I need some advice - I have credit card debits that were recently sold to yet another collection agency. This one is run by a lawyer who sent me a letter and then left me two messages (I was out of the country at the time) saying they were considering garnishing my wages. That was two weeks ago and I have not heard anything since then. Tonight I was checking my bank balance to pay rent and my account has been frozen. Don't they have to go to court to do anything like garnish wages or freeze account? Aren't I supposed to be informed of the court date so I can appear also? I live in Califoria. Thank you for any information you can assist me with.

I have not heard of a Credit card company or collection agency freezing a consumers bank account before. You need to contact your bank first thing in the morning to find out why this has happened. A bank can and will freeze your account if you have been severely overdrawn for many consecutive days. Could this be the case?

Federal laws apply on wage garnishment in California. The CA must file a case against you with the court clerk. You get summons from the court 20 days before the hearing and are asked to present your case.

Your bank account is already debited by the CA. Did you by any chance, miss the summon while you were out of the country and this helped them in getting a default judgment against you?

Hi,

I have money in the account and have been overdrawn for over three years. I talked to a bank rep today and they said they don't know why was frozen. It might be the banks error, though I still have the problem with the lawyer planning on garnishing my wages. Should I try to call the law office and try to set up a payment plan? I also received a letter today from Capital One asking me to call and saying they would work with me on reducing the interest etc. My credit report shows the status of these accounts as being "charged off in January 2005. why would they all of the sudden after no contact for all this time - send me a letter? I want to take care of things but don't want to pay all the interest and late charges added on to the original amount.

it depends on how much you owe them, they are not stupid, they won't sue you if its 2000 or less because its gonna cost them more to sue you. You just make sure it cost them more to sue you. i been getting those letters for months now, i told them my situation and why i can't pay. they might not even be able to garnish your wage if you are on the provety line.

Do you suspect that it was frozen because of Capital One, or is it a Federal debt? If chargeoff was in 2005, it's still within the SOL. onelamb is right, generally they must get a judgement against you to freeze the account, the Feds can sometimes jump over this process though, as with student loans.

I believe the law student is right and wrong. the SOL if from the first date of deliquenct not the charge off date. Check you credit report as companies like to re-age the charge off date that that is against the fair credit reporting act. the date has to reflect the 1st date of deliquency not the date that the collection agency purchased it or the date it was sold .

The SOL is from the date of last activity on an account. In some extreme cases, I've heard that they can freeze an account before judgement, but this would involve a lot of money, and someone who might be a risk to run, such as the Enron guys maybe.

My daughter also had her bank account frozen over a doctor bill that went to a collection attorney. The bill was a judgement against her estranged husband for their child. They took all her rent money and caused two billpay items to bounce and on top af all that shee has to pay the bank $100 for the administative costs for freezing the account. I had to promise the attorney the remainder of the money in order to unfreeze the account before her child support went in. How can this happen?

I forgot to say the amount was less than $1000. There was only $540 in the account. They took that money and the account is now overdrawn 170. 100 for the admin fees and 35 each for the two billpay items. The bank refuses to discuss the matter saying only that the attorney filed a request to the bank (Bank of America) to freeze the account. This may be something the State of Virginia allows but. The judgment was not against her but I recently dound out that your spouse can be held responsible for your medical bills in this state regardless of your current marital status even if there is a court order for the other person to pay.

I JUST had my account frozen by a collection company for a credit card debt. I was laid off a year ago and some things like credit cards had to be surpassed. They want me to send them $1237.52 to "unfreeze" my account which will take 10 days from the time I make the payment. My credit union also charged me $100.00. I have a court date of Dec 10th now, I did not know about it due to a move after I got laid off. If I do not pay the amount owed they will garnish from my account after the court date...

I called the lawyer/collection agency and they would not even let me make payments. So very understanding that I am a single Mom that got laid off...

ive been in your position... and it blows. but looks at it this way. they have the money, why would they release it? i fought for my levy in court but i didnt win because i had no recourse. it ended up satisfying one of my judgments, and while i woud have liked it to happen another way... why would they release whats basically guarenteed money to them? in a business mind-set it makes total sense. i neglected the balance for so long, now they have their grimey hands on it and theyre gonna let it go? whatever, let it go and move on.....

Um, how can they freeze your account without a judgment? Thye cannopt get a judgment without properly serving you right? and then they have to get a levy against your account and how the heck do they have info re your account if you never provided it to them? I ask as I was worry free about collections cos all my income is exempt from judgments; now I worry when I hear of levies being placed on accounts with no court documents or judgments....

I am in a settlement program, and have been sued by a collection attorney. I have a hearing next week. Am afraid of what will happen. Am trying to save in trust account to handle these creditors but with an unfortunate outcome don't know what to do. My husband and i have had a joint checking account for years. If my wages are garnished i will be unable to make my mortgage payments.

I just had this happen to my husband, OSI Collections is trying to take us to the cleaners but how can I be sure this is not a scam.....it seemed way to soon after I got out of the hosptial...less than 4 weeks! How can I get our account unfrozen in time for christmas in 3 weeks without just letting them wipe us clean?!

Start by talking to the folks at your hospital. Less than 30 days strikes me as way too early for this to hit a CA. Do you have insurance that is supposed to be covering this hospital stay? If so, get after them with a stick.

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