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 French 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 French 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
While we’re processing the garnishment, we temporarily freeze your monetary account(s). We will transfer funds from your account into a special bunq intermediary account where they will be reserved for the creditor. We can only seize funds that are above the free-feet amount (unseizable funds by law) and up to the amount of your garnishment.
In case there isn’t enough money to cover the debt, we will need to keep your monetary account(s) frozen until enough funds are available to settle the garnishment.
In any case we will proceed with the transfer of the seized funds to the bailiff (either directly from your account or from the intermediary account - depending on the case)
Usually we wait for a document from the bailiff to transfer the seized amount from our internal account (where your seized funds are stored) to the bailiff's account.
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 have your account unblocked, please contact the bailiff or agree the amounts (enough to fulfill the debt) to be paid and request a release of the seizure provided by the creditor.
Is there an administration fee for a garnishment?
By French law, bunq is required to process every garnishment. Since this is fully regulated by the French 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 rules 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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