civil judgement filed

social security can not be garnished for any reason, you need to make your bank aware that this happening, they should be able to stop it immediately.

Hi laughlinjoyce
Goodnatured is right. SS benefit is exempted from garnishment for payment of credit card dues or any other commercial debts, but it may be garnished for collection of unpaid federal taxes and for child support and alimony obligations.

It will be on you to make the bank aware that these funds in your account are in fact social security benefits, they do not keep track of what types of monies come into accounts. So you should go to your bank and make sure that they know that this is a social security benefit and is not to be garnished.

As per section 207 of the SS Act, social security benefits can only be garnished if you have some unpaid federal taxes from IRS and if you have child support and alimony obligations. However, a civil judgment against you may result in Wage garnishment. If you think your income falls under ss benefit and as a result exempted from garnishment, send a signed letter along with the proof that your income falls under exemption category to the department that send you the garnishment letter and also forward a copy to your credit's attorney through certified post.

Great advice scott, I think they should send the same information to the banking officials that work at the bank where the funds are deposited also.

I think this is a good advice, sending the registered letters to both of these entity would probably do the trick.

This is good advice and something I would defiantely do.

I think it was an awesome idea to send the information to the collection agency to, hitting it from both ends of the problem.

That is one sure fire way to get it taken care of.

I would think so too, the only problem that I would see if not knowing that they are going to debit the account and then they do, it is really hard to get your money back once they take it.

That is almost next to impossible. Once theyt ake it its gone.

I know, I had a company take out an unarthorized payment, I had to file a bunch of paperwork at the bank and did finally get my money back, but it took a while, about thirty days or so.

Bet the work and waiting saved you from lots of aggravation. I do not like to have automatic payments come from my checking. The only ones I let do this is our mortgage and car insurance. I got burnt before letting other companies do this. I had a credit card set up like that and cable. The cable co. took out a payment a few days early and caused my account to overdraw. I did get back the extra money i paid out several months later cause I had a copy of the bill that said my accountg would be auto deducted on a so called date and the bank statement that showed an earlier withdrawal. It was such a hassle.

you always want to be careful who you give your account info to vor that very reason. Although, I will admit that my car insurance, student loan and gym deduct from my account :) Automoatic payments can be great for your credit!

Great way to look at it CMB, I guess if you have them set up for automatic payment, then it would build a great payment history.

I actually think it would help.

I am not sure on that one. I know your SS wages are protected. I have tried to find some info on it and haven't come up with much. I would wait and see what other answers you get here at the forum. I am alot newer to this stuff and there are others that know lots moer. It would be better if you posted this as a new topic where it says "ask the community". You will be sure to draw attention to your post and recieve a much quicker response.

Hi Deddezz
Social security benefit is always protected from garnishment except for Federal tax payment and child support and alimony obligations and not for credit card debt, even if you get a long term disability payment from the company for which you worked. All you need to do is to inform the court that the money you receive is a disability benefit. You can also choose to contact the state AGs office for more details. The contact information of AGs office of Colorado is
Attorney General
1525 Sherman St.
7th floor, Denver, CO 80203
You can also call them at (303)866-4500

Glad you jumped in there Justin I really had no clue on this one. It is good to know that all disability benefits are prtected.

You can view all these laws on the social security website. just google it.

I have never been to the website but I know the government socoal security wages are exempt from credit card collections. I just didn;t know if the ones given to you from you past employer was under the same guidelines.