What accounts can creditors target after freezing your checking account?

MoneyWatch: Managing Your Money What accounts can creditors target after freezing your checking account? We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Angelica Leicht Angelica Leicht Senior Editor, Managing Your Money Angelica Leicht is the senior editor for the Managing Your Money section for CBSNews.com, where she writes and edits articles on a range of personal finance topics. Angelica previously held editing roles at The Simple Dollar, Interest, HousingWire and other financial publications. Read Full Bio Angelica Leicht June 10, 2026 / 12:35 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google A frozen checking account can be a serious issue, and it may not be the only asset a creditor attempts to reach. Getty Images/iStockphoto After months or years of missed debt payments and the subsequent collection notices and mounting financial pressure that come with it, many borrowers assume they'll have plenty of warning before a creditor takes more aggressive action. After all, there were plenty of warning signs before that point, with collection calls, texts and letters arriving at regular intervals. In some cases, though, the glaring sign that an unpaid debt has gone from being delinquent to a serious issue is when a borrower can no longer access money in their bank account.A bank levy can be one of the most disruptive collection tools available to creditors. Because the money owed on an unpaid balance is frozen temporarily and then distributed to the creditor directly from your account, the process can delay bill payments, complicate everyday spending and leave borrowers scrambling to understand both what happened and what options they still have. And with household debt levels at record highs and more people falling behind on payments, the risk of facing this or other types of collection activi...