Save money on funeral costs by making arrangements at a low-priced funeral home and cemetery

Posted by on May 9, 2009

Many people don’t realize that prices can vary greatly between funeral homes.   

Over just the last three years many family-run funeral homes (and local cemeteries) have been taken-over by big global corporations. 

These big corporate funeral homes often keep the original owner’s family name on the door so they don’t scare away their old customers.  Unfortunately, these corporations often raise prices by 30% to 50%. 

This is why you should NOT automatically use the same funeral home you have used in the past UNTIL you check to see if they have SINCE become part of one of the big funeral corporations – as so many have!

Choosing a reasonably-priced local funeral home instead of one of the many corporate funeral homes can substantially reduce your out-of-pocket funeral expenses. …often reducing your overall funeral bill by $2,000 – to $4,000 for the same exact items.

This same principle applies to cemeteries.  These funeral corporations have also been buying up many of the older, better established cemeteries across the country.  They realize that if you already have a family history with a particular cemetery you are more likely to pay their larger fees just to be buried next to a deceased relative. 

So what can you do about all this?  Well, the first thing you should do is call a few funeral homes in your area and ask them if they are now owned by one of the big corporations.  If they’re still a family-run business they’ll be proud to tell you so.   

If you don’t feel comfortable calling and asking funeral homes about this, check out section 3 of the Funeral $aver’s Kit to learn a neat little trick that lets you to use your computer to find out each and every corporate funeral home in your area.  You can do it right from the comfort of you home in less than 5 minutes and it’s completely free. 

After eliminating the really expensive funeral homes, you’ll want to find out which funeral homes offer the most reasonable prices.  Again, you can do this simply by calling funeral homes in your area and requesting their price information. 

Although funeral homes are NOT required to send you price information when you ask for it over the phone, some are still willing to do this.

Unfortunately, a lot of families have trouble getting accurate price information from funeral homes….so the Funeral $aver’s Kit now includes detailed price estimates for all funeral, burial, and cremation goods and services….this makes it easier to know what to expect in terms of costs.

Once you get price information from several funeral homes, simply compare prices for each of the goods and services that interest you.  Families using the Funeral $aver’s Kit have access to both a computer spreadsheet and a simple paper form that can be completed with just a pencil and calculator.  These forms make it easy to see which funeral home in your area offers the lowest overall price for the type of service you want. 

You can repeat this same process for cemeteries in your area.  Once you have identified the funeral home and cemetery that offer the most reasonable prices, contact the funeral home and schedule an “arrangement” conference.

If you need to save money on funeral costs, check out the Funeral Saver’s Kit.

What you need to know about funeral prices

Posted by on December 17, 2008

I’ll admit that gathering information about funeral prices is harder than it should be.  In addition, funeral homes and cemeteries are subject to different requirements when it comes to providing you with information about their prices and options. 

Funeral prices are not set in stone

If you only take away one thing from this article it should be this: funeral prices can vary greatly from one funeral home to the next.  This means a funeral service at one funeral home can cost thousands of dollars more than a similar service held at another funeral home right down the street….so it pays to shop around!

Why we don’t compare funeral prices

Unfortunately, most people do not compare prices between funeral homes.  This is understandable for a couple of reasons:

• We don’t like to talk about or plan for death
• Funeral plans often need to be made quickly – this can be especially burdensome when the death was unexpected
• Most people simply do not know enough about funeral planning to even know what questions to ask or what items to compare
• No one wants to be perceived as being cheap when it comes to making funeral arrangements for a loved one

However, you should approach the process of buying funeral goods and services just like you would any other major purchase – take the time to educate yourself as to the options and prices available in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, many funeral homes and cemeteries are reluctant to share their prices with you unless you use specific language when making your request.  They know they stand a much better chance of selling you an expensive funeral if they can first get you into their office before providing any information about funeral costs. 

The good news is that there are specific things you can say that will force the funeral home to give you their price information for FREE….and no funeral home would ever dare give you a sales pitch when you use this specific language.

An easier way to gather information about funeral prices

If you’re using the Funeral $aver’s Kit you’ll find a simple chart that clearly explains an easy (and low stress) way to collect pricing information from any funeral home in your area.  The kit tells you exactly what to say to ensure you get honest information at no cost to you.  You can use this to collect information from every funeral home in your area or just those that interest you.

The best advice I can give you when it comes to collecting funeral price information is this: DON’T be afraid to pick up the phone and call it least three funeral homes in your area and ask them for a copy of their “general price list”.

Each funeral home’s general price list will describe services and merchandise in similar terms.  This makes it easy to compare relative prices between competing funeral homes.  Also, if a funeral home gives you a hard time about giving you information about their prices, forget them.  That’s a good clue they know their prices will not compare favorably to their competitors. 

Remember to compare your local price information to the actual price ranges included in the Funeral $aver’s Kit…so you can be certain you’re getting a fair deal.

Click for more detailed information about funeral prices.