Frozen bank account after filling for BK

[jo23171]

I am filing this week. My attorney told me to move any funds out of Wells Fargo to another bank because they will freeze my account until the discharge. She said it is common practice at Wells Fargo.

Did anyone have this problem or heard about it?

[tcreegan]

Hi jo,

From posts on the forum this appears to be standard operating procedure with Wells Fargo.

Tom in Colo

[kartoons19]

I had opened up a WF account before filing because I had two line of credits with my CU that would be part of my bk. My attorney also told me WF will freeze my account, so I opened up an account at another CU. I've had $1 in my WF account since filing and have yet to put anymore money in that account, so I was fine. Given the amount of discussion about WF freezing accounts on this forum, I would take your attorney's suggestion and move your funds. Good luck to you.

[tobee43]

jo, we did exactly that...actually we opened two accounts... one at a small local community bank and the other at a credit union.

the small bank because they may actually care about losing our business since within a 5 mile radius there is every major bank in the world so the have tons of competition and are hard pressed for your business.

the other bank was a credit union....after readying everything prior to filing we found that credit unions at least some of them, give their customers with bk a better chance of re-establishing their credit. actually, we didn't find out yet, we thought we would apply with them for a credit card, but got other offers before we knew it after discharge. however, i do believe that, and i hope this doesn't happen for the at least the next 10 years, but when we need a car, hopefully the cr will allows a loan because of membership. i don't really know if any of that's true as we haven't "tested" the waters as yet.

we only keep minimum in the accounts...just to pay bills no more. in our state at the time of filing we were only allowed to have $150 in the bank...of course it was never exactly that low because we used our checking accounts to pay bills, but if you averaged out of our bills and deposits on a certain day you'd see we were actually minus! even trustee's use they heads once in a while when examining your documents.

[keepmine]

Follow your lawyers advice.

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?59032-Wells-Fargo-Slammed-for-Freezing-Bankruptcy-Debtors-Bank-Accounts&highlight=wells+fargo

[cantbreathe]

Hi Jo,
We were told the same thing by our atty, "Stay away from WF".

Best Wishes

[tobee43]

Follow your lawyers advice.

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.ph...ht=wells+fargo

that is one scary article....hope WF has stopped the practice...i seriously doubt it though.

[AngelinaCat]

Actually, many banks and credit unions--especially CUs, will close or freeze your account, especially when you have your checking/savings accounts in the same place as you do your car loan and/or mortgage. This is called 'cross-collateralization', and the banks and CUs can and will drain your checking/savings accounts when your loans fall behind. This is why you are recommended to move checking/savings accounts to a place where you have no other accounts.

[jo23171]

Thank you all for your answers. Is Wells Fargo and only one or there are other banks or institutions out there? If anyone had a frozen account at another bank please let me know. I wonder if brokerage firms freeze accounts. Thank you!!

[cantbreathe]

Thank you all for your answers. Is Wells Fargo and only one or there are other banks or institutions out there? If anyone had a frozen account at another bank please let me know. I wonder if brokerage firms freeze accounts. Thank you!!

Jo,

Scroll down from this post and you will see other posts having to do with this same topic.
Congratulations on good forward financial planning!

Best Wishes
CB

[backtoschool]

Thank you all for your answers. Is Wells Fargo and only one or there are other banks or institutions out there? If anyone had a frozen account at another bank please let me know. I wonder if brokerage firms freeze accounts. Thank you!!

If you are opening a new account where you are not bk'ing on any credit lines, you should be fine with most banks and credit unions.

Other banks that are known to do cross collateralization and freeze accounts where you you are bking on credit lines with them include Chase, USAA, and many credit unions

[2manybills]

Wells Fargo is notorious for freezing bank accounts. I had $14.38 in ours the day we filed. It is still there. We still don't use that account anymore.
My attorney told me that they were one of the worst. In fact, he said that the local trustees were getting annoyed with them because they had to spend their energy telling them to release funds that they had no right to freeze.

[bademur]

Do you think that Chase will freeze my Company accounts because I'm personally going to default on my homeloan with Chase?

[Panacea]

I have nothing in my BK attached to my checking account bank. All I do is have a checking account at this bank, Capital One. I have a mortgage with Wells Fargo, which I listed in the BK as surrendering. Filed last week, and checking account is still up and running. My lawyer said the same as some of the above. As long as you do not have any creditors that your BK'ing attached to the bank where your checking is, you'll be fine. Seems okay so far.

bademur - I'd be worried about it. Had I had any credit I was BK'ing with my checking account, I would've opened another, just to be safe. But, I do worry about pretty much everything!