Bailiffs may be authorized to seize all bank accounts belonging to a debtor if there is a court order directing the bailiffs to write off or freeze all of that debtor's assets to pay off the debt. A reasonable question arises: can bailiffs seize a credit card? Do bailiffs have the right to block such an account? And what is the future fate of the funds in this account? All these questions certainly concern citizens who use bank lending through plastic cards.
A credit card has long become an integral and familiar instrument of debt financing for many consumers of banking services.
Of course, credit cards, over such a long period of their existence in the financial market, have earned enormous popularity and demand among individuals. They have many useful characteristics:
- the ability to instantly attract borrowed funds provided by the bank;
- As a payment instrument, a credit card is very convenient and mobile to use;
- You can purchase services and goods on credit without accruing interest if the loan is repaid to the bank during the grace period.
In especially hopeless cases, the bank has the right to go to court
As happens quite often, the positive features of credit cards are inevitably accompanied by their negative aspects, which clearly make themselves felt in force majeure circumstances.
For example, if an individual has accounts payable, the established repayment period of which has long expired, then the creditor bank in this situation has every right to restore justice through the court. By filing an appropriate claim containing a legal requirement to collect from the borrower the amount of overdue debt.
As evidenced by many years of practice, in most such cases the judicial authorities take the side of the creditor (plaintiff), which is quite logical. After all, the bank clearly fulfilled its obligations under the loan agreement concluded with an individual. Gave the borrower the required amount with an agreement to return the loan with interest after a specified period of time. And the borrower, for some reason, does not fulfill his obligations under the loan agreement - he does not return the “body” of the loan on time and does not pay the interest accrued by the bank.
Bailiffs can force a debtor to repay an overdue debt to a creditor. The Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On Enforcement Proceedings” gives these civil servants a significant list of powers. First of all, bailiffs block all bank accounts owned by the debtor. This procedure is implemented by sending relevant requests to banking institutions in which the debtor has accounts. It should be noted that obtaining information about bank accounts owned by an individual is only possible if there is a corresponding court decision. All data and information initially fall into the category of bank secrecy.
Bailiffs can seize a credit card to pay off a debt
Can bailiffs seize a credit card?
Many bank clients are interested in whether bailiffs can block a credit card. If we talk about bank accounts to which debit cards are linked, then in this regard everything is very clear. With credit cards the situation is not so clear. The fact is that current legislation does not explicitly prohibit blocking credit cards. It turns out, bailiffs have the opportunity to block a credit account belonging to the debtor. At least, purely theoretically.
As mentioned above, banking institutions can provide information about client accounts only upon judicial request.
Thus, bailiffs become aware of the debtor's account numbers from which they can write off funds.
In fact, it turns out that bailiffs do not have information about the intended purpose of the bank accounts from which they write off money. It should be understood that banks are not at all interested in informing bailiffs of the credit account numbers of the debtor client. Banking institutions may deliberately not provide information about credit cards. Meanwhile, data on the debtor’s credit cards issued by the bank sometimes still end up in enforcement proceedings. This usually happens due to errors made by bank employees or some technical defects.
Banks' position
It turns out that the bailiffs' receipt of information about the debtor's bank accounts largely depends on the will of the bank - on how the responsible employees of the banking institution react to the corresponding request from the court. In addition, even if any information about the accounts is at the disposal of the enforcement authorities, it may not be possible to write off funds from these accounts. As a rule, the balance on a credit card is often either zero or negative.
In fact, bailiffs will be able to write off money from a credit card only when its balance is replenished by the holder (borrower) who intends to repay the bank for a previously received loan. As you know, if a credit card user has topped it up with a negative balance, the bank system is in no hurry to immediately send the money credited to the card to pay off the debt. For some time, these funds will be retained by the system, which will allow the enforcement authorities to safely seize them.
