My bank account was recently frozen by a company for a vehicle I co-signed for with a friend in 1999 who had insufficient credit. It was repossessed without my knowledge until much later :mad:. The car was purchased solely for my friend to use as I had a car;never drove it or rode in it. Both of our names appear on all documents, but the company is only going after me. There is a negative amount of the total of the car and attorney fees in my account! How am I supposed to live? I have since had my payroll check direct deposit stopped (they got my last one still on hold in the bank!Every cent I own.) If I let the hold remain and my funds are released to the vultures, will they have to settle for the amount that's in there now? If I open another bank account elsewhere, can they do the same thing? I literally live paycheck to paycheck and have nothing for them to take. Can my wages be garnished and my account at the same time? Is bankruptcy my only option?

Umm, did you not understand what co-signing a loan meant? It meant you are responsible for the debt.

What makes you think the company is only going after you? Obviously they repossesed the car, they may have sold it but not for enough to pay the balance due. They probably exhausted going after your friend and are now going after you.

Bottomline is they have legally obtained a judgement against you and legally attached your account. You now have to try and work out something with them to pay the balance. I would stop Direct Deposit immediately, BTW

I will have to agree completely with Scott, when you co sign a loan, they can go after either or both, most likely the other person does not have anything to get, so they go after where the money is. ( that is why they made him get a co signer, since they say he could not pay and most likely would not, Your friend would have been notified about being late, and about the repossesion, why did he not call you and tell you?

And yes now that they have or will get all of the money out of your bank account ( expect a lot of bounced checks if you had checks written that were out) you will have a negative balance at the bank.

And yes I would expect them to go after a garnishment of your wages as soon as they get all the money out of your bank account.

You need to contact them at once, and try to work out a payment plan with them for any balance, but since they already have a judgement, and they will know where you work, they have little reason to deal, so you will have to offer large enough payments to make them happy or they can merely go after the garnishment.

If you want to be mad, be mad at your friend who you cosigned for, he failed to pay for the car, he did not tell you he was not paying for the car, and he did not tell you he was repoed.

1. No, they don't have to settle for what's in your account,
2. Yes, if they can garnish other accounts if they find them or learn of them.
3. Typically, creditors will settle for less than the amount due after a repo, so if you can cough up 1/2 or so, see if they'll settle.
4. As for considering bankruptcy, you need to look at the whole picture, not just one bill.

If it were me I'd first try to negotiate for a settlement, or even payments (with their promise to not pursue further garnishments) with the manager in the collection office where the account it.

*** PS, my answer was with the duplicated post. I merged them. Looks like we're all in agreement.

Before a creditor can garnish your personal wages, they must send you a "15 day" letter called "Notice of Court Proceeding to Collect a Debt". Listing the 3 things you can do to avoid being garnished:

One is to pay the full amount.

The second is to complete the attached form and send a payment based on the same formula the garnishment will use (25% of your pay less a percentage, for example if you get paid every 2 weeks: 60 times $5.15, the federal minimum wage). They must receive this payment before the 15 days is up or the garnishment papers go out.

The third thing is to petition the court where the creditor got the judgment against you for a trustee to be assigned. This is very similar to a debt consolidation organization. The court will pay your creditor a certain percentage of your wages. This protects you from being garnished as long as the payments continue. You can call the court and ask them how to do this.

It is never too late to attempt a settlement. Contact the creditor and see if you can work something out. Among other things it is cheaper.

Also remember there is interest on this debt so the sooner you settle it up one way or the other the better for your wallet.

Do you have a judgment against you? I'm asking because it is possible for a creditor to attach a bank account before the judgment is granted.

The bottom line is that co-signing for anything is saying "I promise to pay this bill if the other person doesn't". It is also true that there is nothing stopping you from turning around and suing the person you co-signed for for your losses. Judgments are good for years if this person has no money or property. You can garnish his/her wages or bank accounts, place a lien against their house, etc.

Good luck to you. I am sorry your act of friendship proved to be so costly.

Barbe

Were you served a summons from the court?

Are you aware of the judgment against you?