This is a follow-up to a diary posted a few weeks ago about debt collectors who are angling for the relatives of the dead (sorry I couldn't find the link, maybe someone in the comments will have seen it). The NYT has the details, and it's a sordid, ghoulish business, to say the least.
Follow below for some fair use and a little commentary.
Here's the link.
Debt collectors who focus on the recently deceased are benefiting from new technologies like databases that allow them to rack up by reaching out to family members in the event of a death.
Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.
The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But they take responsibility for it anyway.
The debt collectors don't state at the front that these people have no obligation. Instead, they make it seem like "the right thing to do."
But not everyone can handle asking people to pay debts they aren't obligated to pay:
About half of DCM’s hires do not make it past the first 90 days. For those who survive, many tools help them deal with stress: yoga classes and foosball tables, a rotating assortment of free snacks as well as full-scale lunches twice a month. A masseuse comes in regularly to work on their heads and necks.
Awww. Isn't that sweet. Such care for the people who act like vultures, preying on family members in their time of loss.
The death debt collectors say there are a lot of family members who are appreciative. But not always:
Eric Frenchman, an online consultant, said a DCM agent inquired about his late father’s $50 Discover card balance before the bill was even due. Since Mr. Frenchman had been planning to pay it anyway, he emerged from the experience vowing never to get a Discover card himself.
$50?!?!? Really?
A few years ago, my grandfather - a WWII veteran who suffered from debilitating war injuries for most of his adult life - died, with around $30,000 in credit card debt. My father sold his house - which was in a poor state because my grandfather was in a wheelchair for the final years of his life - and paid off that debt.
In this economy, is it right to try to weasel money out of the living to pay the debts of the dead? I don't think it's right at any time. As preachers love to say, they've never seen a hearse followed by a bank truck. You can't take it with you. And the living shouldn't have to saddle themselves with the debt of the dead.
What do you think?
UPDATE 1: I should be clear, my father sold my grandfather's house, which had been damaged in a storm, and IIRC, that didn't cover the whole debt. I have no problem with "settling the estate" to pay off debts incurred by the deceased. But not collecting on debt from the living when they have no legal obligation to pay.