Funds from the seized card are transferred to the debt account
It is also necessary to take into account that some banking institutions allow their clients to keep on their credit cards not only borrowed funds from the bank, but also their own money. Undoubtedly, the debtor's personal funds on a credit card can be easily seized by bailiffs in the first place. Such cases, of course, are rare, but they certainly cannot be completely excluded. If such an arrest does occur, the owner of the credit card must immediately inform the bailiff that there are credit funds on the blocked card. This may be grounds for canceling the credit card blocking.
Your credit card has been seized: what can you do about it?
What to do if a credit card seizure becomes real? If the enforcement authorities decide to seize the debtor’s credit card, then the user of the blocked card should take the following actions:
- Request from the creditor bank an official document that could certify the fact that this card is still a credit card and not a payment card. This certificate will need to be provided to the bailiffs along with documents confirming the bank's lending to the holder of this card (loan agreement, certificate of debt on the loan to the bank).
- Familiarize yourself in detail with the powers of bailiffs regulated by relevant legislation.
- Send an official request to the enforcement authorities requesting an explanation of the reason for blocking the card, as well as writing an application to cancel this blocking. The application will be accepted for consideration if an agreement is reached that the overdue debt will be repaid by the debtor in a strictly defined manner.
- When the arrest is lifted, it is necessary to send the bank a corresponding notification.
What actions to take if a credit card is seized
If agreements with the bailiffs cannot be reached, then you can apply directly to the court with a claim to cancel the writ of execution, attaching to the application all the evidence confirming the existence of grounds for the request to remove the seizure from the credit card. For example, it can be proven that blocking an account is a tangible obstacle to the credit card holder making mandatory payments. Or justify that the seizure of the card causes significant harm to its user.
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When serious financial difficulties arise, the question arises whether bailiffs can seize a credit card, and whether this will be legal. By court decision, restrictions may be imposed, in particular, bank accounts are blocked, and part of the funds are written off from debit cards. Does this rule apply to credit cards?
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Regulation by law
Upon request of the court, banking institutions are required to provide information about the status of the client’s accounts, including the balance on the credit card. However, the data that is transmitted in the form of a report to the court is determined by the bank itself, so the balance and current account numbers may remain a bank secret.
As for writing off funds from a credit card, this is not possible by law. The money in a special credit card account is the property of the bank, not the client. However, there is one caveat: bailiffs can seize the funds that the borrower contributes to pay the debt.
Banking institutions do not immediately transfer the money received from the client to a special credit account, and during this period the money is written off. This is regulated by the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”, in particular Article 81.
Important! Considering the fact that some credit cards allow you to store the client’s own funds on them, writing them off also becomes possible.
How to behave if bailiffs seize a credit card?
But in practice, can a credit card be seized? Despite the fact that the borrowed money belongs to the bank, the card account is blocked along with the debit account. Such an action is unlawful regardless of the severity of the lawsuit, since the seizure of a credit card leads to serious debts.
The client not only cannot use the loan, but he will also not be able to repay the debt; penalties and large fines appear. In this case, a number of actions should be taken:
- After a message has been received from the bank about blocking the card, it is necessary to raise the lending conditions. You should request a certificate from the institution stating that the account is not a current account. A document is also drawn up confirming the negative balance and the increase in debt.
- Before meeting with bailiffs, you should carefully study the Federal Law governing the seizure of property and bank accounts. At this stage, it is necessary to prepare data confirming the illegal blocking.
- In a conversation with the bailiffs, you should clarify the reason why the blocking was carried out. By agreeing on a repayment plan for the debt that led to the decision to seize the credit card, you can count on the restoration of the special card account.
If a peaceful solution to the issue does not lead to a settlement of the situation, you should go to court to cancel the writ of execution. Be sure to attach papers to the case confirming that the bailiffs did not have the right to seize the credit account. This may be a statement confirming the amount of debt.
Since it may take several weeks or even months until your account is unblocked, you can take the following measures:
- Contact the bank to open a second account to pay the loan.
- To avoid debiting funds, make payments only at a bank branch.
- Through a notary deposit it is also possible to pay debts.
