How to Avoid Creditors From Taking Money From My Account

In some instances, creditors seek bank account garnishment in order to get the money you owe. If this happens, your account is frozen temporarily. You can put money into the account but cannot take money out. This freeze continues until the debt is paid. Because a frozen bank account can cause such financial difficulty, and because garnishment sometimes means creditors take funds from the account to which they really aren't entitled, anyone with a debt should understand how to slow down or stop the bank account garnishment procedure.

Instructions

1

Send a written request to your creditor for validation of debt. If the creditor cannot prove you owe the debt, write another letter requesting that garnishment procedures be stopped due to the lack of evidence supporting the fact you owe. If there is no evidence you owe and you are sure you don't, state that you are not claiming responsibility for the debt asserted and that you intend to close your account with the creditor if they do not correct the account errors. You always may request such validation from a collection agency under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but you do not have this protection against regular creditors.

2

Make a list of all the monies in the account and gather all receipts and statements that verify the source of those monies. Often, people co-mingle funds in a bank account -- for example, they'll use the account for both Social Security and wages. This creates problems because some funds are exempt from garnishment, while others are not.

3

Contact your creditor. Ask the creditor if it will accept a repayment plan in lieu of garnishing your bank account. If you can verify to the creditor in writing what funds in the account are exempted, what your circumstances are and that you can afford to make a regular, small payment every month, the creditor may decide that the partial payment is easier and less expensive to obtain than the garnishment order. Hire an attorney to assist with the construction of your hardship letter and assist in negotiations with the creditor.

4

File the official Notice of Exemption forms with your local court. The exemption forms make a case that, should the creditor pursue garnishment of the account, or if it already has, the creditor is not entitled to all of the money in the account. The judge will review these forms to determine what the creditor can take from you. These forms are on the websites for most courts or via the county clerk.

5

Open a new, separate bank account. Contact all individuals or agencies associated with exempted direct deposits and change the bank to which the individual or agency routes your funds. You may request changes to the route of non-exempt funds, as well, but this will not stop the creditor from going after those funds. It merely slows the creditor down, as the creditor must request a new garnishment order for each bank account it wants to levy. It's better to request checks you can cash for non-exempt funds.

6

File a lawsuit against the creditor for unlawful garnishment if you can show that the bank account was levied without due process -- that is, if you can show the creditor can't prove you owe or didn't follow the proper legal procedure to get the garnishment. File a lawsuit against the creditor if the creditor took exempted funds from the account, as well.