Hey bunqers 🌈
What's a garnishment?
If you have an outstanding debt to an individual, institution, or entity (also known as a creditor), they may obtain a court order to recover the money you owe. This process is called garnishment. According to German law, a garnishment allows the garnishor (the party that’s owed money) to legally force the garnishee (the debtor) to fulfill their financial obligations to the relevant creditor.
What happens if your German account received a garnishment?
Step 1. We’ll let you know
When we’re contacted by a creditor (a bailiff, an institution, a Creditor or acreditor’s representative) and receive the administrative enforceable documents from them, we put the bank account in question under garnishment by temporarily freezing your monetary account(s) and inform you right away in the app.
To check your received messages from bunq you can follow these steps:
- Go to Profile
- Click on “See More” under Activity
- Check out the messages sent there
Step 2. Seizure
First, we must have received a garnishment request by the creditor accompanied with the court order. While we’re processing the garnishment, we temporarily freeze your monetary account(s). We then transfer the funds from your account up to the amount of the debt into a special bunq intermediary account where they will be reserved for the bailiff or directly send the funds to them (if that’s stated in the order).
In case the available funds on your account(s) are enough to settle the whole debt, we’ll reactivate your account(s) after the transfer and you can use them as usual .
However, if at the time of processing the garnishment there aren’t enough funds on the account to cover the requested amount, we will have to keep the account(s) frozen. We will also have to reserve any incoming funds up to the amount of the debt that are credited to the account after the garnishment was applied. When new funds are available, we will immediately inform the creditor of the newly seized amount.
Step 3. Unfreezing your Bank Accounts
When the procedure above is completed, or we receive an explicit request from the creditor, we'll unfreeze your monetary account(s). Then you can use your bunq account as usual.
If the debt is decreased or you have settled it by means other than bunq, we must receive an official written statement from the creditor where it’s stated that the proceedings were completed and bunq is at liberty to release the monetary accounts or return any seized funds.
When will my account be unblocked?
This depends on the instructions of the bailiff. To get your account unblocked please contact the bailiff.
Is there an administration fee for a garnishment?
By German law, bunq is required to process every garnishment. Since this is fully regulated by the German law, we process garnishment(s) free of charge.
I have another question about a garnishment placed on my account. Who do I contact?
We've shared the available details about the garnishment, including the file number and the creditor's name, in the garnishment announcement. For more specific advice and assistance, it would be best to reach out to the bailiff directly. They'll be able to provide you with more detailed information.
When will my garnishment finish?
As soon as a judge ruled on the garnishment, we’ll receive the verdict and when we have the needed transfer order, we’ll immediately process all needed payments.
##How can I appeal?
As a third-party, we don't handle objections or other requests related to the garnishment. These matters are managed by the institution or the bailiff who placed the garnishment. If you have any further questions, it’ll be best to contact the bailiff about them.
What if I have more than one garnishment?
When you have multiple garnishments your account will be blocked until all of the garnishment proceedings are completed.
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