The are always many questions about bail agency contract rates, or 'bond cost'. The rate charged by your surety is based on real and actual costs incurred by the company for its ability to participate in the insurance business, plus some amount as profit. 'Profit' is a return on the company's investment of large amounts of capital into the insurance entity. Real costs are significant and include but are not limited to annual license fees, statutory accounting, actuarial audit and reporting, premium taxes, administration of the insurance program (staff salaries), power shipping, and loss run-off. Look at the following figures broken down into 'cost per thousand of bail written', to give you an idea of what it takes.

As you see, a typical bail bond program can be expensive. The figure above reflects NO amount for loss reserves or for the insurer's return on capital (ROI). Realistically, until a bail bond 'paper cost' is above ten dollars per thousand, there is no profit for the insurer at all. When you pay your bail premiums, you are paying for the use of both the insurer's creditworthiness AND for the use of its money. If for example your contract rate is two percent (2%) on liability, you are paying $20 for the insurer's loan to you of $1,000. Considering the insurance company's outlay, it is a very fair deal!

From time to time a surety may reduce the premium rate that is charges a bail agent. Those reductions in premium are based on bail agent experience, underwriting quality/loss experience, volume of bail written, and a decreased amount of supervision that the agency may require. We carefully monitor these factors and reward 'top shelf' producers with premium rates commensurate with his or her 'top shelf performance'.