Would you be mortified if a man in a tuxedo and a top hat followed you into a restaurant and silently joined your lunch date? How about a trio of men with more to love dressed like superheroes asking your neighbors for donations to assist you in your financial situation?
In Madrid, make sure your bills are paid or you might be visited by one of these colorful characters. The recession has slammed Spain. Official figures show that the unemployment rate has sky rocketed, reaching 19.3 percent. That’s one of the highest rates in Europe. Around four million people are not working. That’s the same number of jobless people as France and Italy put together. One business is flourishing however, that business is debt collection.
Spanish law is very lax when it comes down to debt payment. They allow 95 days to settle bills unlike the 30 day limit in other areas of Europe. This, coupled with the fact that Spanish courts give the matter low priority put collection agencies in high demand.
One agency, El Cobrador del Frac – which translates as “The Debt Collector in Top Hat and Tails” – has more than 250 collectors, and an equal number of secretaries and investigators.Their goal is to work out some deal and retrieve money, not to go after people without the means to pay.
For them, the new business stems from constructive trade which is suffering badly from a huge slowdown. Homeowners owe money to contractors, contractors owe money to construction companies, construction companies owe equipment makers, and so on and so forth.
Last year, the agency had a wedding company contact them over a couple who did not pay the $83,000 bill for their extravagant wedding. The agency obtained a wedding guest list and began calling up guests one by one on the phone and asking them if they had the chicken or the lobster, and then asked them where to send the bill. Eventually the shamed couple paid up.
These ideas are interesting, (I guess that’s one way to describe it) but they won’t be this effective in due time. In this time of crisis, way too many people owe debts and they honestly are unable to pay. And to these people, it does not matter how much you humiliate them.
Mallory Megan works for a debt collection agency. Also she does stories about finance and business, consumer spending and debt collection.
