How Do Debt Collectors Find Your Bank Account

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Someone I have a personal gripe with filed an IIED lawsuit against me in California state court, and I don't have the money to hire an attorney to defend myself. If I lose by default-which I guess will certainly happen since I'm ignoring it-and on the off chance that the plaintiff wins a monetary judgment against me, how can they collect if I never contact them and never tell them which bank I use? I rent and don't own a car, so other than my bank account I have no assets the plaintiff could come after.Basically, how would the plaintiff find out where I have my savings if I never default and ignore them?And if they know where I live, does a judgment give them the right to just barge into my apartment and take whatever's in there to sell?More.

In most states, a judgment creditor can compel you to disclose your assets, by way of written questions called interrogatories, requests for production of bank statements, taking your deposition, or subpoenaing third parties.Judgment creditors can not simply come to your residence to obtain your possession. Instead, they have to have the sheriff levy on the assets.I hope you found this response to be of assistance.This response shall not be considered the rendering of legal advise but instead a general response to a general question. While Avvo is a wonderful resource, nothing can be a substitute for an in-depth consultation with an attorney in the jurisdiction in which the law is to be applied. This response shall not be deemed to create an attorney-client relationship, nor shall it create an obligation on the part of the attorney to respond to further inquiry from the questioner. If your adversary takes the default, I promise they will be able to locate your employment and bank with little to no effort. Even if you don't appear in the multiple databases which are available to attorneys and collection agencies, you can be forced to appear for a judgment debtor examination, under oath, and provide the location of all of your accounts. Answer the lawsuit, no matter what, or negotiate a solution with your adversary now.Eric Ridley can be reached by phone: (805) 244-5291, by email:, or at.

Consultations are always free.The Law Offices of Eric Ridley emphasizes Consumer Law, Collection Defense, Bankruptcy & Litigation. Ridley is licensed to practice law in California.This answer is intended to provide general information only. It does not create an Attorney-Client relationship, nor should it be construed as legal advice or an opinion on specific situations. I am a lawyer, but I am not.your.

lawyer until we have a written agreement that says so. Judgment creditors may conduct 'debtor examinations' which judgment debtors must legally comply with. This is how most judgment creditors discover bank accounts and other assets owned by judgment debtors. Judgment creditors might also hire outside investigators to find your assets; however, this is expensive and is typically reserved for significant judgments. Judgment creditors never have the right to 'take' property - they must obtain a court order permitting them to do so. Moreover, this is handled by the Sheriff, not the judgment creditor personally.

If you have personal property that is of any significant value, that is not otherwise exempt from judgment collection or enforcement, the judgment creditor may discover it in an examination and seek an order from the court authorizing the sheriff to take and force a sale of it. If you do end up purchasing a car or expensive jewelry of some sort, do not take it with you to a debtors examination; it is possible that the judgment creditor will seek and obtain a 'turnover order', ordering you to turn the property over to the judgment creditor right then and there.This response is not intended, nor should it be construed as legal advice. Any information provided is for educational purposes only. To schedule an appointment for an attorney-client privileged consultation, contact me at 530-231-4949. The exchange of communications through Avvo.com and similar social media does not establish an attorney-client relationship with me or my office. I agree with the others and would like to add that you should, at the very least, represent yourself in this suit by filing an answer to the complaint or trying to negotiate the the plaintiff as has been advised above. Advance auto parts des moines. By ignoring the suit, you give way too much power to the plaintiff.

They still need to prove their case to the satisfaction of the judge and law, but if you don't participate, the court may often just take the plaintiff's word as fact. You owe it to yourself to at least consult with an attorney to get some ideas about how to handle your case. If you think this 'personal gripe' is bad now, just wait until they obtain a judgment against you! A judgment creditor can make your life VERY difficult.Brian C. FennFENN LAW FIRM29222 Rancho Viejo Rd. 102San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675Tel/Fax: (800) 994-9079More.

