Levying a Bank Account

• When you owe debts to a creditor, the creditor cannot simply come and take money out of your account at its discretion. The money can only be taken after the creditor completes the necessary legal requirements. The creditor must file a lawsuit against you, win the lawsuit and get a judgment from the court. Then the creditor must get a writ of execution from the court as well. At that point, the creditor can present the writ of execution to the bank and take your money.
  
  

Tax Debt

• Besides regular creditors having the ability to take money through a bank levy, the Internal Revenue Service can also levy your accounts. In fact, the IRS has the power to levy any of your assets when trying to collect a tax debt. The Internal Revenue Service does not have to go through the court or get a court order before it can levy your accounts. The IRS will send you a notice of intent to levy before it actually happens.
  
  

Amounts

• When you have your bank account levied, the creditor can take a potentially large amount of money from you. The creditor does not have to leave a certain amount of money in the account for you to use for any purpose. The creditor could possibly take the entire amount of money that you have in your account. This makes a bank levy especially devastating when you are counting on the money in your account to pay bills.
  
  

Stopping the Levy

• If you are facing a levy from a creditor, you can take a few different actions to avoid it. One option that you could pursue is contesting the lawsuit. If you were not properly served papers, you could contest the judgment against you. You could also file for bankruptcy, which would wipe out the debt and stop the creditor from trying to collect from you. The other option that you have is to stop putting money into the bank account and live on a cash basis.