Significance

• A credit card company or collection agency must obtain a court judgment by suing you in your county court and winning before it can legally freeze your bank accounts. Once it has a court judgment, it may request a writ of garnishment from the court and forward the writ to your bank, which will subsequently freeze your accounts.
  
  

Features

• After receiving the writ of garnishment, the bank must freeze your bank accounts for 21 days. This gives you an opportunity to contest the impending garnishment with the court. After 21 days, the bank lifts the freeze and uses the funds in your account to pay off as much of your overdue credit card debt as possible.
  
  

Considerations

• Some funds are exempt from a bank account freeze. If your bank account contains child support payments, unemployment, Social Security or retirement pay, you can request an exemption release from from your bank and have the freeze partially lifted. This allows you access to your exempt funds.