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cturner · #1 02-06-2008, 05:22 PM

I have a friend who woke up this morning and found her checking account had been completely drained. Previously she had a balance of $1,300.00 and today she had a balance of $1.00!!!! The bank told her they recieved a "notice of levy" and had to take her money!!! I didn't get the details yet (she was too upset to talk). Is this normal?? Can this really happen? I just opened a checking account again, and now i'm worried. Antone ever heard of these bank levy's?

kashzan · #2 02-06-2008, 06:30 PM

It can happen if it is a government levy. No court order is needed

finsfan13 · #3 02-06-2008, 06:57 PM

I'm guessing you live in Texas, Pennsylvania, or the Carolinas? It can happen anywhere, but in one of those non-garn states it is more common.

jos82003 · #4 02-06-2008, 07:02 PM

Is a joint account subject to levy? I was curious about this. Where can this information be found?

volleyballmom · #5 02-06-2008, 07:34 PM

For a non-government debt, a court order is needed...in most states I thought.

cturner-come on back with more info.

swedishgirl · #6 02-07-2008, 11:14 AM

If the courts order a levy, they send a notice to the bank, and the bank is required to honor that. If they don't, they can be sued by the courts. When I worked at a bank, if we got them, we had to date it and put down how the notice was served, and the time. Also, our names. It's all very legal. It then gets sent to the legal department, and they take either the full amount of the levy, if the balance in the account is sufficient, or take everything from the account leaving a dollar. Sounds like what happened to your friend. But, it's always done from a court order. It's not something banks do just to get money. There's more to this story your friend hasn't told you. She's probably been contacted by the courts at some time, and this is the only way the courts decided they could collect on a judgment. The IRS is famous for doing this. Does she owe back takes? Does she own her own business and hasn't paid her TT&L payments for her employees payroll? She needs to talk to the bank, and get a copy of the levy order. She should be getting her own copy in the mail, too, from the courts.

finsfan13 · #7 02-07-2008, 11:49 AM

You're right, it is always a court order..It's basically the same thing as a garnishment. That's why I'm figuring this is a non garnishment state.

cturner · #8 02-07-2008, 07:56 PM

It was the state of Ohio who levied the account. I'm assuming it was for back taxes. I still havn't talked in length to her about this yet. I will update when more info becomes available. Her husband also said they wipped out a savings account with another bank also. The balance in the savings account was only a couple of hundred dollars. sad stuff.

Sassnlucy · #9 02-07-2008, 08:11 PM

The State of Ohio doesn't mess around......I have had two things go to them and they came after me FAST but it didn't get to the point of a bank levy. As soon as I got notice that I owed them, I called them and set up monthly payments that were really inexpensive. Sorry to hear that it got to this point for your friend. Please keep us posted as you get more info.

swedishgirl · #10 02-08-2008, 10:12 AM

Yeah...state taxes are nothing to mess with. In Oregon, they move really fast.

#11 02-10-2008, 10:44 AM

I work at a multibillion dollar corp in the banking dept and this happens to our bank accounts all the time, usually states taking taxes owed. We have 1,000's of bank accounts and they will just pick a bank like bank of america and keep pulling out cash from accounts until they have their cash. This is normally an oversight on our tax dept's part but still a pain to deal with, especially if you are a consumer with only $1000 in your account and have to pay the bills.

unclewulf · #12 02-10-2008, 10:49 AM

You're post makes no sense at all. You wanna refine it a bit?

#13 02-10-2008, 10:59 AM

I was basically trying to say that State Governments do not mess around when you owe them taxes. They move quickly to get all their cash.

volleyballmom · #14 02-10-2008, 05:26 PM

umm ok...from the way it sounded, someone is "picking" bank accounts and debiting to no end.

swedishgirl · #15 02-11-2008, 10:56 AM

I thought the state. or whomever, had to get a court order every time they levy an account. So, if they don't get the whole amount of the levy at that time, they have to go back to the courts to get another levy assignment to get the rest. Or, to dip into the account again. For example, if the amount owed is $4000, and the account only has $2500, they only get $2499 from that levy. To get the remaining amount, they have to go back to the courts to get another court order to send to the bank. Am I wrong?