Wage garnishment or a bank levy is a terrible situation to be in.  If you've been garnished, here are some things you can do to stop the garnishment:

We get calls each week from someone (we are in the Portland, Oregon area) that has been garnished or has been notified by their payroll office that they are going to be garnished.

As if things were not bad enough all ready, WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW?

Just to lay some groundwork...

A WAGE GARNISHMENT can only occur AFTER A JUDGMENT has been awarded to the plaintiff.

A lot of people are mistaken in thinking that just because one of your credit accounts has been charged off and assigned or sold to a collection agency, that they can come after your property.

THAT IS JUST NOT TRUE!

FIRST....

When you get behind on paying your credit accounts on time, there is a sequence of events or a time line that must take place.

You will get calls and/or letters from the original creditor trying to find out what's going on.  By-the-way, as long as your account is still with the original creditor, you can't do anything to stop them from calling.

But, once that account is charged off and transferred or sold to a debt collector, you can.  I show you how later.

NEXT...

Once the account is placed with a debt collector, you will start getting calls and/or letters from them.

If you have some funds and/or a little money left over to make a reasonable monthly payment, you may want to discuss this with the debt collector rather than just ignoring the calls.

You may be able to work out a SETTLEMENT, which is a reduction of the balance.

This settlement may have to be in a LUMP SUM or possibly in SEVERAL PAYMENTS.

To get an idea of what a SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT  looks like, click on the button:

But, if you do not have any additional funds and are sick and tired of the relentless calls, you can put a stop to it now:

If you cannot afford anything to put towards the debt you owe, and you are not taking their calls or responding to their letters, the debt collector may decide to FILE A CLAIM.

An attorney is retained to file the claim in your county's courthouse.

Once the claim is filed, you will receive a SUMMONS.  Although this can be a frightening experience, DON'T PANIC!

The summons will state that you the claim against you (you are the defendant) by the creditor or debt collector (this is the PLAINTIFF).

It will also state that if you want to contest the claim, ( called give an ANSWER), you must do so within a short time period (usually 20-30 days after receiving the summons).

If you can prove that you do not owe the debt, then you should give an answer to the court within the time specified. 

This costs a hundred dollars or more and must be in the correct legal documentation, so you may need an attorney also. 

RECAP.....

• You could not keep up with the payments due on some or all of your accounts. This may be due to a number of circumstances, but here you are.
• You can not work out a reasonable repayment plan or settlement with the original creditor, so you account is assigned or sold to a debt collector.
• You cannot afford a settlement with the debt collector and the debt collector files a claim and you receive a summons.

NOW WHAT??????

Most of the time the plaintiff will be awarded a DEFAULT JUDGMENT by the court.

Once the JUDGMENT has been entered, the plaintiff has the option of seeking a WRIT OF GARNISHMENT to get back what is now owed.

Additional interest, fees and court costs have now been awarded to the plaintiff as well!

If you are employed and receive a check (W-2 wages), then the writ of garnishment is presented to your employer and/or payroll department.

You may be notified, but you may just be shocked to see that your payroll check has been reduced by 25%!

(I'll give you some advice on what you may be able to do about this in a minute.)

If you receive income from commission or what is reported for tax purposes as 1099 INCOME, then the plaintiff may seek to get a bank levy on ONE OR ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS!

This can really be DEVASTATING!

We have had people call us after their bank account(s) were depleted and they could not by groceries, pay rent, etc.!

The laws of your state (I am in Oregon and most of my clients reside here) will allow numerous EXEMPTIONS to wage garnishment and/or a bank levy.

Here are some of the "basic" exemptions (I give you a link to a more detailed list below):

• Exempt wages....If you earn less than $1,000 a month, most likely this is exempt.
• All Social Security Income
• Retirement Income (very important information below)
• VA benefits
• Any Public Assistance (welfare)
• Unemployment benefits
• Disability benefits
• Worker's compensation benefits
• Spousal or child support or any other support you receive for you or your dependents.
• Many "property" exemptions.

If you live in Oregon, you can get detailed information here:

Basic Exemptions from Wage Garnishments or Bank Levies

If you are retired and receive income from your 401(K), IRA, Pension, etc. as well as Social Security, those incomes are exempt from garnishment or levy, BUT BE AWARE!!!!!

Most people who are retired have their Social Security checks and any other retirement Income checks automatically deposited in their bank.

In May of 2011, a law was passed that protected Social Security and Retirement Funds from creditors, via garnishment/levy.

