Close out wells fargo Bank Accounts before filing Bankruptcy

I was just reminded the other day by a client that had his Wells Fargo account frozen upon his filing the need to close out Wachovia or Wells Fargo accounts before you file. While it doesn’t affect your ability to keep your money typically, it can be a real pain and put you in a predicament if bills are due and you don’t have incoming money. Wells Fargo for some reason feels like they need to act a trustee for your bank accounts upon the filing of a bankruptcy. Credit unions can do this as well, and I have heard of Union Bank doing the same thing. It ties your money up until the trustee signs off that they were exempt funds. This can take a few days to up to 3 weeks so if you are filing and you have an active account with Wells Fargo take your money out and put them in a different bank account. I typically let my clients know that if you owe money to a bank that you have money in such as credit union credit card and credit union bank account they can set off the funds you owe them with the funds in your account. I always look for accounts owed and bank accounts with the same institution. The client I forgot to warn about as we did the petition really quickly to stop a wage garnishment only owed money to AMEX and I forgot that Wells in notorious for freezing accounts. Fortunately the money is exempt and he’s paid in two days(new money that comes in is not frozen). We will have to have the trustee sign off that the money is exempt and he’ll have it back within a week or so, but heed this warning that Wells Fargo will freeze your account upon the filing of a chapter 7 petition.