Right of Set Off - BOA?

[researchmode]

"Don't bank where you have debt. If you only take one thing from our meeting, focus on that."

Our lawyer told us that if we have debt with a bank they can transfer money from one account to another to cover debts. He's seen it happen and it's always bad.

My question is this:

How long does it take from missing a payment to a bank taking action by invoking the right of set off and actually taking money out of the account?


Both the lawyer and my CPA told me that Bank of America is particularly aggressive, so if anyone knows I'd appreciate it.

The lawyer said it might even be worth paying on BOA one more month ($350) even though it's throwing money away (since we're definitely filing) just so we can have time to set up an account elsewhere and get all our auto-stuff transferred.

I'm not sure I'll need to. I've got almost everything in motion and my due date isn't until the 12th of March.

Thanks so much!

~ResearchMode
A mom on the Gulf Coast of FL in process of filing CH 7 and blogging about it. (link removed)

[justbroke]

How long does it take from missing a payment to a bank taking action by invoking the right of set off and actually taking money out of the account?

They can do this at any time, without notice. It's usually surprising. I missed ONE business line of credit payment and they just swiped it from my checking account as if I wrote them a check.

[Tweeby]

Don't bank where you have debt. If you only take one thing from our meeting, focus on that."

Our lawyer told us that if we have debt with a bank they can transfer money from one account to another to cover debts. He's seen it happen and it's always bad.

Our lawyer told us the same thing. Before we missed the 1st payment we opened a new account and left only a couple of $'s in the old account. Had to wait a bit before I actually closed the bank accounts because of DD and I wanted to make sure everything was going fine. We missed at least one payment when we finally closed the account and we ahd no problems closing it.

[researchmode]

Thanks for the replies. I've got my fingers crossed. Changing accounts and banks is a PINTB. =-)

[aljohnson007]

One final note, make sure you physically go in and close all accounts and not just zero them out and think they are closed. I made that mistake and BOA took the payment from the checking account as an overdraft with fees and more fees. I then had to bring the account back to zero before I coulod close it.