According to the provisions of the Civil Code, the creditor cannot interfere with the client and prevent him from repaying the debt even if it is seized, therefore, in the most difficult situation, fines can be avoided and loan payments can be made on time.
Sooner or later, every debtor is faced with such an unpleasant phenomenon as the seizure of a bank account. Unfortunately, if you have debts on loans, utilities, or simply fines from the traffic police, your account will be seized in any case, at least if any bank account or deposit is opened in your name. But often you have to deal with such a situation as the seizure of credit cards, and this is a doubly unpleasant phenomenon for the debtor; he will not only lose funds, but will also have to repay the loan in accordance with the bank agreement. Can bailiffs seize a credit card? This is the question that worries every debtor.
What does the legislation say?
Indeed, as part of enforcement proceedings, the bailiff has the right to search and seize debtors’ accounts in Russian banks. That is, after receiving a court order to collect debt from an individual, the bailiff makes requests to various banks in order to search for his bank accounts. After which he, within the framework of a legal requirement, provides the bank with a decree on the seizure and collection of funds.
To say the same thing in simple words, that is, the bailiff has the right to demand from the bank the debtor’s funds, namely the money that is stored in the accounts of an individual and belongs to him. This leads to the question of whether bailiffs have the right to seize a credit card, because it does not contain the personal finances of the debtor, but the funds of a banking organization that it provided to the borrower under the terms of the loan agreement.
In fact, bailiffs really do not have the right to block the borrower’s credit funds insofar as they do not belong to him. But according to the law, only the personal property of the debtor in respect of which enforcement proceedings have been initiated is subject to recovery. That is, within the framework of enforcement proceedings, the bailiff has the right to recover funds and property belonging directly to the debtor.
It is important that bailiffs do not have the right to seize credit cards insofar as the funds are the property of the bank and do not belong to the debtor.
Process of seizing bank accounts
In fact, the initiation of enforcement proceedings should not be an unpleasant surprise for the debtor, because each of them has a real chance to pay off their debts before the process of forced debt collection begins. The bailiff is obliged to send a letter to the debtor's address and inform him about the initiation of enforcement proceedings within 5 days, if there has been no voluntary return of the amount of money in accordance with the enforcement document.
The procedure for seizing bank accounts is as follows:
- The bailiff receives a decree to forcibly collect the debt against an individual.
- The bailiff sends a notice to the debtor's address about the forced collection of debt or the fulfillment of other obligations.
- In the event that the debtor has not fulfilled his obligations, the bailiff sends a request to commercial banks in order to search for the debtor’s funds.
- The bank provides the bailiffs with a response to the request and indicates whether the debtor has accounts in a particular commercial bank.
- If such accounts are found, they are seized for the purpose of subsequently writing off funds to pay off existing debts.
Please note that the arrest is imposed for the purpose of subsequent collection, that is, funds, if any in the account, are immediately transferred to the account of the bailiff, who, in turn, transfers them according to the writ of execution.
But there is another side to this issue. If you own a credit card, you should imagine that it has a negative or zero balance because you are using borrowed funds from the bank. Accordingly, in practice, bailiffs cannot write off money from it and this is primarily not in the interests of the bank. But by court decision, bailiffs send a request to the bank specifically for the purpose of finding an account. That is, the bank directly transmits information in the form of account numbers. And after that they are arrested. It follows that the bank can write off either the borrower’s personal funds stored in the credit card account, or write off the money at the time of replenishing the account.
But even a perfect and safe bank system can produce technical errors; it is at this moment that funds can be written off against enforcement proceedings by a bailiff. By the way, it must be said that such a situation is very rare. Indeed, money is written off from credit accounts for enforcement proceedings, and there is definitely no clear reason for this phenomenon, otherwise debtors would not have the question of whether bailiffs can block a credit card.
And finally, we cannot help but mention one more fact: bailiffs receive only the debtor’s accounts from the bank, that is, they do not know what their purpose is, that is, they can seize a credit account, credit card, debit card, deposit, salary card and account into which the debtor receives pension payments and government benefits, alimony and others. In accordance with the law, they do not have to deal with this issue and immediately seize all the debtor’s accounts.
