Credit Card Nonpayment

• When a person takes out a line of credit with a financial services firm, he is obligated to pay back any money drawn against this line of credit according to preset terms. If a person fails to pay a credit card company back on time, he can expect to face additional fees and penalties. If the debt remains outstanding for a long period, the card company may close his line of credit.
  
  

Lawsuit

• Depending on the size of the debt, the company may also choose to receive a legal judgment against the individual, which requires suing the individual in civil court. The process by which a judgment is attained, as well as the length of time before a judgment will be issued, varies depending on the state. However, in all cases, receiving a civil judgment against an individual is a prerequisite for freezing the individual's bank account.
  
  

Bank Account Freezing

• To freeze an individual's bank account, the creditor must, after receiving a civil judgment, file a motion to freeze one of the individual's accounts. However, before this can happen, the individual is usually given the chance to respond to the initial lawsuit. Depending on whether the individual chooses to fight the case on not, the time between the award of a civil judgment and the actual freezing of the account can range from a week to years.
  
  

Debt Repurchase

• In some cases, the credit card company will, rather than collect on the debt itself, choose to sell the debt to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar. Sometimes a debt can be sold several times before a collection agency chooses to attempt to freeze a person's bank account. The only absolute limit on the amount of time between nonpayment is a state's statute of limitations on the collection of a credit card debt.