Exemptions are self-executing in name only. Money that is legally exempt from creditors is frozen anyway when a levy reaches a bank account, and it stays frozen unless the account holder files a claim within a window measured in days. This article explains that gap and the one genuine exception to it — a federal rule requiring banks to protect two months of directly deposited federal benefit payments automatically, without any claim, which almost nobody knows exists. It covers the federal cap on wage garnishment and the state caps that go further, the categories of income that are exempt at their source and lose that protection on commingling, the administrative offset systems that capture money before it ever reaches an account, the priority rules among competing garnishments, and the practical steps that actually free frozen funds.