What measures should the debtor take?
What to do if he discovered that his credit card was blocked at the initiative of bailiffs. Today, identifying the seizure of a bank account is as easy as shelling pears, because the bank notifies its customers of any changes to its account using SMS messages. Therefore, if you receive a notice from a bank indicating that your account has been seized, you need to immediately visit a financial institution. Your task is to find out who blocked the account and for what reason. Undoubtedly, the bank will not tell you the reason for the arrest of the account, but it can give you an extract indicating the last name, first name and patronymic of the bailiff, his official telephone number and the basis, that is, the basis for the arrest and his number.
Next, you should contact the bailiff service and find out the reason for the blocking, because it happens that the account was seized by mistake of the bailiff and the money is written off illegally, but this is a separate topic here, of course, you can count on full compensation for losses. If the funds were debited from the credit account, then you must write a statement for the return of the borrowed funds.
There is one more nuance. You may be refused to repay the borrowed funds insofar as the bailiffs are interested in repaying the debt as soon as possible, but the debtor himself can go to court and recover his money.
How to sue a bailiff
So, if the bailiffs wrote off money from your credit card and refused to return the money to you, you can challenge their actions in court. But before going to court, you definitely need to resolve the issue with the overdue debt; perhaps you can come to an agreement with the plaintiff on your enforcement proceedings and determine the procedure for repaying the debt, that is, enter into an agreement and provide the court with evidence that you are not evading payment debt, and determined the course of action with the plaintiff.
Next, you can go to court and demand that the bailiff return the borrowed funds from the bank. On the other hand, you may not do this, because the funds were written off to pay off your debt. This means that you owe the bank from whose card the funds were written off; here you will simply pay off the loan and forget about your debts.
If the previous two options do not suit you, then in any case you can file a claim and demand from the bailiff to return the loan funds. To do this, you need to go to a court of general jurisdiction and draw up a statement of claim. By the way, it is better to turn to professionals, because there are many nuances and subtleties in this issue, and at the same time, you will receive competent legal advice.
Checking enforcement proceedings in the FSSP database
Once your statement of claim is ready, you can file it with the court. In court, you will need to insist on the return of funds to the card account insofar as they do not belong to you and are the property of the bank. You have a chance of a positive court decision, but again you will need to determine the procedure for repaying the debt, for example, you can agree with the bailiff to repay the debt in parts or a certain percentage of your monthly income.
Please note that if the credit funds were debited from a bank card, then before they are credited to your account you will have to pay off the loan with the bank and here you should not shirk your obligations, because you signed a loan agreement, according to which you are obliged to make monthly payments in debt repayment account.
To summarize, bailiffs have every right to seize the debtor’s bank accounts; this action falls within the framework of the current legislation on enforcement proceedings. But on the other hand, the bank is not obliged to pay for you, and you can demand the return of illegally debited credit funds from your bank card. In another option, you can leave everything as it is and continue to pay the bank, although in this case you will have to pay the interest specified in the agreement for this.
When faced with the problem of communicating with bailiffs, many people wonder whether Do bailiffs have the right to seize credit accounts, and if so, how does this happen in real life? The issue is quite controversial: on the one hand, bailiffs have the right to seize any bank deposits of the debtor. On the other hand, a credit account belongs to the category that is associated with bank capital. When opening a loan account, the borrower receives credit funds at his disposal - and they, in turn, belong to the bank. And yet, practice has long shown that bailiffs also seize debtors’ credit funds. Why is this happening? Let's find out!
Grounds for arrest
Did employees of the Federal Bailiff Service seize your credit card? It is immediately necessary to mention the legal validity of such a decision. At first glance, it seems that uniformed employees do not have the right to limit the debtor in the funds provided by the bank. However, looking at the provisions of the law, much becomes clear.
