Ways to Save Money When Posting Bail

When people get calls from loved ones who have been arrested it will usually come with a request that they help in the process of obtaining bail. In the vast majority of cases, the person receiving the call will be willing to help by working with the bail bond agent. However, they may quietly (or not so quietly) worry about, not just finding the cash or collateral to cover the bond, but the added expenses that are sometimes involved. In this post, the team at Tayler Made Bail Bonding is going to go over a few creative ways you can save money if someone asks you to help them with bail in Lakewood, Golden, Denver County or elsewhere.

When you are asked to help a loved one post bail you may or may not be aware that the process can create some ancillary expenses that sometimes have nothing to do with what you provide to the bonding company. Here are a few ways you can prevent yourself from being saddled with those extra expenses.

Take advantage of 24-hour bail bonds

Many bail companies offer 24-hour bail services that help people who have been arrested at night get home as quickly as possible. Without this service, many would have to sit in jail until morning. But there's a secondary advantage to round-the-clock bail bonds that loved ones can take advantage of to help them save some money.

Here’s how it works. If you get a call at work that a loved one has been arrested the first impulse may be to take time off and go deal with the bonding agent. Or if you work for yourself you may step away to go visit the bondsman. But time, as they say, is money. And when you are at the bondsman’s office you are not making money. That lost income needs to be factored into the true cost of obtaining bail for your loved one.

However, if your loved one has been arrested in, say, Jefferson County you can ask them to cool their heels for a few hours because TaylerMade bail bonds offers 24-hour service. Because of that you can wait until your work day is over to talk to the bondsman and don't need to miss any work or lose any money.

Pay bail bonds with a cash-back credit card

These days almost every bondsman and jail will accept credit card payments for bail. Most will also accept debit cards. Why do we mention that? Because a good way to get something positive out of the bail experience (other than the freedom of your loved one of course) is to use a debit or credit card to secure the bail that provides a cash back bonus.

To be clear, using a card that offers a cash back bonus won't actually reduce the amount of bail you pay. What it will do is provide you with a bit of cash to offset what you spent on the bail. For example: if you use a credit card that offers a 2% cash back bonus and the bail you're paying is $5,000 that's a tidy $100 back to you, and that reduces the total amount out of your pocket to $4,900. Also, when your loved one is acquitted and your bail is returned to you, you wind up $100 ahead of the game.

Now a hundred bucks isn’t going to change your life in any meaningful way, but a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. Think of it as a kind of commission for arranging bail.

Call a defense lawyer before a bail bonding agent

This may seem counterintuitive, and in a sense it is, but instead of immediately calling a bondsman to help arrange your bail or bail for a loved one, call a defense attorney first. Why? Because a good defense attorney may be able to successfully petition the court to have your bail reduced. Depending on the strength of your argument they may be able to get the bail reduced by a significant margin.

Of course, unless you're working with a public defender the defense attorney will not come cheap. So it typically only makes sense to embrace this approach if A) the bail amount is significant and B) your attorney can present a compelling case for reducing your bail. Otherwise, you may end up paying more for the defense attorney than you save on the bail.

So if the bail amount is high and you’ve recently suffered financial setbacks, or you simply do not have sufficient cash laying around to use for bail, consider calling a defense attorney before you call the bonding company. It’s worth a try.

Closing Thoughts From Our Licensed Cash Bail Agents

People don't often consider the way costs can add up when they are asked to help with bail. But if you are smart and patient (or both) you might be able to finesse the situation in a way that limits your costs to just that of the bail fee itself. If you contact a defense attorney before calling the bondsman you may be able to have the amount of bail reduced. And in the case of using a cash back credit or debit card, you may actually wind up a few bucks ahead when all is said and done.

If you need to arrange bail for a loved one contact Tayler Made Bail Bonding's licensed cash bail agents. We’re here for you 24 hours a day.