While one of the things for which lawyers look in determining whether to take on a case or not is how easy collection of 'winnings' will be. That said, many of us will take a case against an individual and then have to do some more work than expected to actually collect. We get really good at this post suit activity. We know how to find assets, how to place liens on things, how to garnish wages, file abstracts, etc. Thus, someone who decides to just take a default because they feel that a plaintiff will be too lazy or stupid to collect may be sadly mistaken.Paul J. Molinaro, M.D., J.D.Attorney at Law, Physician, BrokerFransen & Molinaro, LLP980 Montecito Drive, Suite 206Corona, CA 92879(951)520-9684www.fransenandmolinaro.com / www.888MDJDLAW.com'When you need a lawyer, call the Doctor. Molinaro, M.D., J.D.

Call (888)MDJDLAW.' . This post and all others I make on Internet are for informational purposes only. None of the information or materials I post are legal advice. Nothing I post as comments, answers, or other communications should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing of this information does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. While I try to be accurate, I do not guarantee accuracy.

Fransen & Molinaro, LLP practices in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, and real estate law.Paul J. Molinaro, M.D., J.D. Attorney at Law, Physician, Broker. Fransen & Molinaro, LLP.

980 Montecito Drive, Suite 206. Corona, CA 92879. Www.fransenandmolinaro.com / www.888MDJDLAW.com. 'When you need a lawyer, call the Doctor. Molinaro, M.D., J.D. Call (888)MDJDLAW.'

. This post and all others I make on Internet are for informational purposes only.

None of the information or materials I post are legal advice. Nothing I post as comments, answers, or other communications should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing of this information does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. While I try to be accurate, I do not guarantee accuracy. Fransen & Molinaro, LLP practices in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, and real estate law. × Avvo RatingOur Rating is calculated using information the lawyer has included ontheir profile in addition to the information we collect from statebar associations and other organizations that license legalprofessionals.

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I haven’t talked to my former roommate Patti in years. But it only took Bill Bartmann, a veteran of the debt collection industry, minutes to pull up her name and the address of the house we shared in the early 1990s.Less than a day after I asked Bartmann to see what he could find about me, he provided me with a long list of the addresses of places I’d lived over the years — including my college dorm address, which I would be very hard pressed to recall myself. He also dug up a list of relatives and details about them, including my husband and father’s ages and first five digits of their Social Security numbers; and former neighbors (some of whom I’d never met), along with their ages, first of their SSNs and their phone numbers.He found all this using nothing more than my name, and the information was spot on. Even if you wanted to try to hide from debt collectors, it would be nearly impossible to do so.“Every piece of data you can imagine, even your phone records, watch out — we got it,” says Alexis Moore, a debt collection investigator and industry consultant.

Most people “have no clue how cyberspace has made it simple as a click of the mouse to find anyone anywhere at anytime,” she adds.If, they have many tools at their disposal. If they can’t locate you, or want to learn more about your ability to pay a debt, they can turn to “skip tracing” tools as they are called in the industry. What are some of the ways they do this? Free Credit Consultation - Call 844-346-3296 Repairing Your Credit With Lexington Law Can Help You Save MoneyInformation You ProvideDebtors themselves are one of the best sources of information, say most collectors. They start with the information provided by their customer — the lender or company to whom the money was originally owed. This may include “credit applications, agreements, contracts, personal guarantees, purchase orders and/or emails or orders for services or products,” says debt collection expert Michelle Dunn.In fact, this is the data many collectors prefer. “Debt collectors don’t want to have to skip trace to find a consumer,” says Nick Jarman, chief operations at Delta Outsource Group Inc., a collection agency.

Your

“A lot of it is counterproductive. We want to use the information provided by the original creditor.”That means that if you filled out an application listing your mom as the nearest relative not living with you, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the collector calls her when they can’t find you. Credit Reports & ScoresA debt collector you owe typically will be able to pull your credit reports, though not all do. The reason they might not? Cost.Both Roger Weiss, chief operations officer at collection agency CACI, and Jarman say their firms are likely to use credit scores before they will pull a consumer’s full credit reports, because the first option is cheaper. Weiss also says his firm is cautious about pulling credit because it creates credit inquiries that.

