Some of the biggest banks in the country are dunning widows and widowers to pay the debts of their recently departed spouses even thought there is no legal obligation to pay, reported the Wall Street Journal today in a front page story entitled “For the Families of Some Debtors, Death Offers No Respite.” 

“When you die, your debts usually die with you. Surviving family members rarely have a legal obligation to pay unless they co-signed a loan, such as a mortgage or credit card. That leaves lenders in the lurch.”

“But debt collectors have found a way to help lenders get their money anyway. Working on behalf of financial giants from Bank of America and Capital One Financial Corp. to Discover Financial Services and Citigroup Inc., collection firms target survivors who might agree to pay at least part of what the dead person owed.”

You read that right: Bank of America and Citigroup, who are only alive themselves thanks to US taxpayers and no-strings generosity of the government, hire debt collection agencies to go after widows and widowers. 

 These are the same banks that hire robo-signing firms and foreclosure mills to throw people out of their houses, some of which was the subject of a prior post:  “Despicable, Disgusting, Heartless: The Real Cost of the FInancial Crisis?” (Read that post here.)

Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.