Direct Cremation

[Anonymous]

Sorry to be grim, but I am pricing direct cremation for a loved one who expressly said they wanted "the cheapest cremation possible." This is in Northern Virginia. Has anyone done a direct cremation and what company did you use? So far the cheapest I have found is $925 with Maryland Cremation Services. Person is retired military, but I don't think the military offers anything for this.

[Anonymous]

Donate body to science. They will cremate for free.

[Anonymous]

I've just done a quick Google and that looks like the best price you're going to get.

Here's some info on donating a body to science:

https://www.us-funerals.com/donating-a-body-to-science/

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/medical-examiner/vsap/

Is your loved one still alive? I think this might be something that has to be done during life by the donor themselves, or else by the person with legal authority to dispose of the body. Also keep in mind that there are criteria for accepting bodies so not every body will be eligible.

[Anonymous]

If you are the next of kin, you will decide.

Keep in mind it's usually not just the cremation: there is a casket (used just for the cremation), the urn (used for the burial), certified copies of death certificate, state medical examiner's fee, at minimum. All that is separate from the cremation and for my mom, cost $930. Her direct cremation cost was $3,925.

There are a lot of other frills you can buy, e.g., for a funeral ceremony.

Then the niche in the cemetery where you put the urn will also cost something, and you'll want to shop around because prices vary considerably. (Unless you want to go with the "keep it on the mantlepiece" route.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to be grim, but I am pricing direct cremation for a loved one who expressly said they wanted "the cheapest cremation possible." This is in Northern Virginia. Has anyone done a direct cremation and what company did you use? So far the cheapest I have found is $925 with Maryland Cremation Services. Person is retired military, but I don't think the military offers anything for this.

If this is true, you can have them cremated and interned through the VA for free.

[Anonymous]

Va does not pay for cremation burial only. We used them or another one. There are two low cost. Good experience. They came quickly after death and handled everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are the next of kin, you will decide.

Keep in mind it's usually not just the cremation: there is a casket (used just for the cremation), the urn (used for the burial), certified copies of death certificate, state medical examiner's fee, at minimum. All that is separate from the cremation and for my mom, cost $930. Her direct cremation cost was $3,925.

There are a lot of other frills you can buy, e.g., for a funeral ceremony.

Then the niche in the cemetery where you put the urn will also cost something, and you'll want to shop around because prices vary considerably. (Unless you want to go with the "keep it on the mantlepiece" route.)

No. You don’t need all that. The price is correct and you only pay extra for more death certificates. We never did a casket. They give you an urn but we got a different one as we did a natural burial. They shipped the remains to the burial spot for a little more too. You got ripped off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are the next of kin, you will decide.

Keep in mind it's usually not just the cremation: there is a casket (used just for the cremation), the urn (used for the burial), certified copies of death certificate, state medical examiner's fee, at minimum. All that is separate from the cremation and for my mom, cost $930. Her direct cremation cost was $3,925.

There are a lot of other frills you can buy, e.g., for a funeral ceremony.

Then the niche in the cemetery where you put the urn will also cost something, and you'll want to shop around because prices vary considerably. (Unless you want to go with the "keep it on the mantlepiece" route.)

Just did this for my mom, and this tracks with what we paid for in Bethesda. They also charged a fee to pick her body up from the hospital where she died. Total for everything came to $5500. I have her ashes in a pretty bare bones box (that still cost like $500) and want to get them buried in a plot she bought years ago. The cemetery has its own set of charges, so bare bones that will be like $4K more. There’s some rude person who commented that “you got ripped off” - I’m here to say that although the industry in general feels like a rip-off, there is no reason to make you, personally, feel bad about what you paid. It is what it is.

[Anonymous]

There should be legislation to prohibit some of these practices. Why should you have to pay for a casket that gets burned? Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be legislation to prohibit some of these practices. Why should you have to pay for a casket that gets burned? Ridiculous.

Direct cremation doesn’t require a casket, per se. You can use an “alternative container” for the remains. Cardboard ones are available for as little as $45 online.

You don’t need an urn, either. The crematory will return the “cremains” in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box.

[Anonymous]

https://www.marylandcremationservices.com/925-package-with-free-urn/925-package-with-free-urn

This place is advertising $925 including pick up of remains, one death certificate and an urn.

[Anonymous]

You pay one price. The only up charge we had was for a different urn and death certificates as I wanted extra. If you go to a funeral home it’s a lot more. We had a good experience. We did not pay extra for body pick up, casket or anything else.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The family member in question is alive and does not want to be donated to science. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I called Maryland Cremation -- they offered by far the best rate at $925. But there is a $500 charge for them to come out to Virginia. They are still the cheapest I have found.

The next cheapest is Northern Virginia Burial and Cremation Society and it would cost $1600-$1800 with them.

When another family member passed we did not have time to research and we ended up paying $4k for a simple cremation and cardboard box using a local place.

I will try to find some places in more rural Virginia, maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The family member in question is alive and does not want to be donated to science. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I called Maryland Cremation -- they offered by far the best rate at $925. But there is a $500 charge for them to come out to Virginia. They are still the cheapest I have found.

The next cheapest is Northern Virginia Burial and Cremation Society and it would cost $1600-$1800 with them.

When another family member passed we did not have time to research and we ended up paying $4k for a simple cremation and cardboard box using a local place.

I will try to find some places in more rural Virginia, maybe.

I just looked and we did use Maryland Cremation.

For VA, try https://www.kygers.com/

We used their cemetery to bury and another good experience (for being a death).

[Anonymous]

We used Direct Cremation Services of Virginia in Chantilly. They came around 10 or so at night and were very professional.

Employees were great to deal with at the "shop" as well, even a year or two later when we had questions they were kind. I recall working with Jordan, so nice. I remember it being close to Easter and him commenting how that must be hard for us without our mom for the first time.

We went to pick up the ashes, that probably saved some money.

At $1,365 looks like they are better priced than the MD option due to the MD $500 additional fee.

https://directcremationservicesofvirginia.com/.