If you find yourself drowning in debt, unable to meet your monthly financial obligations, you may soon find yourself facing a wage garnishment or other enforcement action if you don’t take the appropriate steps to deal with the problem. Being in debt isn’t a great feeling, but it doesn’t mean the situation is hopeless. To help avoid having a creditor garnish wages, it pays to be diligent in keeping your personal and financial information safe.

A wage garnishment, frozen bank account or property lien on your home can happen easily if you are not careful about how you guard your personal and financial information. With very basic information about you and your assets, including any property you own, your creditors can easily take action to collect.

Creditors often investigate public documents regarding property ownership and income to find out if you have the means to pay. If they have reason to believe you have sufficient income or assets, they will come after you. Some innocent sounding questions from your creditor when discussing repayment plans can lead to serious enforcement action down the road. Working with a creditor, you may be asked where you bank. Now they know which account to freeze. Maybe they ask where you live, and now they know where to look to place a property lien. Questions about employment and clients can easily lead to wage garnishment, which can be a substantial cut.

Simply by protecting your information you can buy yourself some time to get your debt straightened out.

If you’re concerned about a potential wage garnishment, whether a creditor has contacted you for the above information or not, the best thing you can do is pay the outstanding debt in full. This will eliminate the need for your creditor to seek you out. However, if you’re worried that your current financial situation won’t allow for payment in full (as is likely the case, otherwise you wouldn’t be in the situation), you need to think about other ways to remedy the situation.

One of the best things that you can do if you know that you owe a creditor, and want to avoid a wage garnishment because you don’t have the means to pay in full, is to consult a financial professional. Whatever you do, don’t panic. And DO NOT answer any financial/personal questions from creditors without first consulting a professional.

At DebtCare, we can help you explore your options. Call us today at 1 (888) 890-0888.