Can credit card companies garnish your wages?

Question

Our stepmother got 2 credit cards in my brother's name (one with a limit of $2500 and the other a limit of $3000) and maxed them out. He can not prove that he did not make these charges and that she did, because everything she bought on the cards, she either bought online, or through catalogs, and everything was shipped to her address which is also my brother's mailing address. He is paying on the balances, but is in the Army and is about to be deployed to Iraq for his 3rd tour. Anyhow, one of the credit card co's said they were going to garnish his wages because he was not paying enough on the balance monthly. Can they actually do that??

Answer 1

after they take him to court and win the case, yes.

Answer 2

I have a very close friend who is a MP in Iraq right now and she has all of her bills on hold right now. You do know that they don't even take taxes out of his pay while he is in iraq so what really makes anyone think that they will let a stupid credit card company garnish.

You know credit card companies make alot of threats and do not follow through with those very often. I went through some really bad problems years ago and owed everyone you could think of and there was only 1 company that took us to court and that was Sears. We had visa, mastercard, discover and alot of store cards. I did repay all of my debt but that was way after the fact and they were all in charge-off status.

:)

Answer 3

Can I assume that your brother does not intend to file ID Theft charges against the stepmother?

They can garnish wages. Some states do not allow wage garnishments (I don't know what state you are in so I can't check)...and I do believe Army wages can be garnished.

webworm90 is referring to the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act, which was revised in 2003. It was disigned to protect National Guard/Reserves members who get called into active duty from being sued, or having their family evicted. Because their wages generally take a huge cut, they are unable to fullfill their obligations on loans.

The two main things you need to be aware of is the SSCRA "requires a court or administrative hearing to grant at least a 90-day stay if requested by the servicemember. Additional stays can be granted at the discretion of the judge or hearing official."

This means that they can not sue you right away....with proper request it can be stayed until the member returns home from active duty.

Also, it places a 6% interest rate cap on pre-service loans. That means he can force the Credit Card company to reduce the interest rate from their very high rate of 18%-25% to only 6%. At least if he's forced to pay the loan they can't change him a lot of interest.

Have him check with his company officer for info on this.....he needs to file certain paperwork to take advantage of this.

Answer 4

First, I hope your brother told the credit card company not to allow any further charges on the card. Even without the actual card, your step mom might have the numbers memorized and still be charging. While he is overseas, maybe you can open all his credit card mail and make sure it looks okay.

Second, they ahve to take you to court and get a judgement. They cant garnish his wages if he is making the monthly payments and adhereing to the card agreements.

I also reccomend him pulling his credit reports and making sure tehre isn't anything else he doesn't know about.

Answer 5

I heard something that people in the Army can delay paying on the debit. I do not know what that is called. This would also prevent them from taking him to court because he would not be able to defend himself in court because he is gone. They cannot garnish Army wages to my knowledge. Before he leaves have him give a you limited power of attorney to control his finances and legal matters while he is gone. Keep paying the cards.

If they do take him to court. You can show the Judge that you he is paying the debit down. Tell them he can only afford to pay this much to the card. He may not even allow the garnishment because he is making good faith effort to pay his debit back.

Garnishments are not allowed in some states.

Answer 6

First off, sorry to hear about all that trouble!

Second.. I hate to say it, but yes, they can garnish your wages. My mother owed on a credit card (I think this was about a year ago), she hadn't made monthly payments on time and what not. She was asked to come into court and they, unfortunately, won the case. When her income tax money was put into her banking account, the 'certain credit card company' garnished ALL of the money that was in there. I don't think it's right at all, but it does happen.

Answer 7

They cannot just decide for themselves to garnish wages. They "have" to file suit AND win to even start thinking about garnishment. Also, it is possible in your state that garnishment is not even legal.

Your brother should have, and still should, file a police report for identity theft against your stepmother. She has ruined his credit and may continue to if not stopped.
If he does not want to do that for reasons such as - it may create hard feelings - tell him that she is the one that has robbed him!!

Check out the site I've listed. He may find the information useful.

Answer 8

Your brother needs to file a criminal complaint against your stepmother.

What kind of a putz is going to pay off a debt that isn't theirs?