How to Calculate a Bail Bond

A bail bond is a financial device that lets you reduce the direct cost of your bail. Instead of paying law enforcement the full amount directly, bail bonds let you reduce the cost by more than 90%, not including discounts, making it far easier to get out of jail. 

Calculating bail bond amounts is actually surprisingly easy. In the state of California, bail bondsmen charge 10% of the bail’s value by law. Hence, if your bail is $80,000, you’ll pay $8,000 to the bondsman if you choose to pay upfront (we will discuss finance below). 

How much bail you need to pay depends on the severity of the criminal offense and your criminal record. For instance, you’ll pay more if you:

• Have violated parole in the past
• Are alleged to have committed a very serious crime
• Have a criminal record
• Have failed to show up to court dates in the past
• Have no close relatives in the community

In California, each county has jurisdiction over bail rates for different types of crimes. Domestic violence in Los Angeles required a bail of $50,000 ten years ago, while it was just $25,000 in Orange County. 

Because of inflation and changing societal attitudes towards crimes, California judges periodically review bail amounts every few years or so. Some bails go down, but the tendency over the last few years is for them to go up. 

How To Work Out How Much Your Bail Bond Will Cost

In this section, we will discuss the generic case for how much a bail bond will cost before moving on to some more specific prices available from 24-Hour Online Bail Bonds. The bail demanded by law enforcement isn’t always final. If you have a qualified attorney, you may be able to ask them to appeal for a lower bail based on the unique circumstances of your case. 

Once the bail is as low as it can go, you can then contact a bail bondsman directly or ask your lawyer to do so on your behalf. They will then tell you the basic rate for what you will pay. 

Bail prices in California have an upper limit of 10% of the cost of the bail. The following table shows some examples of how much your bail bond will cost depending on the final bail amount. 

Examples of bail bond amounts in California

As you can see, the cost of the bail bond is directly proportional to the bail amount. At our basic rate, you pay 10% percent of the value of the bail and then we pay the rest to law enforcement on your behalf. 

Unlike bail, you do not get the bail bond back. It is a fee that covers the bail bondsman's service costs and the risks he or she takes when agreeing to pay the full bail amount on your behalf. 

At 24-Hour Online Bail Bonds, however, you may be able to lower the cost of getting out of jail even further. In many cases, we offer up to 30% off. You can qualify for additional discounts if you are an AARP member, government employee, homeowner, member of the military or part of a military family, or a qualified union member. Hence, most defendants who come to us can save tremendously versus our standard rates. 

In California, the law demands that bail bondsmen charge 10% of the bail amount. However, some are allowed to offer discounts to special groups, as detailed above. 

Unfortunately, Californian authorities have a tendency to set bail amounts exceptionally high. It is not uncommon for law enforcement to demand bail of $100,000 or more. You may be able to reduce this significantly with the help of an attorney, but it is rare for authorities to reduce bails significantly. 

Bail Bond Finance

As you can see from the above table, bail bond rates can still be large, even for standard bail amounts. Because of this, many defendants can struggle to pay out of pocket, even with a 90% discount versus regular bail. 

Fortunately, bail bond finance is available. Here, you pay a small deposit or nothing upfront at all and then pay in installments over the following months. This way, you can make bail bond payments significantly more manageable. 

Let’s say, for instance, that your bail is $60,000 implying a bail bond of $6,000. A no-cash-upfront bail bond might ask you to pay back $1,000 per month every six months, plus a favorable rate of interest. This way, even if you don’t have any cash available immediately, you can quickly get out of jail and resume your normal life until the court date. 

The amount of interest you pay on bail bond finance depends on the risk that the lender believes you pose. If they consider you low risk (perhaps because you own a house and a lot of other assets, or it is your first alleged offense) you will pay less. 

The Benefits Of Cheap Bail Bonds

The benefits of cheap bail bonds are extraordinary. They help you avoid eating into your capital or having to take drastic action, such as selling your home. They also give you back your precious time. 

Imagine this: you get arrested for a DUI but law enforcement sets your court day six months later. You could wait it out in a jail cell, but that would imply a massive opportunity cost. All that time away from work and your family could be tremendously expensive for you. 

With bail bonds and finance, you can prevent these disaster scenarios from occurring. You just pay a small fee and you can get out of jail and get back to your regular life quickly. You don’t have to lose time. You can contact us any time of the day or night to arrange your bail bond and reclaim your freedom until your court date.