What's a garnishment and what can I do in Spain?

A garnishment is an order coming from a Court or from Public entities, directed to seize the funds from the customer's account to satisfy a debt owed by a debtor (customer) to a creditor. As a consequence, N26 has the legal obligation to retain the balances in your account to be later transferred to the creditor (public entity or to the account specified by the court).

Creditors can be the Tax Office, the Social Security or any public administration office and the Courts as a result of a judicial process.

When we block the balance in your account as a result of the garnishment, you will receive a message in your secure inbox with the following information:

• Creditor 
• Garnishment number 
• Balance to be garnished 
• Balance withheld

We recommend that you contact the creditor in the first instance in order to reach a payment agreement or to have the garnishment lifted if they consider it appropriate. N26 cannot take any action in this regard as we are legally obligated to apply the funds’ seizure and transfer it if we do not receive a release order within the time determined by law.

If you receive your salary in your N26 account, a special protection must be applied over a certain percentage depending on your income. However, you will have to report this situation to the creditor who will notify N26 about the lifting of the corresponding balances.

The transfer of the funds is executed at different times depending on the type of creditor who has ordered the garnishment. Normally it is 20 days (Courts or Spanish Tax Office) and 10 days for liens coming from Social Security. The amount will be transferred directly to the entity or the court that issued the order. These funds cannot be transferred to third parties or the debtor in any case (the only exception is if the garnishment is lifted before the payout time frame).

If you have received a notice of a Social Security garnishment, you can check more details through its online portal (new tab). Keep an eye on your notifications here to not lose track of the resolution.

Please note that N26 only executes the garnishment in accordance with current legislation to transfer the amount retained to Social Security, but you should contact them to resolve any questions you may have.

Remember to enable notifications in your N26 app from your smartphone's settings. We will always notify you a few days before you receive any scheduled payments on your account, so you can make sure you have sufficient funds to pay them.