If you owe a bank and cash a check there...

[brokenomore]

I owe B of A a substnatial amount for credit card debt. I am no longer a customer of theirs.

I am self-employed, and until I file bk have to cash my checks at various places and avoid depositing too much in my own checking account, since there is a judgement against me, and my checking account could be garnished.

I have successfully cashed checks from my customers drawn on B of A, but recently it occurred to me that maybe they have the right to hold any money from a check I cash there?

[Bell30656]

I owed B of A money before my bankruptcy. They never took my money when I went in to cash a check but I did have one time that they refused to cash the check for me.

[justbroke]

They have NO right to take the money. The only money that you may have pledged, under an account or security agreement, is money IN AN ACCOUNT in that particular bank.

However, the brokenomore's problem seems more bleak. When are you filing bankruptcy brokenomore? You're saying that you already have judgments and garnishments... what are you waiting for?

[brokenomore]

A clerk at the bk firm I'll be using said they could take the money. It was a clerk and not an attorney. I've still got some issues to resolve before I file and need to delay for awhile.

I think they probably don't know when they cash the check and would have to do some kind of search before they would consider seizing any funds, if they do have the right to do that.

For now, I'm going to be a little cautious until I'm sure, and not take the chance with any substantial checks, though I did cash two or three there, and one at another bank where I had a similar problem. They just wanted ID and the $6 fee for a non customer to cash a check.

[justbroke]

How in the world do they legally take your money? Unless you have pledged the money, they can't. The only thing you pledge on a demand deposit account, is that the deposits could be used to "offset" other debts with the Bank. They can't take cash, as it wasn't deposited.

At least that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. If they had done this, I would file a criminal complaint for robbery or grand larceny and name the Teller and the Bank.

What you describe would be akin to you, say, buying a car and pledging a security interest in the car to the bank. Then, one day, they come to your home -- without a Replevin Order -- and take your couch... something you haven't pledged. That's larceny... maybe robbery if you were there.

[GoingDown]

From my experience with cashing checks at the many banks I owed money to... they merely check to see that I have a valid driver's license and that the name on my driver's license matches the name on the "pay to" portion of the check, and then they look at me to make sure I am the person in the picture on the driver's license. Then they put my finger print on the check, and if the check is good-- if the funds are available in the checking account upon which the check was written-- they hand me the cash.

They have never checked my name against any kind of database to see if I owed them any money before cashing the check.

For one thing, how do they know that I am the same GoingDown that owes them a lot of money? I don't give them my social security number. There are a lot of Going Downs, it is a very common name.