Jail’s Accepting Credit Cards!
In a very interesting and funny article by CreditBloggers, there are now going to be credit card machines in jail! Can you believe this. I sure can’t.
The Missoula County Detention Center announced earlier this week that they have started accepting credit cards for bail payments. The new payment system allows people to bail themselves out and is designed to control jail overcrowding issues.
“The credit card machine is now installed at the jail, so if you get arrested and want to bail yourself out, you can put it on your credit card,” said Margaret Borg, a former chief public defender here.
This actually could be a very good idea for those in trouble with the law. Bail bond offices charge you a non-refundable 10% fee for posting bail on your behalf. If the courts allow you to pay this 10% balance by credit card instead, you would get the amount back in full when you showed up in court and would only have to pay the interest on the balance. Plus, I think most people would rather risk dealing with credit card collection agents instead of bounty hunters.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
i did this a few years in bloomington, indiana. i got arrested on a friday night for dui and was able to bond myself out the next morning for $250 using a credit card. it was nice as it saved me the trouble of having to call a family member a few hours away to come me.