, you still can avoid garnishment if you set up a payment plan or pay what you owe in full. In most states, you have 20 to 30 days to do this, according to the law offices of Ledford & Wu and the Get Credit News websites. If you don't do this, the credit card company usually files a motion for wage garnishment within the following week to 10 days, as the judgment clearly shows they are entitled to payment and the company has no reason to wait for their money.
Serving of Employer and Appeal
Once the court approves the motion for garnishment, the clerk issues a formal Writ of Garnishment. The sheriff then serves your employer with a copy of the writ so the employer knows he is supposed to take money from your paycheck. Most court documents are served within one to two weeks. Once your employer gets the copy of the writ, it is supposed to notify you the court has ordered the garnishment. Once you get this notice, you usually have another two to three weeks to appeal the garnishment. If you appeal, you have to go back to court, which can take another one to three months.
Bottom Line
It can take a credit card company about two and a half months to garnish your wages if all goes smoothly in the garnishment process. However, if you use your appeal options and the court is backlogged, it can take five months or more. Additionally, these estimates assume that no human error will occur. If there is a mistake in due process, then the entire process may have to be restarted. The wage garnishment process always continues until you satisfy the entirety of the debt, so how long it takes for the garnishment process to end depends on the amount of debt involved. It also depends on whether you already have a garnishment order against you, because there are both state and federal limits to how much creditors can deduct from your pay.
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