Growing number of jailers allow credit cards to pay bail
Your card may get you out of jail, but it won't be free
By Jenny Mangelsdorf
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A credit card may get you out of jail -- and no, we don't mean by using it to pry a lock.
A growing number of jailers will let you use a credit card to post bail, and in some cases, that charge could even earn you rewards points that you can use for better times,
such as a vacation in a more appealing locale.More jails across the country are offering Internet-based bail payment services, permitting the use of credit, debit and even prepaid cards to post bail bonds. It's no get-out-of-jail-free card: The service is pricey, with multiple layers of fees.
Growing number of jailers allow credit cards to post bail
While bail bond agents aren't happy with the legal system offering the public this competing service, those tasked with housing inmates often say they are. The card-to-bail option reduces the drain on public resources.
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"A lot has changed in five years," says Debby Dengel, vice president and director of marketing for GovPayNet, which processes consumer credit, debit and prepaid debit card payments for government agencies in more than 40 states. "Back then it was rather clunky; today it's Internet based. A lot of people are paying with
prepaid cards, too, which was mostly unheard of five years ago."
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Which cards work
While charging bail can save public resources and shorten a detainee's jail time, not all cards can be used. Of the nation's four card-processing firms, American Express can be used only to charge a bail bondsman's fee; it can't be used to directly pay bail. MasterCard, Discover and Visa cards can be used to post bail and pay a bail bondsman.
If you post bail for someone online you'll have a choice about where the money goes once the defendant's proceedings are finished. In 2011, the Aurora City Detention center in Colorado began using a freestanding kiosk in the center and an online system. Before posting bail, the payer can opt to have the money, minus fees and penalties, returned to their own account or given to the defendant.
Fees vary
Whether a jail uses a kiosk, online system or more traditional credit card machine, count on this: It will charge a fee. The sum may include court processing fees and fees set by the card processing company. For example, when using the Aurora City Detention Center's kiosk, users are charged a
$50 bond fee set by the municipal court, along with a $10 processing fee and a commission of 7 percent of the bond, both of which go to the kiosk company.
"If done remotely, that fee is most often
8 percent," says Gregg Hodge, vice president of sales and marketing at Continental Prison Systems.
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