Can my credit union take my children's child support money to collect someone elses debt?

by Gina
(Spokane, WA.)

I am disabled and have been banking at the same bank for almost 9 years. I added my fiance to my account last month to help with getting my kids and myself things we need when I can't go to the store. The bank ran a credit and background check at the time they added him and brought up no concerns.

On Saturday I received an email asking me to call the bank regarding some issue. When we realized that is was due to an account that had fraudulent activity from my fiances ex-wife we made the decision with the bank staff member to just remove my fiance from the account. That is when the bank decided without notifying me that they would just take the funds out of my account.

My fiance has not contributed anything to the account in the month that he was on it. The funds that they did take was just my child's support money from their father. This seems to be unethical at the least but as I understand it, here in Washington State the money is my children's and cannot be touched for anyone's debt collection not even my own. What can I do to get this money back?

Reply from DebtCollectionAnswers.com:

Unfortunately, you're going to have to get legal advice now to determine whether the bank added properly and what you can do to get your money back if that is the case. Sorry we can't give a definite answer on what to do next.

Please read our section on free legal advice for debt collection problems. We hope one of the resources there help!