Collections: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

You can contact your DTAC representative for details related to your accounts. Your representative will give you the amount you owe on a specific account, or the total amount owed, if you have a packet (all accounts owed by you).

You will have a packet if you owe more than one account of a criminal nature. You can contact your DTAC representative to find out more details. Contact information is provided on your statement and on this website under Contact DTAC and Justice Accounts page.

You owe Victim Restitution if you have been ordered by the Court to pay an amount to a person/business/government entity for losses that you caused related to your involvement in a crime, and you have not paid those losses in full. Please contact your DTAC representative for additional details. Contact information is provided on your statement and on this website under Contact DTAC and Justice Accounts page.

The DTAC account that you intended to pay will indicate that the payment was applied to another account. For additional details, contact your DTAC representative. Contact information is provided on your statement and on this website under Contact DTAC and Justice Accounts page.

If you have a criminal civil assessment case that you want to pay off so that you can reinstate your drivers license, but you owe other Justice accounts, then you will need to pay your Victim Restitution first. If you have no Victim Restitution owing, then your payment will be applied to that account, and the Court will be notified to contact DMV for the release which may take 3-5 business days.

Please contact your Probation Officer or your DTAC account representative for this information.

You will not be referred back to the Court for civil assessment if you continue to make your court ordered payments on time. Please contact your DTAC account representative for further information. Contact information is provided on your statement and on this website under Contact DTAC and Justice Accounts page.

DTAC provided notification in several ways:

• via your monthly statement
• via the 24/7 online/IVR payment system, and
• via the department's lobby signs.

The first notifications by monthly statement were mailed to all DTAC clients between 10-8-14 and 11-17-14, and will continue on all statements thereafter.

DTAC Justice Packets include criminal cases identified as formal or summary probation cases, realignment cases with or without mandatory supervision, and charges incurred by minor(s) where the parent(s) was/were deemed to be responsible. Traffic cases are NOT included in a Justice packet.

A packet is the grouping of DTAC Justice accounts owed by the same person.

This is done in order to group together all DTAC Justice accounts owed by the same person so that any payment made will be applied first to Victim Restitution.

State law requires that debt owed for Victim Restitution must be paid first, before paying other debt. You have other DTAC account(s) that have Victim Restitution that has not been paid in full.

DTAC accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover, American Express, and Diner's credit cards. Debit cards with the Star, NYCE or Pulse logo are also accepted.

If paying by E-Check, please be sure to authorize your bank to allow Electronic Funds Transfer (EFTs) from County of Santa Clara County or Santa Clara County with Company ID T946000533; otherwise your e-check payment may be declined by your financial institution.

IMPORTANT: Accounts paid in full by debit card or eCheck will incur a 15 day hold period before notification of your account being paid in full is provided to the Court which in turn will authorize DMV to release a drivers license hold. It is the cardholders responsibility to know whether they are paying using a credit card or debit card.

DTAC offers a variety of payment methods and alternatives to make a payment on your account. Please click on the link below for more detailed information or to make a payment. Make a Payment Online.

Yes, as long as you have the following account holders information: Name and account or case number.

Yes, but bill pay must be set up through your bank. Verify your payment due date with DTAC and have your bank send the payment 10 days before the due date. The payment must include your DTAC account number.

• Must be registered with your name and address and activated before use.
• Billing address reported to DTAC and card registered address must match.
• If you use the card before the funds may be on hold (by the bank that issued your card) for 7-15 days before they can be accessed again.

Online/Phone payments will post by the next business day. However, your payments may take 7-10 days to clear. Please follow up with your bank for payment clearance.

The monthly bills were probably being printed and your payment had not posted yet. You can obtain the information relative to your last payment amount and date posted through DTAC's Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

The number for the IVR system is:

• Justice, Medical, and General Collections
  (877) 729-4773
• Public Assistance Collections
  (877) 472-9772

You can also contact your account representative and ask to check your payment status.

Wage garnishments are issued by DTAC, as well as by the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) Court Ordered Debt Program (COD) for accounts DTAC has sent for collection enforcement.

Wage garnishments issued by DTAC are collected by the sheriff of the respective county in which the garnishment is filed. Wage garnishments issued by COD are collected by COD. Your employer has 7 days to forward the garnished money to the respective sheriff or COD. Once the sheriff or COD receives the garnishment, it willhold your payment for at least 30 days before forwarding the payment to DTAC. DTAC posts these payments within 48 hours of receipt. Typically, wage garnishment payments take 6-8 weeks to appear onthe debtors account.  Neither the sheriff nor COD has the ability to provide payment notification to DTAC any sooner.

Checks, money orders or cashiers checks should be made payable to County of Santa Clara Department of Tax and Collections or SCC DTAC. Payment should also include the DOR account number and account holders name. If you have more than one DOR account, the amounts being paid to each account should be noted. Checks may take up to 15 days to clear.