I read the notary forums regularly. Not every day, but I go through them thoroughly every so often. One notary was offered $40 for a signing 72 miles away. I think I have heard everything now. Don’t these signing companies bother to use mapquest or Google directions to see how far a signing is before making an offer? Do they expect notaries to drive all over kingdom come for free?

They know that notaries are desperate.
Perhaps they are counting on the fact that business is really slow and that there are many desperate notaries out there. But, as desperate as you might be, your car expenses to do a 144 mile round trip are not for free. You use your tires, breaks, motor, gas, oil, and more. Your car won’t last forever, and you need to charge for mileage. How much is up to you unless your state restricts this (and nine states do even though I feel that is not constitutional.)

Stop Bothering Notaries!
Putting aside how unfair the offer is, I think that the bigger issue is that signing companies bother notaries with these petty offers. Notary forums are filled with complaints of this sort. It is a waste of the notary’s time and patience.

Minimum Wage for Notaries?
Perhaps the notary industry should have some type of minimum wage. No matter how new or unskilled the notary is, they get 50 cents per mile traveled plus 25 cents per page fax back and at least a certain amount for signings with under 100 pages per set of documents. I don’t know what a fair minimum is. If you set the minimum too high, then newbies will simply not get used unless the signing company is desperate.

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You might also like:

VA signings for $85 with 200 pages?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=15879

$30 loan signings. Is it worth it even in the best of circumstances?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=10456