“We are very careful because we don’t want to place a hard inquiry,” he says.But a full report can be helpful — if a collector knows what to look for, Moore says. “A(n) experienced vet investigator knows that every piece of data is vital — so the credit inquiries, charged-off accounts, address history, name variations all mean something and are invaluable tools.”You can find out if a collector has reviewed your credit reports or credit scores by getting your from all three major credit reporting agencies.

Any request for your report — or scores — will be visible on your report. (If you want to see how your collection accounts are impacting your credit scores, you can use a free tool like the, which shows you two of your credit scores for free and explains the major factors that are helping or hurting you.) Get Your Free Credit Score & Monitoring Plus Weekly Updates From Our 50+ ExpertsDatabasesWhen Bartmann, who is now president of the Center for Consumer Recovery, gathered information about me, he was tapping into just a few of the many databases that collect and sell information about consumers. “As a debt collector you can sign up for a whole litany of services,” he says.

“In an era of big data they have gathered all kinds of information about us, some with your permission, sometimes without it.”Some resources are available for free, such as WhitePages.com, Weiss points out. “Then there are paid compilation services, like when people register for (contests) or change their address.”LexisNexis Accurint and SearchAmerica are two examples of popular databases Dunn mentioned. Accurint bills itself as a “direct connection to over 37 billion current public records” while SearchAmerica says it provides “a much more accurate model for predicting the likelihood that a consumer will pay their medical bills.”In addition to checking what’s reported about you at the three major credit reporting agencies for free once a year, you can get free reports about yourself from some other, if they have data about you.

But it would be a tough, and often futile, task to track down all your information from all sources. Social MediaDodging debts? You may want to think twice about that picture of the jewelry you just gave your girlfriend.

Unless your privacy settings are high, that information may be perused by anyone, including a collector, who may be looking for information about your income, assets or spending patterns.“Yes, bill collectors do use social media to find their debtors,” says Natasha Carmon, a writer who says she has worked a variety of collection jobs.“In a divorce case I discovered a wife had obtained a new vehicle through pictures on her Facebook page,” says attorney Tiffany S. “The vehicle was considered marital property because the parties were still married at the time and it helped my clients negotiating position on other matters at settlement.” She also says she has used LinkedIn profiles to find where debtors are employed in an effort to garnish wages.

She goes on to say:“We peruse Facebook and social media pages and even if the consumer isn’t posting about their bank account, they have often times liked their bank’s page to indicate to us where they bank. And consumers with assets they really cherish — collectibles, nice cars, motorcycles, antiques — oftentimes place pictures of those items on their social media.”Not all collectors use social media to track down information about debtors. Weiss and Jarman say their firms have made a “business decision” not to, in part due to security concerns.

And it’s not clear at the moment what type of social media information collectors can use without violating consumer protection and privacy laws. But for the moment it’s probably safe to say that anything you post is fair game.Even with all this information available, there’s still some that’s off limit to collectors. “The database I’d love to get ahold of is the Domino’s (Pizza) database,” says Weiss. “Everyone’s in there.” More on Managing Debt:.Image: MicroWorks. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.Sign up for our Credit Report Card and receive the latest tips & advice from our team of 50+ credit and money experts as well as a FREE Credit Score and action plan.Gerri Detweiler focuses on helping people understand their credit and debt, and writes about those issues, as well as financial legislation, budgeting, debt recovery and savings strategies. She is also the co-author of Debt Collection Answers: How to Use Debt Collection Laws to Protect Your Rights, and Reduce Stress: Real-Life Solutions for Solving Your Credit Crisis as well as host of TalkCreditRadio.com.

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How To Open A Bank Account That No Creditor Can Touch

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How Do Debt Collectors Find Your Bank Account Number On A Check

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