Set up payment plans
Let co-signers ask to pay the amount due over time, and choose the terms your agents start from.
A payment plan lets the primary co-signer pay a posting's Amount due as a down payment followed by equal installments, at the plan's APR. Your agency decides whether it offers plans at all, the smallest amount due a co-signer can ask about, and the terms your agents start from. Agents set the terms of each plan themselves.
How a payment plan works
- Someone asks. The primary co-signer asks for a plan from their bail page, or an agent offers one the co-signer agreed to on the phone. See Review a payment plan request and Offer a payment plan.
- The agent sets the terms: the down payment, how often the installments fall due, how many there are, and the APR.
- The co-signer accepts by paying the down payment. That payment moves the posting on exactly as paying in full does: documents, signatures, the jail and the release are unchanged. From then on the terms can't change.
- The installments follow. The first one is due one period after the day the down payment was paid. The co-signer pays each one from their bail page, or pays off the rest at any time. See Collect installments and payoffs.
Before you start
- Only admins can change these settings. Agents don't see them, but the terms form every agent fills in starts from them.
- Until an admin saves the card, payment plans are off. The defaults it starts from are a $1,000 minimum, a 30% down payment, 0% APR, and 12 payments every 2 weeks.
Turn payment plans on
Open Payments
Click Settings in the sidebar, then Payments, and find the Payment plans card. While its switch reads Off, the fields are greyed out.
Turn the switch on
Click the switch so it reads On. The fields open straight away, before you save.
Set the minimum amount due
In Minimum Amount due, enter the smallest amount due a co-signer can ask for a plan on, for example 1,500. A co-signer whose amount due is below it doesn't see the option. The minimum never limits your agents: they can still offer a plan on a smaller bill.
Set the default terms
- Down payment: the share of the amount due paid up front, as a percentage. It has to be more than 0% and less than 100%.
- APR: the yearly interest rate on what's left after the down payment, from 0% to 100%. Enter
0for a plan with no interest. - Number of payments: how many installments follow the down payment, from 1 to 260.
- How often: Weekly, Every 2 weeks or Monthly.
Save
Click Save. You'll see Payment plan settings updated.
What happens next
- Primary co-signers can ask for a plan. On an approved posting whose amount due meets your minimum, the primary co-signer's bail page shows Can't pay it all at once? with a Request a payment plan button, below the ways to pay. Other co-signers don't see it.
- Agents can offer plans. Offer Payment Plan appears in the status card of postings waiting on payment.
- Your defaults fill in the agent's form. When an agent approves a request or offers a plan, the terms start from your defaults, with the down payment worked out in dollars. They can change anything for one plan.
Turn payment plans off
Click the switch so it reads Off, then click Save. The greyed-out fields go back to what was last saved, and are kept for the next time you turn plans on.
- Co-signers no longer see Request a payment plan, and agents no longer see Offer Payment Plan.
- Plans already offered or running aren't touched. They keep their terms, and co-signers keep paying their installments.
- A request already sent can still be answered. The agent can approve or decline it, and the co-signer can withdraw it.
Changing the defaults works the same way: it only changes what agents start from. A plan already offered keeps its own terms.
Put the plan on your paperwork
Vonda doesn't write a payment plan agreement for you. Your own forms carry the plan through the Plan merge fields, such as Down Payment, APR and Payment Arrangement, which prints the whole plan in one line, or Paid in full on a posting without a plan. See Place merge fields on a template.
If you use a separate payment plan contract, upload it as a co-signer document and turn on the switch on its row, so it reads Only with a payment plan, once per posting. See Replace, download or delete a template.
Vonda supplies the figures, not the law
Every figure a lending disclosure usually needs is available as a merge field: the amount financed, the APR, the finance charge, the total of payments and the schedule's dates. Whether your agreement meets the disclosure rules that apply to your agency is up to your agency.