Debt collectors can't take the last $1,000 in your Virginia bank account

When a creditor gets a court order to garnish your bank account in Virginia, your bank now has to protect some of your money on its own. It must leave up to $1,000, counted across all your accounts at that bank, where you can still use it. If you have more than that, the bank also has to look back two months and protect benefits that arrived by direct deposit, such as Social Security, veterans’ benefits, unemployment, or workers’ compensation. The $1,000 rises with inflation every three years, starting in 2027.

You don’t have to apply or go to a hearing. Before this law, people generally had to claim comparable state exemptions in court themselves, and many needed a lawyer to do it. Federal rules already automatically protected certain federal benefits, including Social Security and veterans’ benefits. The new automatic protections don’t apply when the debt is child or spousal support. You can still claim any other protections the law allows.

Del. Phil Hernandez of Norfolk led the fight. “Under current law, when a garnishment hits your bank account you can be taken to zero overnight,” he said. His 2025 bill to protect $5,000 failed. Advocates wanted $5,000 and creditors offered $500, and Hernandez and Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, who carried the identical Senate bill, settled on $1,000. The House passed it 92–6 and the Senate 20–18. Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed it on April 13, 2026, and it took effect July 1.