I am at the end of my rope here and I'd like some advice on our situation from anyone!

Without getting too into details and all that, here's a summary of what is going on:

In November, a contractor my husband was doing work for wrote him 3 checks for work done. A few weeks after we deposited them, they all came back bounced and left our bank account negative as well as bounced a few of the checks we had written for bills since there was no money left in there.

The contractor promised to pay it back, but said he had to wait until he got paid on some more jobs....the bank told us we had 60 days to bring the account to a positive or $0 balance "or else".

Monday is our last day of the 60 days- they have extended it once because the contractor was in an accident and we had no way to collect from him, but his wife promised us that these payments he was waiting on would be in by this week. So...this week has come and gone and now we're told that the money won't be here until Monday late afternoon (our deadline day) and we won't likely get any $$ until a few days after that.

My BIG question is...what can the bank do? Will we just get turned over to a collection agency? I am so afraid of what they will do- when I've talked to their loss prevention people, they just tell me that we HAVE to get the $$ in there OR ELSE. No details, no word on what exactly they do. Does anyone know what banks do when your account has been negative for too long??

And yes, I posted a few weeks ago on this situation because the same contractor wrote us 5 bad checks that had bounced in another account on the day he was in the accident- incidentially, the accident was an attempt to injure/kill himself because of all the debt he was in. Those checks were written by an employee of his through a different account, so we really didn't know he was the "owner" of that account- otherwise we would have never taken checks from him. So we're in the same situation at another bank too, only we have until the end of Feb. to fix that. We are planning on taking the guy to court as soon as possible, but the amount owed is so much we have to get a lawyer for court. : (

Oh, and we have proof from both banks that the only reason our accounts are negative is because of him, the bank is aware of our situation and they have been somewhat sympathetic (other than the loss prevention people) but pretty much have said that it's up to us as far as what we do with this guy. I really wish I could get him on check fraud, but I think that's pushing it seeing as he is in the hospital still and is in very bad condition! This guy has put us in the most horrible position- no bank accounts, no money, no nothing. We've been living off small side jobs my husband has been able to pick up here and there, but they haven't been substantial enough to pay any bills- just enough to get groceries....so we need to get this guy soon!

they will report your account probably to chexsystems and make it difficult for you to get another account. they will probably report it to the credit bureau as well as refer it to collections

Ditto the above...been there...

You should take these checks to your county attorney or whomever in your state prosecutes cold check writers. Most states give them 10 days to make good on the checks. But he will get a LOT more fire under his butt if he risks going to jail.

what he did was illegal

After you file the police report with the cold checks, take them to your bank and tell them you are prosecuting the cold check writer, and ask if there is any way you can have some grace on getting this money.

Make sure you see if since he is a business and this is contractor pay if it covered under a paycheck rule... (he may have to pay all the fees relating to the bad checks he wrote but that depends on your state)

Your bank will close and turn over the account under normal circumstances... to either chex systems or a collection department or both..

I am sorry you waited so long to ask us... I hate when people write checks that they know are not going to be good.. (and the fact that he wrote three of them and hasn't made good on them tells me that)

Please keep us updated. If you bank is open this morning, call them and ask what options you have. You can tell them you didn't realize you could prosecute for this and fully intend to do so.. just see what the bank says.

As another poster wrote, the banks will probably close the accounts and report you to Cheksystems. You should try to open another account now, before you are reported, so that you will still have somewhere to bank.