How to bail bonding agencies make their money?

When you work with a bail bondsman, you are engaging in a business practice that is associated with a great deal of money. In many cases, you will pay a down payment to a bail bondsman, show up in court, and never see the bail bondsman again. However, in certain circumstances, you may develop a long term relationship with a bondsman.

Here are those circumstances:

Financing

If you have to finance your bail bond with a bail bonding agency, then you will likely have to make regular payments for a significant amount of time. The amount of your down payment depends on the amount of bail that you have been released on. For example, if you have been released on $100,000, then you have probably paid $10,000 to a bail bondsman, which is about ten percent. Ten percent is an industry standard when it comes to a bail bond down payment.

If you do not have $10,000 and do not have access to family and friends that can loan you the money, then you have a couple of options. One option is to put up collateral, such as stocks or real property, as a promise that you will pay your debt to the bail bonding agency. The agency may hold onto that collateral until your debt to them is entirely paid.

A second option is that you can finance your portion of the bail through the bail bonding agency. Most bail bonding agencies will allow you to finance your debt if you have good credit. Financing may involve using a credit card to pay the debt, or it may involve monthly payments to the bail bonding agency for a period of years. As such, your relationship with the bail bonding agency could be as long as your relationship with a car dealer; the price of both transactions could be the same.

Bounty Hunter

In the event that a bail bonding agency gets you out of jail, you are obligated to return to court in order to stand trial for your crime. However, it often happens that defendants do not return to court. In such a circumstance, they are considered fugitives. If a bail bonding agency has paid for the individual to get out of jail, then the agency will use bounty hunters to track the individual down.

If a bounty hunter comes after you, you better believe that you have a very particular relationship with your bil bonding agency. This relationship will last for as long as you are on the run.