Competing rates.

For a while now, there has been a big shift towards bail bonding companies that offer not only payment plans, but also little to no down payments and interest. Like other industries such as law firms, doctor’s offices, etc., it’s not hard to have clients who simply can’t afford your service unless the business is willing to take additional financial risk and offer flexible payment options. The savviest of credit card users may realize once they take into account how much they would pay in residual interest, even credit card bonuses have their downsides. While you are also subject to credit card late fees, the payment options that bail bond companies offer are starting to look quite attractive.

Although the insider’s kiosk fees are only 7%, a decent amount less than the 10-15% that must be charged by bail bondsmen, it is a fee that must be paid in full; often an amount more than the defendant can pay. For non-felony small bail bonds, this might not apply, but would the bail industry really prefer to have someone held in jail for hours, sometimes overnight, so they can charge a minimum $100 fee? ? The answer is hopefully no.

Disguised online threat.

Perhaps these kiosks could affect small family businesses, but there is still a long time before this option is available to all prisons. A bigger threat to small businesses is the relatively recent developments of surety bond companies hiring aggressive search engine and social media marketing services. Driving to any city, it’s not hard to find a bail bond company, especially near jails and court buildings, so the industry seems to be doing pretty well. For example, if only a handful of businesses within a city were to shut down, it would largely go unnoticed and bail bond kiosks could hardly be described as a punishing blow to the industry.

With search engine trends showing an increase in surety related searches, we can expect that over the next 5 years smaller businesses will be pushed out due to increasing competition online rather than kiosks. of bail

There is no shortage of literature describing how the recession has negatively impacted the surety bond industry. This can be seen in the competitive payment plans on offer, but the market itself is growing. Industry leaders routinely earn 7 figures a year. The number of people with a bail license issuing bonds far exceeds the number of companies with offices, employees, websites, etc. legitimate. This is analogous to real estate agents; You can’t expect everyone with a real estate license to compete with the big real estate companies, just as all bail bondsmen can’t expect to survive the economic and legislative fluctuations that all businesses face.

Responsibility of the defendant.

The surety bond industry was entrenched and has yet to be built on a foundation of accountability. Bail officers are paid a fee to make sure defendants appear in court so they don’t have to stay in jail in the meantime. Bail bond companies cannot be successful without adhering to this responsibility and maintaining very low forfeiture (also default) rates. If the courts allow this liability to be removed with these credit card bonds, then not only will there be a higher default rate, but it will also increase the State’s costs of having to hire people to apprehend fugitives. In Nevada, for example, there are more than 100 Las Vegas bail bond companies. Imagine the total amount of liability and overhead each county would bear if the kiosks were widely used.

In one way or another, there will always be a need for a group to take responsibility. For this reason, credit card kiosks will most likely stabilize and serve only defendants who have very misdemeanors (also misdemeanors). Potentially, in the future, what could happen is that bail bond kiosks are sold to bail bond companies to run within jails. This would be analogous to how people can easily buy DVD kiosks from OEMs and offer movie rental service as a private business. The kiosk manufacturer would benefit from selling hardware vs. team management. Of course, with the bail kiosks provided by jails, there will always be concerns about whether the defendant will appear in court, even for unintentional reasons. Operationally, this is something that kiosk manufacturers cannot provide and, crucially, law enforcement apprehends fugitives and unrelated suspects.

Increased lease schedule.

For defendants recognized as a “flight” risk, judges may set higher bail to (1) indirectly prevent bail from being posted because it becomes unaffordable or (2) cause awards to be invested as much in the bail that becomes additional pressure on the part of the family. or friends to appear in court. If credit card bail bonds kiosks become widely accepted, the State could set higher bail amounts for crimes in the event of an increase in fugitives. Any change like this would certainly help the surety industry by creating larger bonds to write on average.

Those who have not needed the bail bond service may not know that the fee (also the premium) required for some defendants can be equivalent and sometimes higher than the monthly salaries of your average doctor or lawyer. Not a bad day at work, is it? If the State were to increase the bail amount for misdemeanors and common crimes, the bail bond industry could expect a measurable increase in revenue. Additionally, misconduct by a single individual or group can create the appearance of a crime problem within a city. If the number of fugitives were to increase due to bail kiosks, the possibility of changing the bail program for certain crimes would surely increase as well. However, the County may reduce the number of kiosks or tighten restrictions on their use to compensate for a problem before increasing bond amounts. There is a common saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Conclution.

Still, the arrival of new kiosks that offer credit card sureties won’t significantly change the business side of the industry as a whole. People with the ability to bail out quickly should be able to because jails are inarguably overcrowded with non-violent offenders. Although the surety industry’s image could use some improvement, it has remained through all these years virtually complaint-free of any failure to provide a valuable 24-hour service with incredible payment flexibility. You do occasionally read or hear stories of co-signers soliciting services illegally, but not frequently enough to generate widespread national recognition, like the 2009 home loan modification scams, which hit the headlines on a weekly basis. For now, what the future holds is just speculation, but those in the surety industry should not fear that things will change overnight. For the most part, county credit card bails won’t change the industry as a whole, and since some results may be useful, concerns should be resolved as time goes on.