Garnishment by a collection agency

Grabbing off your bank account is referred to as 'levying' or 'attaching' it. Garnishment is done to wages or other income. Was this your choice of verb, or theirs?

Any of those actions require that they first secure a judgement against you, and then secure a court order to attach the account. From the tone of your post, may I asume that they have not gotten a judgement against you as yet? Have you even been sued?

Were your wages garnished first? Or, have you changed jobs recently?

Like Uncle said, you must have a judgement against you before your accounts can be levvied. No one can just "take" your money.

Unless you owe the state or Feds....in which they would have sent you a notice to levy.

the other way this could have happened is if you gave them your bank info and there was an agreement for them to take a certain amount. NEVER give any of these clowns your bank info--they will most likely take every penny you have in the account....

But yeah, there has to be either your permission or a court order for them to legally touch any money in your bank account. If there is neither, then contact your bank immediately and tell them it was a fraudulent debit from the account. You can dispute it with the bank and as long as there is no order from the court the bank should take care of it for you.

At this point, because this has happened, I would also take some other steps as soon as possible--

1--check with the civil court in your county to make sure that there is no judgment on record against you. If there is and you had no knowledge then they did not properly serve you a summons, and we will address that if that is the case, just let me know and we can help you from there.

2--If there is no judgment, then I would immediately contact the attorney general in your state, as well as the AG in the state that this collection agency operates out of. File a formal complaint with those offices, stating that this company cleaned out your bank account--provide the exact amount they took--and that they did so with no court order and without your permission.

3--Because I like to let people know whats up, I would also send them a letter, certified mail return receipt, detailing the exact amount they took. Inform them that they took this money unlawfully and that they have 10 days from date of receipt to return every penny back to you or you will sue them for illegally levying your bank account. Again, this should only be done if there is no judgment. If they got a judgment in another county, which happens sometimes, then you can get it vacated due to improper venue. Please keep us updated on this....and we will offer any help we can.

[color=DarkRed]Ten days, my ass![/color]

I might give them 24 hours. But only if I was feeling particularly generous at the time.

If there is no permission and no judgment, you could also file a complaint with the state bar association. Unless it is not a law firm. But if they filed the levy would that mean they are trying to practice law unlicensed? Or just forging court documents. :?:

As soon as I started getting "hate mail" from a CA, demanding an OBSCENE amount of money, I closed my banking account. Years before, my own Mother's account (and every PENNY of her retirement) had been wiped out by a CA doing medical collections. These low-lifes basically kicked a dying woman while she was down, making sure that she NEVER recovered. I was determined that I would NOT allow that to happen to me. Sure enough, I received a letter in the mail one day, informing me that my bank account had been "seized"...and they were charging me "one- hundred-and-some-odd dollars" (I don't remember the exact amount), for the pleasure of doing it.

WHAT "account"? It was CLOSED.

That's what an unscrupulous CA and "Law" firm gets, when they decide to play hardball: NOTHING.

You may want to check to see if you were sued. If not then that was a 1. You could get $1000 for the pleasure of them doing it. :lol:

If you fail to pay your debt, we can take everything you have up to the debt and our collection expenses. This WILL happen to YOU. You had best work out paying this debt NOW.

Ok, Nonsense Collector, here's one for ya:

If the IRS and the feds can only garnish 25 percent of your paycheck, what gives you assclowns the right for 100 percent? Are you telling us that you're better than the US government and god???

wrong again, troll....

you cannot take ONE PENNY without first proving the following:

1--that you have the right debtor
2--that the debt is a legitimate debt
3--that you have the right to collect on it
4--that the amount you claim to be owed is substantiated and accurate.

THEN, you have to not only prove these things but you need to prove them to a COURT. You dont just get to take whatever you wish from whomever you wish, on your say-so. So, stop lying out your back side and grow a brain.

And THEN, to top it all off, you dont get to collect "your collection expenses" unless such fees were stated in the original credit agreement. But then again, since you morons cant even produce the original credit agreement for most of the debts you touch, you wouldnt know about that....wouldya??

Come call my house, and tell me you have a debt that I owe. Pull these illegal tactics on me. And watch how quickly you get slapped with a lawsuit that you will lose...and I will win...because debt or no debt, you WILL get slapped when you break the law. This WILL happen to YOU. Count on it, amigo...

No Nonsense Collector get your facts straight before posting such things, you are only hurting yourself, you have lost all respect from everyone here due to this. I honestly don't believe this troll IS a collector, no one can be that inane. :?

Nearly six years ago,a check that I wrote for fuel bounced in my checking account..the local agency contacted me and I started paying on the account.I sent them a twenty dollar money order for the charges and so on.I was living under hard ship times and living arrangements for me and my young son were quite challenging.From the shelter to living with friends and families had gotten to be so overwhelming for me..I was working at the time and my payments to the collections agency had stopped.I informed them of this several times.Yes, my payments had doubled and tripled over the years and I was never served any court papers to go to court.After apartment hopping,I had finally gotten settled and tried to live a normal life.On Feb.29th,while standing at the tellers window to get a money order for my rent(to which I was behind on my rent as well),a garnishment hit my account while I was asking for a money order.This collection agency had rendered a garnishment for collections while I was standing at the tellers window.I had spoke with a representative in the last couple of years from the collections agency and the person that I had spoken to could not find me in the system.Again,I was never served any papers in the mail or on my job.The agency claimed that they tried to contact me but never gotten through in the past 6 yrs..My bank called to tell me that they had to comply with the order that made it to my account.I was totally unaware of this and my bank did not inform of the garnishment until after the fact..Is this totally legal from agencys'end and the bank?
Would I be able to retrieve some of the $691.05 that was taken at one time..please respond to my yahoo account..rstuckey11958@yahoo.com...thanks...Richard

shazz,you say collector lost our respect.how can he lose something he never had?just asking. 8)

:?: I used my fiance jcpenny card to make some purchases for my wedding, we got behind, and now they are making all kinds of threats againts me. can they really take you to court, or levy your accounts? this is in my fiances name, so what should i do? can they really arrest you? the IRS dont even do that, how can they do it over a credit card this is mrs and associates. how should i go about this debt.

Debtors jail was abolished years ago, and to levy an account, the creditor would first have to obtain a judgment (yes, a debtor can be sued for a debt).

If they are disclosing his account information to you, then they are in violation of the fdcpa (unless you told them you were his wife)...have your fiancee consider looking for an attorney (naca.net is a good place to start). He can also mail a letter stating that all further communication attempts be made through the mail only.