St. Louis Bank Account Levy

A St. Louis bankruptcy will put an end to the freeze against your bank account. It allows you to begin making use of your account immediately, and in some cases, we can make sure that no money is taken from your banking accounts at all.

When a creditor sues you for non-payment on a debt, the court will allow the creditor to take certain actions to collect. The most frequently used method is the St. Louis wage garnishment (in which a portion of your wages are withheld and sent straight to the creditor). But another common way in which a creditor may receive money from you is by way of a bank levy (often referred to as a ‘bank account freeze’).

A bank levy is when the creditor notifies your bank that they have the right to receive all funds in your accounts that are not protected by law (for example, money that can be traced back to Social Security income cannot be levied). When this happens, the bank is under an obligation to place a levy on your accounts, and drain them. That money is then sent to the creditor.

In addition, the levy puts a ‘freeze’ against the accounts in question. This means that you will not have an opportunity to make any transactions with the account, like a withdrawal, transfer, or modification.

This of course can make things rather difficult when you have things in place like an Automatic Deposit or Automatic Withdrawal. If a bank levy has been ordered by a judge in favor of a creditor, not only can the creditor drain the accounts of any existing funds, but it will also have the right to continue levying the account every time you deposit money into it (like your paychecks that are automatically deposited into your account by your employer). And if you have your account set up to make monthly automatic withdrawals (like for monthly utility bills), your checking account will be unable to make the payments because there will be no money in the account to cover the bill. This will in turn overdraw your accounts, and your bank will assess fees for insufficient funds.

The levy will remain in effect until the underlying debt is paid in full, and if you attempt to simply open another account at a different bank, you will most likely be refused. This is because most banks use a security system to avoid opening new accounts for people who have existing bank levies.

Fortunately, this type of situation does not need to continue forever. The St. Louis bankruptcy lawyers at The Bankruptcy Company have squashed hundreds of bank levies over the years, saving people the stress, time, and money that normally would have been expended in trying to pay the debt back. By filing a St. Louis Chapter 7 or St. Louis Chapter 13, our attorneys can stop the creditors in their tracks, unfreeze your accounts, and get you back on solid financial ground.

Call us at (314) 932-1067 or contact us through our website The Bankruptcy Company to set up your free consultation with our experienced St. Louis bankruptcy attorneys.