Credit Card Co.’s & bank accounts
Once a bankruptcy has first been filed, can credit card companies still take money out of bank accounts of the bankruptee which are joint accounts (established before the bankruptcy) , making the bankruptee and whoever is also on the joint account powerless to do anything?
At what point does the bankruptee have protection from this happening?
Also, can credit card companies affiliated with major banks go into credit union accounts or are we talking about apples and oranges here?
The Stay of Proceedings, which is the protection you are discussing, begins the moment your trustee files the bankruptcy documents with the Official Receiver.
This is done electronically and typically happens right after a debtor has signed the bankruptcy documents.
However, it is always good practice to advise debtors to open a new bank account with an institution they don’t owe money to as there is usually a delay. Now this is a delay at the bank, not with the trustee. Typically we find that the major banks and lending institutions are so large it takes a couple of weeks before all components of their organization are brought up to speed. So as a result even though the legal authority exists to stop this type of practice, getting the message out some times takes longer.
At this point it sounds as if you are best to discuss this with a local trustee and they will be able to explain the reasoning behind this in more detail.