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Bank Offsets Church Account from Member's Account

We have a personal account at the bank where we opened our church account. Some members had checks that bounced on the account, and we could not recover the money, not to mention money that was already being debited from the account which started a tale of spin-off fees. The account remained in the negative for some days and was charged off, so the bank took the money out of my personal account. Can they do that?


If the church is a separate entity under the laws of your state and you established the account in the church's name (not in your own), the bank should not normally have had a right to take funds from your account to cover the deficiency in the church's account. The only exceptions might be a guarantee provision in the deposit account agreement for the church account, or if the account was established in your name because the church was not a separate legal entity. Contact the bank and ask for documentation of its right to tap your personal funds to cover the church's debt, and don't take the fact that you signed on the church's account as sufficient justification.

Published on BankingQuestions.com 12/15/10