HOWEVER.... (THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!)

As long as your Social Security and/or "Retirement" income is deposited in a bank account that has NO OTHER FUNDS CO-MINGLED, then your bank will not "FREEZE" your account if they receive a writ of levy.

For example:

Let's say you are retired, receiving a modest Social Security check and a small Retirement check. Together, they are automatically deposited in you bank account.

The problem is that you just don't have enough money each month, so you take a part-time job earning $500 or so extra each month.

You deposited that extra $500 together with the other Retirement funds and not that account has CO-MINGLED FUNDS and if a writ of levy were presented to the bank, the banker would have no recourse but to freeze the account (you cannot withdraw ANY FUNDS) and would have to send the amount of the levy to the creditor!

Or.....

Let's say you took some of your retirement funds that are automatically deposited in you checking account and transferred them to a savings account.  Those funds in the savings account are now SUBJECT TO LEVY!

LESSON HERE....

If you are retired, and receive a summons and/or judgment, you need to sit down with your banker and make sure that you funds are protected from any future/possible levy.

FINALLY....

If you have been garnished, it may not be too late to put a stop to the garnishment.

Contact the attorney for the creditor/plaintiff to see if they would be willing to accept a reasonable repayment plan rather than continuing with the garnishment.

For most people, losing another 25% of their income when things were financially tough anyway, would cause them to seek BANKRUPTCY protection.

So, the creditor/plaintiff might be open to another option rather than wage garnishment.

We have been able to help many people, just like you to stop a garnishment, but time is critical.

If you would like help or advice, just let us know:

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If you are experiencing the stress that comes from having too much debt, take heart!  You have several options:

There are basically two types of debt:

Secured debt (home mortgage, equity line of credit, automobile, etc.), anything that represents collateral to the lender in the event you default on your loan.

Unsecured debt, such as:

• Credit Cards (Visa, Master Charge, etc.)
• Store Credit Cards (Home Depot, Kohl's, etc.)
• Medical bills (not covered by insurance)
• Private loans (bank, payday, personal)
• Private Student Loans not back by the Federal Government
• Old Apartment/Rental debt
• Deficiency balance still due after a repossession
• And, of course, there are many others

In this article, I'm basically addressing UNSECURED DEBT, although, is certain circumstances,  some of the options can apply to Secured Debt as well.

If you are experiencing a severe financial situation, most likely it was caused by something beyond your control, such as:

• Loss of employment
• Death of spouse, family member, or partner
• Illness or disability
• Divorce
• Insufficient income after retirement!

See if this sounds familiar...

The company you have worked for decides (or has no choice) but to downsize and layoff (I guess this is a "politically correct" word for GETTING FIRED).

You are one of the unlucky ones and find yourself (for the first time in years), facing the prospect of looking for a new job.

Sure, you will receive UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS for a time, but at some point, they will stop.

You had used some credit cards in the past, but the balances were relatively low and you were not only making the minimum payments, but also paying a little more to pay them off sooner than later.

As the job search continues, your unemployment benefits stop and you start dipping into whatever small savings you had. But soon, your starting to understand that you are in trouble!

You have a couple of job offers, but they are not going to pay you as much as you were getting before.

So, you really have no choice and decide to accept a lower paying job just to have some kind of income!  All the while, you are going to keep looking for a better paying job.

But, not only do you not find a better paying job, you have to start using some other credit cards to make up the difference just to get by!

Soon, your credit cards are starting to get "MAXED OUT", and you find yourself unable to keep up with the MINIMUM REQUIRED PAYMENTS! 

NOW WHAT????

When you start missing payments, the creditors will most likely send you a letter or perhaps call to see what is going on. 

Sometimes they seem almost understanding and willing to work with you, but often, they are very mean and demeaning to you!

After a couple of months of missing your minimum payments, you will start getting calls....LOTS OF CALLS, from your creditor.

Unfortunately, as long as the account is with the original creditor, you cannot do anything about the calls.

My advice is to answer once and try to explain that you are going through a rough time and fully intend to repay this debt.  After that, I would just ignore the calls as most of the agents calling are not going to be sympathetic to you anyway.

After 3-4 months of non-payment on your account, most likely the creditor will assign or sell your account to a DEBT COLLECTOR. 

At this point, here are you basic options:

At first, the debt collector may not offer anything else but FULL REPAYMENT (plus all the interest and fees added) on your account.

Of course, you can't do that (if you could have, you wouldn't have been in this situation)!!!!

