The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that the Cook County commisioners will soon be voting on a proposal to allow bail bonds to be paid by credit card.
Government Payment Systems will charge a fee of about 8 percent — and never more than 10 percent — of the posted bond, company owner Dale Conrad said, and the program also allows multiple credit cards to be used for one bail.
Though Commissioner Deborah Sims said the potential for years of payments for the bond would fall “on the mothers and grandmothers” using the cards and “not the person in jail,” most supported it.
I’m not sure if I agree with this. Say you post a $10,000 bond, add the charges of 8% and then an average credit card interest rate of 15%. Say there is also a moderate delay until trial, say 2 years. At the end of the two years, you get your $10,000 back but you have over $5,000 of interest to pay off.
Then again desperate people do desperate things, it’s probably why they need bail posted anyway.
I think I’ll save my credit cards for other purposes.