Someone took money from my dad's account and the bank told him that it was garnished. He only had $800 in his account and the person took out $1500. His only bill is with a dentist, but they had a verbal agreement that he would make monthly payments which he has regularly been paying every month.
No one notified him that they were withdrawing the funds. Is this legal? Can they take more than you have in your account? Shouldn't someone have notified him?
My father now has overdraft charges with the bank and his retirement check is not due until the end of the month. What should we do?
Normally, when an account is attached or garnished in a debt collection process, the amount the bank takes from the account is the amount of the attachment order or the available balance in the account, whichever is less. While it's possible your father's bank erred and paid over the full attachment amount, it's also possible there was a larger balance in the account when the attachment was served on the bank (because of outstanding checks).
It's normal to notify a customer when an attachment is served, but that notice, of course, isn't a warning -- it's simply a statement that the attachment was served and money was set aside from the customer's account. As for what you should do -- talk to the bank. Find out how it views the overdraft balance. Some banks are concerned about such overdrafts; others, knowing their customer's deposit habits (we refer to your father's retirement check), are very willing to wait a couple weeks. Another approach, if you are in a position to do it, would be for you to lend your father the $1,500 until the end of the month. If that's too much for you to handle, can you lend him enough to bring his balance back to zero and avoid any further overdraft fees?
Then there are the questions you didn't ask. What about the debt that caused this aggravation? If it was indeed the dental bill, what happened that upset the serial payment agreement your father had with the dentist? Equally as important is whether the $1,500 attachment will pay off whatever debt started this problem. If you are going to get involved in your father's finances to help him sort matters out, you'll need to dig until you get those answers, too.
BankingQuestions.com is a free service made possible by the generous support of our advertisers. Advertisers are not responsible for site content. Please help us keep BankingQuestions.com FREE by supporting our advertisers. When you see an ad for a product or service you may have an interest in, click through to learn more.
Accounts
Article
Q&A
Podcast
Video
Blog
Discussions
PDF
Powerpoint
Normally, when an account is attached or garnished in a debt collection process, the amount the bank takes from the account is the amount of the attachment order or the available balance in the account, whichever is less. While it's possible your father's bank erred and paid over the full attachment amount, it's also possible there was a larger balance in the account when the attachment was served on the bank (because of outstanding checks).