Any signing service that still mails checks to their notaries needs to consider the coming changes
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Is this thing relevant for OUR business? Focus on issues related to Notary Signing Agents interests.
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If you listen to the video they’re suspending in areas because carriers have been attacked - and if they’re attacked or threatened they SHOULDN’T have to deliver there. Another one was post offices closed due to wildfires…makes sense.
Direct deposit is always more attractive - but people trying to put down the post office are exactly why the PO is losing money
Not sure why Mannie got flagged - I didn’t find it offensive or out of line at all
Signed,
Wife of Retired Letter Carrier
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Yes, Linda and people don’t know that the Post Office is the only gov’t entity that is required by law to fund their retirement out 75 years, and every time that retirement fund gets a little fat Congress raids it! So to be legal they cut services or raise stamp rates and then it’s raided again. It’s not the workers…
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I think I’d read they’re going stop that practice. Back when most were civil service and didn’t pay into SS it was one thing, but now they’re all FERS, except for the very oldtimers, so heard this new postmaster propose doing away with the funding.
No matter, compare all the carriers…tell me who else will deliver a letter form one coast to the other for $0.60.
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The Post Office has become as obsolete as standing in line at the bank to deposit a check. I’ll take the money however it gets to me but I certainly prefer to use direct deposit whenever I can.
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That’s all well and good, @steves11… Until the electronic/technology end breaks down, doesn’t work, glitch in the system … Or the plain old “we changed payroll systems and we’re ironing out the kinks” … Then you’ll want the good old fashioned grunt work of the postal letter carrier.
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I like e checks better and DD is best! Mail checks are a bit cumbersome and the mail can be unreliable. Agree, mail delivery as we know it is going to be changing. Yes, this is a relevant portion of the Notary business! Ease up people!
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A message to TC and signing services: Mail checks are welcome if this is your way of paying us as long these checks come in in a timely fashion way…
very relevant, indeed
it’s very relevant indeed
(CA) OK, friends, time for some more of what-the-future-holds for the notary business and business in general.
Here’s a fact - the US Post Office loses billions every year. Everybody knows that. Yet, they’re about to replace their old worn out mail trucks with new vehicles for the routine delivery of snail-mail and that’ll cost billions more, pushing the USPS deeper into red ink. But, this “legacy” system of delivering mail is kept artificially alive by the pulp-junk mail industry that pays the freight (as it were) for all the other (more important) mail we receive. Nevertheless, I throw away about a tree a week of junk mail, don’t you? And, the “green new deal” people haven’t figured out how wasteful this outdated system actually is.
So, what does that have to do with us as notaries?
Soon enough, Congress will decide that the USPS is so inefficient that investing in modern technology is not worth the bother. Congruent with the banking industry, they will together eliminate old fashioned mail delivery and the outdated payment systems (like checks) and utilize electronic systems exclusively. If you want to know more, Google something like “The Future of the Payments Systems” or “The Future of Mail Delivery” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I’ll cut to the chase. As notaries, if we want a better payment system, we can (short of unionizing) begin a campaign to bombard the problematic signing services with polite but firm demands for electronic payment to our designated accounts within an agreed-upon timeframe (say, 30 days?). No exceptions, no excuses, no checks, none of that stuff. Notaries should not be asked to carry hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of receivables when the work was completed weeks ago. Title plays a role in this, too. They should pay the SS much faster than they do, say 5 business days after the deal closes. These steps will eliminate most of the gripes we have about when/how we get paid our fees for the work we do. No more checks.
Think of it this way: when was the last time you wrote a check at the grocery store? When was the last time you got a hard-copy bank statement with your checks wrapped inside? When was the last time you paid cash to fill your gas tank? Those days are gone. Why should we be left behind, especially with all the innovation and automation I’ve opined on elsewhere in this Forum is just a few short years away.
If we want change, we’ll have to “lobby” for it. Maybe letters (email, if you please) to our Secretary’s of State and our local politicians would get a bill passed that would give us the relief we seek. This is NOT a war-cry or a bitch session - rather, it’s a simple request to move into the 21 Century payment system. What do we want? Timely, electronic payments. When do we want it? Now (or soon). We need to work TOGETHER with the good signing services to make this a reality. Everybody wins.
I just wonder if there is enough time left to get this done before Artificial Intelligence makes human notaries largely obsolete. What do you think?
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