<prompt> Human: Cheapest way to cash a 20,000 check and if I owe student loans how to make sure I get the funds myself to get on my feet first, and then getting into a payment plan? Can the DOE seize the money as the check is being cashed? What about the State Equalization Board if I owe some rediculous amount of tickets? NYC resident. I have so much bad debt and have been homeless so long I dont even know who is going to try and get the money first. Im definitely not attempting to evade my bills, Im simply hoping to use the settlement check to get an apartment, some clothes, pay for going back to school, get some treatment, find a job and advance my life, rather than use the first money Ive had in a long long time to pay off a defaulted loan and a ton of penalties on unpaid warrants and court fines, jaywalking and vagrancy tickets, hospital bills, old tax debts I probably dont even know about. Can I sign the check over to a family member I trust? Can a professional service cash it for me and put it in some kind of trust? Basically, how can I use this check to fix my life rather than see it vanish immediately before my eyes. Im scared to hand it to a teller. Can they seize the money right away? Can anyone even cash a check this big without me having an account? I dont have a bank account, a safe, nothing. What do I do? Thanks in advance for your kind advice reddit.Edit: I know for a fact that I have at least 10k in student loans I never paid back, 120k in hospital bills, at least another 10k in city tickets, and probably 20k or more from back taxes from before I lost my job half a decade ago.Assistant: Consider the value of your support network and family in NYC vs. a cross country move. 20k will go a lot further in the midwest than it will in NYC. Kansas City, Des Moines, Topeka are cheap enough that 20k could be made to last six months or more while you get sober and find work. A cross country move will allow you to continue ignoring those traffic tickets and make it somewhat harder for creditors other than the federal government to find you. Given your recent history finding housing may be difficult, but in the midwest you could pay a years rent in advance and still have money to live on while you find a job. Six months at minimum wage might not be enough to live on, but it would slow the rate at which youre burning cash and after six months steady employment youll be better positioned to find better work.Once the 20k has been spent on the basics like rent, clothes, food, and a reliable used car, consider using the last of it to hire a lawyer and declare bankruptcy. You dont have any assets to protect, so dump the debt. Your lawyer will also help you navigate paying off court fines.And consider completing your general education requirements at a community college. In most places community college credits will transfer to the state school, allowing you to do your first two years on the cheap while you establish state residency.Human: I got zero dollars. I thought bankruptcy didnt cancel out student loans or federal taxes? Are the banks waiting for me to bring this check in just to seize it? Maybe thats paranoid. But who can I trust? I feel like talking to a lawyer will just mean they get the money. I feel like taking it to open a bank account will just mean I get 100 dollars and never see the rest of it again. How can I cash it? Will anybody cash a check over 10 grand? Id like to buy a bus ticket to Mississippi, where my familys from but all I have is this check, my crippled leg and a ton of fear of losing it my one last chance to come out ok.  <response>: Check out Legal Services of New York. They provide free legal assistance including bankruptcy services to people who cant afford to hire a lawyer. 