Wells Fargo just increased their fees for being forced to attach to a consumer's bank account should the bank receive a Garnishment, Levy, Writ or any other legal document to freeze a consumer's funds due to some sort of debt. This could mean a levy from any taxing agency, garnishments for past Child Support, taxes due, court ordered payments or restitution, collection debts that have been won through Court Order etc. While so many people panic and are surprised when they see that their funds have disappeared from their account, in reality it could have all be avoided.
The point of this blog is really not to admonish a consumer about getting into this situation in the first place but to forewarn him/her about how costly the banks are now making these issues. Wells Fargo says that "effective April 1, 2013, the Legal Process Fee which include levy, writ, garnishment and any other legal document that requires funds to be attached will be $125 each." This was noted in everyone's February 2013 statement.
Now think about the fact that maybe an account was attached by the bank for a certain amount but the consumer didn't have enough collected funds to cover the amount requested. The legal process can be submitted time and time agaion until the full amount of funds are recovered through the bank and that fee will apply each time the request is executed by the creditor. At a $125 per request, you could have your funds eaten up in no time.
2 comments:
Bye bye, Wells Fargo. I do not pay fees for the actions of others outside of my control or influence. :)
Good point and one I would hope everyone would get. Banks are "feeing" everyone to death. Check your bank's fees. In this day and age of very little human interaction with the everyday transactions, the fact that transactions are now all automated by a computer...the fees are ever increasing and not decreasing. So it's more important than ever to really check out what your bank is doing and protecting your cash position. I will usually suggest credit unions and smaller neighborhood banks to get the best bang for your hard earned buck but most recently I encountered a once respected credit union change their overdraft fees process to be more harmful than the big banks. That was due to the fact that they made some unwise loan decisions among a few other issues and decided they could recover from it by eliminating the same day rule where you have till the end of the business day to bring your account positive. They decided to charge for overdrafts THE MINUTE your transaction hits your accounts instead of giving you to the end of the business day to bring the account positive.
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