Credit Crunch and Burial

The credit crunch is a problem for those looking to have a typical funeral or even a cremation done. A funeral home or crematorium is a business and they aren't a non profit organization. In the past, a funeral home would do a funeral for the low income person and wait to get reimbursed from the government. This was expecially true in the UK. In the UK. it could take up to 2 months for the government agency to pay the bill. In the meantime, the expenses of the funeral or cremation were funded by a business loan. The loan costs were part of the price.

Another way to fund a funeral or cremation would be to charge the amount on your credit card. Burial costs are often a shock to the surviving members of the family and funeral homes have been known to hard sell many extravagant items to the grieving families. It left them with a large bill but they could pay it out over time. If you have been following the news, you will see that credit card companies have been decreasing the limits on your cars as fast as they can. If you are someone that doesn't look at all details of your bill, you could be shocked at your limit today. With no room left to charge anything, there is no room for the unexpected funeral expenses.

Both of the above scenarios are a direct result of the world wide credit crunch. While this is affecting those that haven't planned in advance, sometimes planning in advance is a bad idea. It is a bad idea if you buy a burial insurance policy. Pre-need or pre-paid funeral plans are being raided by the companies. The company, like National Prearranged Services, is going out of business leaving people with no money for burial. The Neptune Society was caught not putting the required amount of the plan in escrow. As we discussed here before, buy a standard insurance policy and stay away from the burial plan ones.

Of course, you can save a lot of money by doing a green burial. In these days and times where money is scarce, don't bury your cash in a standard funeral. Take the low cost green burial way with a cremation and scattering your ashes.