The Debt Collector may start calling daily and even several times a day, but know you can put a stop to the calls!

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows a consumer to put a stop to these annoying calls by simply writing a letter telling them to "cease and desist". 

Just click on the button below for a free, sample letter you can use:

But, just because the calls have stopped doesn't mean the debt is going to "go away"!

At some point, you may get letter offering a SETTLEMENT of your account for less than the balance.

Most of the time, these letters offer a savings of 25% -35% off the balance if you can pay that amount in a LUMP SUM within a short period of time!

If you can't take advantage of the "offer", then you may get a letter stating that your account is set to be turned over to their "LEGAL DEPARTMENT".  That sounds scary!

The last thing a Debt Collector wants to do is to have to resort to LEGAL OPTIONS  in order to get you to pay on this debt.

Although the letter stated that they could only offer a moderate reduction if you could make a lump sum payment, in fact, they most likely will be willing to accept a better reduction and even let you pay it out over several months!  Here are a few examples:

If the debt collector is unwilling to budge and/or accept a reasonable settlement with terms you can afford, then they may decide to go ahead and file a claim in order to get a judgment.

With a judgment, then they can apply for a WRIT OF GARNISHMENT, which would be sent to your employer.  Your employer would have no choice (although there are exceptions), but to obey the writ of garnishment and send them 25% of your net, take-home income!

Since that would be financially devastating, and you may would not be able to pay the mortgage or rent, utilities, buy groceries, etc.,  you may be forced to seek BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION!

In my opinion, bankruptcy should be your very last...there's nothing else you can do...option.

However, bankruptcy is not as bad or harmful as you may think!

Although your options of dealing with too much debt are limited, you owe it to yourself to get some advice and see what you can or cannot do, given your circumstances.

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Debt Collectors...They call and call and call!!! Is there anything you can do to STOP THE CALLS?

If you have ever missed or gotten behind on credit accounts, then most likely, before long, you started getting calls, and calls, and calls!!!

As if the financial stress wasn't enough, now you got some, well, I'll be nice, debt collector agent calling to demand payment or making threats of this or that.

GOOD NEWS!

For the sake of this article, I'm talking about unsecured accounts such as:

• Credit cards
• Store credit cards
• Personal loans
• Pay-Day loans
• Medical bills
• Utility bills
• Private student loans

As long as the account is with the original creditor (Visa, Master Charge, Discover, etc.), then they (the creditor) has the right to call you about your account.

Somewhere in the fine print of the application you signed, (and probably couldn't read) there was language that you agreed to that they could contact you by phone/mail about your account.

But, once that account is about (varies) 3-4 months delinquent, then the original creditor may decide to charge off, assign or even sell to a debt collector.

Once this happens, then the debt collectors starts with the letters and calls....lots of calls, many times a day....VERY ANNOYING!

But I said I had GOOD NEWS, and I do.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a lot of very good information about debt collectors and their practices. 

A debt collector must conduct their business practices according to the law found in the FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT or the FDCPA.

They (debt collectors) are prohibited from:

• calling too early or late
• calling many, many times a day
• calling you at work (if your boss prohibits calls)
• making threats of legal action (if they do not follow through or intend to)
• using profane or threatening language ("Your going to go to jail!")
• calling and revealing your situation with family or friends

So, what should you do if you have believe you have been harassed by a debt collector?

The best thing you can do is to file a complaint with your state's attorney general's office.  Most likely you can go online to do this.

If the Attorney General's office gets enough complaints, they will start legal action against the debt collector.

"But, how do I stop all those calls?"

Again, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act says that a consumer can demand that a debt collector stop the calls by simply sending a written request (sometime they'll take a fax).

To make it easier for you, here's all the information you will need:

One more thing....

Just because you have stopped the calls doesn't mean the debt collector is going to stop sending letters, reporting the "bad debt" on your credit report and possibly begin legal action to win a judgment.

If awarded a judgment, they may be able to get a WRIT OF GARNISHMENT or a BANK LEVY!

The best thing you can do is to negotiate with the debt collector for a reduced SETTLEMENT!

Dealing with debt collectors is not always easy or friendly:

• They are professionals who specialize in getting you to pay as much as possible!
• When you are "emotionally" involved, it is harder to negotiate.
• With little experience, many people end up paying way to much.

Yes, you can put a stop to the collection calls, but you'll still need to deal with the debt.

COULD YOU USE A LITTLE HELP OR ADVICE?