I agree with Yoli and Cheryl. I realize that saying no to any offer for work is very difficult when trying to get something going, but in a sense, it's just delaying the pain - or passing it on to someone else.
Some of these unscrupulous outfits have been stiffing notaries for more than a decade. They survive by preying on new notaries who don't know better (or are just trying to "get some experience", and they're laughing all the way to the bank, living high off of someone else's efforts. Some just reinvent themselves under different names periodically, but continue the same unethical practices. (I'm not saying that's always the case when a company changes its name - but only because I haven't bothered to research it.)
Some of those who've taken a long time to pay and made you chase after your earnings, have ended up going out of business when the work volume slowed down. They didn't manage their funds well and then shut their doors, owing notaries lots of money never collected. At some point, I think it's likely we'll see a bunch of that happening again, as interest rates go up.
We've been saying for years that if the bad guys can't fill the assignments, the title/escrow companies have to either hire a notary directly or go with a different signing service to find notaries. Wouldn't it be great if the good signing services had more work to offer and had to expand their lists, giving new notaries a chance to work for someone who would actually pay them - and more promptly and generously?! Or even better, if you could nab some direct work, keeping the whole fee vs. having a signing service keep half or more (or all, if they never pay the notary...)
|
