Took moms bank acct money to pay my collections

[jeff6898]

My mom is on mine and my wifes bank account from many years for a just in casr thing. She has never used my account. We had a car repo'd and was negative in overdraft $237 and behind on a cc. My moms name has nothing to do with either.
Well my mom and dad have a bank account same bank. I am not on it. Today my mom went to teh bank to withdraw money. Her and my dads ss checks are deposited there. They told her she could not get the money that they transferred her money to pay off my negative balance and the credit card. IS this legal? It is a credit union if that matters.

[tobee43]

most times, even if your mom never used the joint account you had with her and your wife, she had to at one time sign something to add her to the account. the bank will go right down the line to collect on the overdraft, first to you and your wife, and then to your mom.

that being said, if she has another account at the same banking institution, they, the bank, will grab any funds they can from any account she has oprn with that bank, sorry to say.

[jeff6898]

So even the credit card balance I guess which her name is not on? Wow hard lesson learned.

[justbroke]

Credit Unions use something called cross-collateralization. Every account you have at a credit union, insures or acts as a backup for other accounts. Now, they should not have levied your mom's/dad's account if ONLY SSA payments go into that account. You'd have to prove that the case and they should return the money.

This is why commingling funds can become very dangerous. I wish you the best in attempting to straighten this out.

I would immediately have your mom and dad contact the credit union and inform them that their account is protected, since it's SSA funds. If that doesn't work, they may need to hire an attorney.

[tobee43]

So even the credit card balance I guess which her name is not on? Wow hard lesson learned.

not necessarily, if the card is not in her name and only yours and your wife's i don't think they should be able to go after her for that!

good point jb, ssa ssi...any of those funds should be untouchable!

[GoingDown]

My mom is on mine and my wifes bank account from many years for a just in casr thing. She has never used my account. We had a car repo'd and was negative in overdraft $237 and behind on a cc. My moms name has nothing to do with either.
Well my mom and dad have a bank account same bank. I am not on it. Today my mom went to teh bank to withdraw money. Her and my dads ss checks are deposited there. They told her she could not get the money that they transferred her money to pay off my negative balance and the credit card. IS this legal? It is a credit union if that matters.

This is not the first time I have heard of this particular thing happening.

I won't go into a lot of details, but a certain family member defaulted on a debt with a certain local bank, and her mom's account was drained by the same bank to pay off the debt. Her mom was not a co-signer. Her mom was not responsible for the debt at all. And these were not joint bank accounts.

This is how I think the bank tried to link them (wrongly) together... at one point, both mother and daughter had the same address, of course, and this led the bank to somehow jump to the wrong conclusion, that their accounts were somehow joint accounts. They weren't joint accounts.

She had to fight and fight to get the money back from that bank. After a month and a half of fighting, and many bounced checks, she finally got her money back, but what a huge ordeal!

The lesson to learn from this, is if you know one of your close relatives is about to default on a loan with a bank, make sure you close any accounts you have at that same bank.

Who wants to go through all that fighting just to get your money back, when the whole problem can be avoided by changing banks?

[lillymarlene]

The lesson to learn from this, is if you know one of your close relatives is about to default on a loan with a bank, make sure you close any accounts you have at that same bank.

Who wants to go through all that fighting just to get your money back, when the whole problem can be avoided by changing banks?

What good advice. My father died with a negative net worth, and had loans with every bank in town. Shortly before I filed chap 13, I started a business checking account with a bank where I personally had no ties. Just recently a family member informed me that was one of the banks where my father had taken out a loan against his business.

I hope I don't have to go looking for another bank (I'm kind of running out of banks) since I like this one.

[JackBondLove]

It sounds like what tobee47 & JustBroke said is in direct contradiction with what GoingDown said. I can't believe that bank has the right to do this, although perhaps there is something in the contract that allows this. I don't recall there being any such clause in the documents I had when I opened up an account with my mother. I think I am going to have a conversation with my bank about this.

[justbroke]

A bank doesn't technically "know" what the deposits are in an account; although I'd conceded that direct deposits should make them aware. Additionally, some of this is automated and a human never performs the "set off" from one account to the other.

[catleg]

It's never a bad idea to periodically (every 2-3 years, maybe less) to sever all ties to a bank and move to a new bank.
Keep information about yourself scattered among as many different institutions as possible.
Don't keep deposits where you have loans.

[AngelinaCatHub]

A Little off subject

It's never a bad idea to periodically (every 2-3 years, maybe less) to sever all ties to a bank and move to a new bank.
Keep information about yourself scattered among as many different institutions as possible.
Don't keep deposits where you have loans.

Catleg, where have you been? Long time. 'Hub

A bit off subject but related: My exwife started to bounce checks all over the place. She had money in the bank of course and walked into the bank to find out why. Three bank officers stood up, pale faced and said; "you are dead". Obviously she was not dead. By coincidence a person with the same name, lived in the same small town and the same age, passed away. She demanded of the bank Officers to restore her fine name, with a letter of explanation and to reopen her account. They said they could not do that since she was dead. (a legal formality) Not to say she was a bit upset but she showed out at that bank and proved she was far from dead. She asked the head officer why they assumed without checking the SS number that it was her. She also said YOU WILL reverse all charges, write the letter, and restore all the damage. They did this real fast. The ex Mrs. pulled her account once it was settled.

Seems these banks can do no wrong and when they do, they will not hold themselves responsible. 'Hub

[lotsahats]

Okay, now I'm scared.

Since I recently decided to default on my credit cards, my husband, to protect his hard-earned money from being taken in the event of a judgement, has opened his own account (we don't have any joint debt, and none of it is tied to our bank). As soon as the funds are depleted from our joint account, we're going to close it.

But now, Jeff's experience has me worried that my husband's account isn't safe, either!

[IamOld]

lotsahats - unless you live in a community property state and you have NO NO NO joint debt WHATSOEVER (medical debt in most states is automatically considered joint) he is FINE. To be on the safe side, just have his $$ be in a different bank from where you are/were.

THIS at least is not something you need to worry about :-)

[GoingDown]

It sounds like what tobee47 & JustBroke said is in direct contradiction with what GoingDown said. I can't believe that bank has the right to do this, although perhaps there is something in the contract that allows this. I don't recall there being any such clause in the documents I had when I opened up an account with my mother. I think I am going to have a conversation with my bank about this.

Remember, I did not say that the bank had a right to do this.

I merely said that this sort of thing does happen from time to time.

And while you may be able to eventually get all of your money back from the bank, it may take a while, and may require some effort, and cause you a lot of stress that you could avoid by simply closing all accounts at that bank and opening a new account at a completely different bank with no ties to the old bank.