Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Texas

Re: bankruptcy/wage garnishment

This only answers part of your question. In Texas, wages are exempt from garnishment or attachment, unless the debt is for child support or the creditor is a specific type of government agency. A credit card company cannot garnish your wages. It is a violation of at least one statute for the credit card company to threaten to garnish your wages.

Keep this in perspective: In Texas, "wages" means the money due to you from your employer for your services. Once your employer hands you the paycheck, and you put it in the bank, that money is now owed to you by the bank instead of your employer, and is no longer "wages" under Texas law. It has become a bank account. Bank accounts are fair game for garnishment, but in Texas that requires (1) a judgment against you first OR (2) a pending suit against you by the credit card company and an order from the court to garnish. The credit card company cannot unilaterally grab the bank account without some kind of court involvement. If the credit card company says that it can, that threat can also be a violation of one or more consumer protection statutes.

If you would like to explore this further, please e-mail me privately with the name of the credit card company and the date it threatened you with wage garnishment in Texas. Generally, the time to bring suit on such threats expires one year from the date of the threat (federal law), and can be up to two years from the date of the threat under some of Texas' consumer protection statutes.