I got paid once in 2018, that was in January. I’m owed for services rendered in January and February of 2018. I have gotten any replaces from any of my email and voice messages.
Does anyone know what happened and how many siging agents have not been paid by The Notary Pool?
If you are on Facebook and a member of any of the big notary or NSA groups there, you can search for posts about them (or any other firm or topic of interest to you) and you will see loads of comments. This particular company is well-known there as a deadbeat firm that does not pay or pays only after a great deal of effort – AND the owners has posted photos of his vacations and such while claiming he could not afford to pay the notaries who worked for him.
Meanwhile, for the people on here telling other notaries what to charge, you may want to go on ftc.gov and read their article about price fixing, as it appears you are suggesting that your competitors adopt a fee that you want, which could be illegal.
As far as creating a national (or even state-wide) group of notaries to demand whatever from the services that hire us, stop! First, we are commissioned officers of our respective states, not employees. We work for the public when we are notarizing, and for our clients (not employers) when we are doing the signing agent part of the NSA business. None of those roles allow unions or cooperatives. Second, as freelance business owners providing services to the public and to our clients, we are either in different market conditions (so what you think the fees should be is irrelevant unless you are here with me) or we are in the same market (so we are competitors). Competing businesses can not organize the way you are suggesting. Doing so could be considered restraint of trade or a violation of the anti-trust rules or other illegal actions.
What folks need to understand about this business is that it is unregulated. By which I mean that, except for the few states that require a Title Insurance Producers License and the few that are attorney-only, any notary can become an NSA just by deciding they want to be. There is no legal requirement for classes, certification, exams, background checks, membership in this group or that, or listing on any directory. Those are marketing requirements from the hiring firms and their clients, the lenders and title companies; you need those credentials in order to compete. You may hate the required credentials or you may love them. It does not matter. If you don’t have them, your competitors in your market will get the business and you will not.
The same thing applies for the fees: you may hate them or love them, but if you refuse to accept the fees, you will not get the work. UNLESS you find other firms to work for, which is what everyone needs to focus on – finding clients who are not listed on NR or 123 or any of the other lists that everyone knows about.
Also, for those who say “well, there are only a few good notaries in this area, so I can charge whatever I want,” uhm, no. You can not. You can charge whatever your clients are willing to pay. If you have clients now who are willing to pay what you consider a good fee, do everything you can to let them know how much you cherish them, as they could disappear tomorrow. All it takes is one new employee there who was told to go down the list and find the first person willing to accept the fee being offered; or the one person at the firm who really likes your work leaves and is replaced by someone who does not know you from Adam; or the brass reading an article about remote notarization and deciding to send all the work to one of the platforms that offer that service.
Remote online notarization is the game changer, the NSA-business-killer. It has now been made legal in the following states: VA, MT, TX, NV, IN, TN, MN, VT, and MI. That is 9 states! Any one of those could be the host of a title company call center (or remote notary platform call center) that could handle ALL the business for that state or a sizable portion of the business for the entire country. MT limits their remote notaries to serving signers who are in MT; the other 8 states authorize their remote notaries to serve signers who are anywhere. Several more states are considering remote online notary laws this session; some are studying them for next year’s session. So far, only two states have turned them down (FL and CO) and you can bet they will be back next year in those states. So, this is a growing trend and it will impact the NSA business in a huge way within the next 1 to 5 years.
Bottom line, your local market just got turned into a national market. If you think the competition was bad before, get ready for it to be insane. If you thought fees were low before, get ready for them to be even lower.
YES YES YES!!! Tim you are so right - and when I said that elsewhere, someone threw out the “chicken little” factor - but sorry to say folks, yes the sky MAY BE falling. Think about it. Closings are done online now; there are remote notaries in various states who can service the country at large; electronic recordings are becoming the norm; One big conference call - borrowers on one end, title on one side, remote notary on the other side - all being conducted in one call; liability coverage and storage requirements satisfied by notary and title company…BINGO - you have a full remote closing without anyone being put out…and it’s already been done in Florida and various other venues.
I wish you all the best of luck - and for those of you just stepping into this arena, please re-think your decision to become an NSA…IMO the future is limited there.
Took 3 months for them to pay me earlier this year and had to threaten to send them to collections to finally get paid. Will not work for them again!
I ended up contacting the title company telling them the The Notary Pool wasn’t paying the notaries. I was paid in less than a week after I contacted the title company. The stiffed me on 2 closings that were paid through Deluxe echecks. By the time I realized they had paid, the checks had expired and the bank wouldn’t let me deposit them. I tried numerous times to get them re-issued but dead silence on their end. I contacted Snapdocs about why they continued to do business with a company that didn’t pay the notaries and Snapdocs responded that they don;t do business with them anymore.
The Notary Pool is NOT a good company to work for. Look them up on Google review. They have PLENTY of bad reviews and are banned from Snapdocs. I did a signing back in 2017 and STILL to this day have not been paid and I have spoke with John Hoyt and his clan. They are a company who WILL rip you off AND you most likely will be writing those jobs off on taxes as a loss.
BEWARE OF THE NOTARY POOL. THEY HAVE ALSO CHANGED NAMES. I will post it later in a different post when I find out that name. They NEED to be BANNED!
The Notary Pool is not one of the better singing agencies to work for, beware of doing
work for them. You have been warned!
oh shoot I know one signing service that I use and they only pay in the 5th of each month. So far they have paid on time, but have gotten lower with their fees. They are also starting to go lower with the fees, which is not cool. Considering we are doing all the work for under $100/pop now. I am only dealing with 2 signing companies and not going to do anymore unless they pay me at least $125/pop.
I had one Bad time with them. Always Threaten to call Title on them. You’ll get your Check Overnight. It worked for me and “I Stopped doing Business with them.” Just Walk Away.
Notary pool owes me along with many other companies.
Save yourselves the horror. I just cant believe they are still doing business. They are no longer able to work on the snapdocs forum because they have stiffed so many people. Do the reviews on line with their name in quotations like this “Notary Pool” and you will find all their BAD BAD BAD reviews. Sad part is, they can change the names of their company.
Hope you get paid.
Complain to the title / settlement contact you have on the CD document / 1003 document.
Say you are filing a complaint with the commissioner of Banking with your state and also file a compliant to the commissioner of title insurance in your state and also the state where the property is situated for handling business with unlicensed entities.
These SS act as a pass handling NPI and other sensitive data. While you have to obtain BG verification and E&O policies. The problem with SS is they can obscure themselves, change names , and do business all over again. So one gotta wonder how and who they know?
I suspect someone in the title company is in cahoots with these entities and getting kickbacks.
If you scrutinize the document, there is an underwriter for each title company.
Getting dropped by an underwriter is the worst punishment for a title agency.
