Can a bank take money without your permission?

Question

My husband and I are seperated. I cannot afford a divorce. We had a joint checking account and he ran it into the negative. The bank said that I could not close the account out without a divorce. I then opened my own account with the same bank. Now my bank has taken money out of my account to pay off the joint account. Can they do this?

Answer 1

Yes, they legally can if both account are through the same bank. I recommend that you close your new account with this bank and open a new one with a different bank.

Answer 2

Hate to say it, but yes the bank can take money without your permission. With this particular case, you have an account that is JOINT but money is owed. When there are other accounts that has money in it and your who ever name is on that account , the bank is going to satsify they negative to either bring it back to a positive state or to close it. I would suggest that if you two are still on talking terms ask him to sign papers so that your name can be removed. That way you will no longer be responsible for anything else. Now if he doesnt agrea to do this, the only option you have is to get the account back to a zero balance and close immeaditely. Whoever told you that you cant close the account without a divorce is telling a tale. I work for a bank. It's whoever gets to the money first. Sorry, I hope things work out for you.

Answer 3

Yes, unfortunately they can. You are each responsible for the negative balance on the joint account, even though he's the one who ran it negative. So they can take YOUR money from another of your accounts to recover it. If it's the same bank, they can just take it - if your account was in another bank, they still could but would have to get a court order first.

Answer 4

Yes. Money you have can be "set off" by the bank to pay money you owe. If your joint account is negative, your account can be used to pay off the joint obligation. This is particularly true if you live in a community property state and you are not yet divorced.

Open your next account at a different bank.

Answer 5

There was a time when banks were raided by Robbers,but now the Banks raid our pockets . They will do this as long as the present system of Your money earned goes straight into their custody. The Clients have to be nice to the Banks to get a reasonable Service. They take the Clients money to Speculate and if it is a Flop --it is the Clients Loss,and again the Tax Payers loss . If they make a profit ,most of it is theirs in huge Bonus payments and high salaries. Their policy is " HEADS I WIN AND TAILS YOU LOSE" . The Government need to set a proper watchdog and watch the Dog.

Answer 6

You can close a checking account anytime. As suggested, go to a different bank.

Answer 7

Yes but what you can do is take your name off of your husbands account and change your last name to what it was before than they cant do that but as long as your name is on his account they can..they do it me all the time they pull money from my account into his account without my permission and his name isnt on my account and i am pretty sure you can stop it once you take your name off of his account.