What is a garnishment?

If you owe money to a third party, a fiscal authority or another kind of authority your account might be garnished. But what is a garnishment?

A garnishment is a regulatory measure (normally affected by court) that seizes funds directly on your account as you owe them to a third party or to fiscal authorities so you cannot spend your funds in a different way.

What happens in case of a garnishment?

We are legally obligated to seize your account during the first 15 business days after receiving a garnishment. Furthermore, we are obligated to transfer the garnishment amount to the creditor. We do this at the end of a period of 30 days for a public garnishment and after receiving a certificate of non dispute for a private garnishment.

If you receive a garnishment we'll send you an in-app message to your N26 Messages with the following information :

  • Date of garnishment
  • Name of the creditor (and name of their legal attorney)
  • Reference number
  • Garnishment amount

What amount can be seized?

In case you receive a garnishment, we leave at your disposal - in accordance with the terms and conditions defined by article L. 162-2 of the Civil Enforcement Procedures Code and up to the credit balance of the account(s) on the day of the seizure - an amount of money equal to the amount of the Revenu de Solidarité Active (RSA) for a single person, i.e 598,54€ as of July 1st, 2022. This is the unseizable bank balance.

Any person can benefit from the unseizable bank balance and no steps need to be taken.

Note that some incomes such as social benefits are unseizable

If you receive one of these incomes, we invite you to provide us with supporting documents within the 15 days following the seizure notification to the bank.

Please note : The sum of your unseizable income is not added to the amount of the unseizable bank balance. Only the most advantageous is retained.

Bank transactions credited to your account after receipt of a garnishment are left at your disposal. Once we’ve received the receipt of a full or partial release we will inform you via your Messages from N26.

For more information about the reasons for the seizure, please contact your creditor directly.

*This article is valid for all our customers with a French IBAN (beginning with FR). In case you have a German IBAN (beginning with DE), please click here.