Hello, New notary here from Colorado…I understand what a Credible Witness is and everything that goes with it but can someone give me an example/description of what it means to be a regular witness on a document? I just can’t find any info on the difference between the 2 types. Thank you and sorry about the elementary question.
A common example is a real estate deed. In some states, these must be witnessed by one or two people who are acting as “regular guys”, rather than as notaries. In addition the grantor(s) must acknowledge their signature to a notary, who then fills out the notarial certificate(s). In some states, the notary is allowed to be one of the regular guy witnesses.
There are also documents that are witnessed by regular guys, and no notary is required.
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Thank you - can you think of any other documents that would need a regular witness? Specifically for loan signings?
Hi Stacey3, I’m a Colorado notary. A witness is someone who is just witnessing the signature being placed on the document. I see a witness requirement most often on Power of Attorney documents. Depending on who drafted the document, they may request one or two witnesses.
A Credible Witness is required when the signer does not have valid identification. Colorado requires the Credible Witness must personally know the signer and the Notary Public or provide sufficient identification to us (the Notary). In addition, a Credible Witness must sign an sworn statement that the signer is actually that person. The Colorado Notary Public Handbook has a sample of a Credible Witness statement.
Personally, I will not be a witness to a signing and the Notary on the same signing.
Reach out to me if you want to chat or even meet up someplace. (I’m in the Brighton area.)
Thank you Terry for clarifying between the two. I emailed the CO SOS a while ago regarding clarification on CWs (to compare it with the Handbook) and the email didn’t say anything about if the CW didn’t know the notary, the CW could provide ID…however the Handbook agrees with you…you can accept ID from the CW if the Notary doesn’t know them. That would be great if we could chat sometime…we live on the other side of the Rockies so meeting in person isn’t possible, but it’s nice to get feedback from someone from CO. Thanks again!
Stacey3, I received your response. If you want to connect, my email is terry@fyamobilenotary.com
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Hey Terry, are you a RON? If so, do you use Blue Notary? I have a question for them but they can’t seem to answer it…
Hello stacey3. I have been a RON since 2020 when COVID hit. I have tried the following platforms for my work as an independent notary:
DocVerify
OneNotary
Notarize
Pavaso
NotaryCam
I settled on Notarize both as an on-demand notary and for my own independent RON business for 99% of my work because it just works almost seamlessly and has a really good chat support feature that you can use during your sessions if you need it for technical issues. Their training as an on-demand notary made the platform very easy to work with. They start you out with single document signings and progress to Title, then to Mortgage transactions as you gain experience. If you have your own clients, their platform fees overall are the least expensive as an independent notary.
My second choice has been OneNotary. There are a couple of things I am not able to do successfully as an independent notary on the Notarize platform when it comes to using multiple witnesses and credible witnesses that I can get done on OneNotary. They supply you with 3 free sessions per month without having to sign up for their $25 per moth fee which will work good as your business grows. Both free and monthly options charge fees for number of signers and number of seals but the fees are lower if you invest in the monthly fee.
I started out with DocVerify for my first year as a RON but found the platform outdated and difficult to work with and the most expensive. I dropped it when I found OneNotary
Pavaso didn’t work for me after I found out they are a platform for title and mortgage companies to use so you won’t get any work there unless one of the companies who use the platform uses you.
NotaryCam was disappointing to me as their training was cumbersome which made it difficult to work with. I dropped them during the first week of training.
I heard of BlueNotary and have just begun to explore it as a platform so I would not have working knowledge of what it is like to use the platform but my initial impressions are that they could be a viable alternative for OneNotary
I hope this helps
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@rparker Thank You 
for sharing your detailed direct experience regarding Remote Online Notarization [RON] platforms.
Your insights are very helpful & supportive of other Notary Cafe members.
Appreciate your contributions❣️
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