The judicial-executive system of the Russian Federation provides the following grounds for bailiffs to seize bank accounts:
Arbitration cases
According to Art. 91 of the Arbitration Procedure Code, the arrest is due to the execution of claims against legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in matters of an economic nature.
Criminal proceedings
According to Art. 115 of the Criminal Procedure Code, cases of theft, fraud and other attempts on the property of citizens also require the arrest of the accounts of the accused (defendant).
Loan obligations
The seizure of a credit account may be related to the debt of its owner to banks, individuals or the state. In this case, the bailiffs act in accordance with the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”. The basis is either a court verdict or a decision of a senior bailiff.
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It should be noted that the nature of the debtor’s deposit opened in the bank is not specified here. Collection applies to all active deposits, regardless of their content and purpose. Consequently, if there is a debt, the borrower may lose the loan funds issued by the bank in favor of repaying the loan to another creditor.
How is a credit account frozen?
Seizure of a bank card is a compulsory measure aimed at withholding a certain part of the money in order to pay off the debt. As a result of such actions, the debtor temporarily loses access to the personal balance and cannot use the loan funds. At the same time, the seizure often takes place without notifying the owner of the deposit.
Arrest procedure and principles:
- Attempts at pre-trial settlement of the conflict - the creditor meets with the debtor, calls or sends him messages about the need to repay the debt or part of the debt.
- Filing a claim in court - after the creditor understands that the dog will not be returned peacefully, he draws up a statement of claim in court and submits it for consideration.
- The issuance of a court verdict on the forced collection of funds - the writ of execution is transferred to the district branch of the SSP, and a copy is sent to the debtor.
- Bailiffs send requests to banks - the purpose of such an event is to search for deposits, deposits and other bank assets of a negligent payer.
- Providing information about the debtor's open accounts - the law obliges banks to provide information about clients at the request of the FSSP.
- “Freezing” the credit balance - at the request of the bailiffs, the bank will freeze the debtor’s accounts and retain the assets on them.
Arriving at the bank or using an ATM, the borrower learns that his card has been seized. The time has come to consider options for getting out of this situation.
What to do if bailiffs have seized a credit account?
The seizure of a credit account does not mean the arrest of the debtor himself. Therefore, the latter has a chance to pay off creditors and even return funds withdrawn from the card.
If you do not know why your bank asset was seized, you should visit the nearest SSP branch and find out details about the “freezing” of the account. To do this, you will need to take a bank statement and bring it to the bailiffs. The SSP employee will find information about your case in the database and report the reason for the seizure of the plastic card.
In some cases, there is a chance to negotiate with the lender directly. In the most favorable case, the plaintiff will withdraw the application (if the case has not yet been officially processed), and the debtor undertakes to repay the debt within the period agreed upon between the parties.
Sometimes it turns out that the balance sheet was seized by mistake. For example, the borrower took out a loan and repaid it within the specified period, but this information was not displayed in the bank. As a result, “freezing” occurs. In such a situation, visiting a branch of the Bailiff Service or filing a lawsuit against unlawful actions of bailiffs can help.
How to remove a seizure from a credit account through the court?
Filing a claim against bailiffs is a serious and responsible step. Before using it in action, you should make sure that the arrest was actually made illegally, and people in uniform are in no hurry to “unfreeze” the plaintiff’s bank deposits. It would be a good idea to meet with the senior bailiff and get his clarification.
List of documents for applying to court:
- Complaint about the actions of bailiffs;
- Number and date of the resolution, full name of the responsible collector;
- Copies of the resolution on debt collection;
- Information about the purpose of the bank deposit (in our case, credit);
- Bank statement (incoming and outgoing funds).
The application and documents are submitted to the district court department. The period for consideration of a complaint is 10 working days. Based on the results of processing the application, the authority gives an official response, for example, removing the seizure from the applicant’s bank account. If the claim is rejected, you can try to file it with a regional judicial authority.
If the court decides to block or write off your funds to pay debts, then bailiffs can seize all your bank accounts. What happens to the account to which the credit card is linked? Do they have the right to block this account too? And what happens to the money that is there? We will talk about all this further.
