Would you be embarrassed if someone in a top hat and tuxedo 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 that your bills are paid or you might be visited by one of these crazy 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. About four million people aren't working. That's the same number of jobless people as France and Italy combined. One business is flourishing however, that business is debt collection.
Spanish law is pretty relaxed when it comes to paying debts. They permit 95 days to settle bills unlike the 30 in other parts of Europe. This, coupled with the fact that Spanish courts give the matter low priority put collection companies in high demand.
One debt collection company, El Cobrador del Frac - which can be translated as "The Debt Collector in Top Hat and Tails" - has more than 250 collectors, and an equal number of investigators and secretaries.Their main goal is to work out some deal and retrieve money, not to run after people without the money 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.
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