If your bank or credit union maintains your checking or savings accounts and is also a creditor (i.e. bank loan, credit card account, overdraft protection, etc.), then it is possible that the bank will put an “administrative freeze” on the funds in the account on the date the bankruptcy petition is filed. Such an administrative freeze will cause checks that have not yet cleared to bounce. Therefore, you should consider opening a new bank account with a non-creditor bank and ceasing checking activity in the old account prior to filing bankruptcy.   It is not necessary that you close the old account, but you may wish to remove all but a few dollars from the account to protect yourself from the creditor bank’s right of set-off. If your paycheck is automatically deposited into the account, you do not necessarily have to change the deposit; funds that are deposited into the account after you file the bankruptcy cannot be frozen.