How to find out about the seizure of a card and its reasons?
Credit cards have long been firmly established in our lives, because they provide their owner with many useful functions, in particular, convenient payment and the ability to make purchases on credit without accruing interest (if you meet the grace period). However, while there are advantages, there are also disadvantages that may arise in the event of force majeure situations.
If you have a credit debt that has not been repaid for a long time, the creditor bank has the right to sue you and, in court, demand that you fulfill your obligations under the agreement. In 90% of cases, the court sides with the bank, because he fulfilled his duties - he provided you with funds, but the client avoids returning it.
If there is a decree on seizure or collection from a bailiff or collector, or a court decision has been received to seize funds within the framework of criminal procedural legislation from law enforcement agencies, the bank is obliged to comply.
It is necessary to understand that lifting the arrest, terminating collection or returning funds is beyond the competence of the bank, and for all controversial issues you must contact the FSSP of Russia by calling 8-800-250-39-32. For a personal meeting, you can make an appointment on the official website fssprus.ru/fssponline.
How can you be forced to repay a debt?
This is done through bailiffs, who are endowed with a fairly large list of powers. All of them are described in detail in the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”.
The first thing the bailiffs do is block all the debtor’s bank accounts. To do this, they send requests to banks. Information about accounts is a bank secret; information about them can only be obtained by court decision.
And if everything is clear with debit cards, then what about credit cards? The law does not explicitly indicate a ban on blocking them, so theoretically bailiffs can block a credit account. Banks provide information about their clients' accounts only upon request from the court. As information, bailiffs receive account numbers from which they have the right to write off money.
But in fact, the purpose of the accounts is unknown to the bailiffs, so they are not aware that they are writing off money. Since the provision of a credit account does not satisfy the interests of the bank, they may not provide this account; however, employee errors or technical defects occur, due to which information about the credit card may also end up in enforcement proceedings.
It turns out that whether the performers receive information about the account or not depends on the bank’s response. Even if the information has been used, they will not be able to write off money from there, since most often the card balance is negative or zero.
In practice, they can debit funds from a credit card only at the time of replenishment, when the client pays off the debt to the bank. After replenishing the card, the banking system does not immediately write off the funds against the debt, so the money can be seized by bailiffs.
In addition, some companies allow their clients to hold not only borrowed funds on their cards, but also their own funds. And if there is also your money in excess of the limit allotted to you from the bank, then it can definitely be seized.
Despite the fact that such cases are rare, they still happen in life. In this case, you should immediately inform the bailiff that the funds on this card are credit, then this account can be unfrozen.
What to do if the bailiffs seized a credit card?
- First, ask the lender for a certificate that the card is not a payment card, but a credit card, as well as the terms of the loan - an agreement, documents on the existence of debt. All papers must be provided to the bailiffs.
- Learn the rights and responsibilities of bailiffs so that during a meeting with them you can stop any violations of the law. This information is presented in the Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”.
- Contact the bailiffs, find out the reason for the blocking and write an application to unblock the credit account. The application will be accepted for consideration if you agree on how you will repay the overdue debt, discuss the terms and amounts of payments. A credit broker can provide real help in this matter; read more about his activities.
- After the arrest is lifted, provide the bank with a document confirming this.
If you cannot reach an agreement with the bailiffs, contact the court with a request to cancel the writ of execution. In this case, it is advisable to attach documents confirming that you are right: proving that the seizure of the account prevents the making of mandatory payments or causes other damage to the card holder.
How to pay the debt?
You need to understand that funds are not transferred to a blocked account. At the same time, if you have an existing debt, then despite the arrest, you must make monthly payments to repay the loan on the card.
Therefore, you can do the following:
- ask the bank for an additional invoice for payment
- make payments exclusively through the cash desk of a financial institution
- make payment through a notary deposit.
The easiest way, of course, is to deposit money through a bank cash desk using your passport. In this case, you will receive receipts confirming the fact of payment. Be sure to save them in case of any dispute with the lender.
