So this ordeal all started Friday evening at 5pm, when I received a call from the escrow agent. He said he needed me to sign and notarize some documents by today (Saturday) and mail it back to him. I’ll talk more about the whole refinance ordeal at a later time. Anyway, I was given 2 options:
- I could pay about $100-150 and he’ll send a notary agent to my house and get the documents signed, notarized, and delivered back to the escrow company.
- He could overnight me the documents, I could get them signed and notarized, and mail them back on Saturday.
Neither of those 2 options sounded great. I asked if it was possible for him to email me the documentation, I’ll get them signed and notarized myself, and then mail them back. He said that would be great, but he warned me there was going to be about 100 pages. I said that should be fine.
I get the documentations awhile later, so I start looking for places to get it notarize. I thought I might even be able to mail it out tonight.
Turns out I was so wrong. Apparently places that provide notary services have a very fixed working schedule, Monday to Friday till 4 or 5pm. I found out that Microsoft has some people who does notary for us, but all of them were off work by then. One replied saying if I still needed the documents notarized, to contact her on Monday. I tried calling a few places (i.e. Kinkos and The UPS Store). Both are open on Saturday, but both their notary services are only available Monday to Friday. I thought, “I’m screwed…”
The last suggested place were banks, and I had a gut feeling that I was going to get shot down like the others. I mean… they’re BANKS. When they have the worst possible hours for someone like me, how can I expect them to be better than all the others I’ve tried. Plus the fact by the time I decided to start looking at banks, it was past 6pm already (their “closing” time).
Anyway, I decided to give calling them a shot. I called the Bank of America in Issaquah, since the FedEx Service Center was just 5 minutes away and I was given an FedEx account to ship with. After a few rings, someone actually picked up. I asked if they provided notary services, and they said they did, but were now closed. I said I understood and was wondering if they provided notary services on Saturday, and she said they indeed did. I’m like, JACKPOT!
So given that banks close at 1pm on Saturday, which is before the usual time I even get up, I set my alarm clock for 10am to give myself some buffer time just in case. Turns out I was pretty much awake by 9:30am without the alarm going off.
I drive over there and the receptionist greets me and I tell her I’m here to get some documents notarized and she smiles and asks if I was a Bank of America customer. I said I was and she directed me to sit and wait for a bit. Moments later, I was greeted by the notary agent and he asked if I was a Bank of America customer, and I repeated that I was. I asked if he wanted to see my Bank of America ATM card, and he said he just needed my drivers license.
We go over the documents that needed to be notarized and everything went pretty smoothly. I thanked him for his time and asked if there was any fees I had to pay, and he goes “nope, it’s a free service for Bank of America customers”. And to think that they didn’t even need to verify that I was one. That’s the type of trust I don’t expect to ever see in Los Angeles.
You hear bad customer stories about Bank of America all the time, but this was one of those times that Bank of America came through and made the experience that much better!
If I had known, I could’ve told you to get a notary done at a bank. Our Personal Bankers provide that service (Wells Fargo). I don’t think you have to have an account with Wells Fargo either, although if you don’t you probably would have had someone talk to you about that while they had you sitting down, particularly since we’ve got a Refer-a-Friend thing going on.
And we’re open until 6pm on Saturdays. 😉
Glad to hear it worked out for you though. =)
Wells Fargo is the worst bank to go to for everything….and I am pretty sure they charge for notary signatures!
Too bad I moved; I could’ve notarized it for you. 😛
Hello, I am really need to get one notary signature on one of my insurance form declaration and its very diffult to find the free or very low rate notary service near San francisco
Please reply to my email if anyone helps!
Thanks a ton if you waive the fee for that.
Thanks,
Shridhar
Shridhar,
If you’re a customer of a local bank, they usually provide the service for free. Do call in before to make sure their notary agent is in.
they don’t do it for outside the bank documents anymore. they only provide the notary service for inside the bank documents.
Hmmmm… Wonder if it’s a recent change. I know other banks (like Wells Fargo) provide this service for free too.
No Bank of America are NOT a GOOD source for Notary Public services! They only do it for internal bank documents which in most cases makes them useless for such services. Chase was much better option in my experience. I am thinking to drop using this BofA bank at all after they bough my original bank the service went downhill….
I guess it depends on the branch. The BofA that I went was willing to notarize any document as long as you were a customer (which they didn’t even bother verifying).
As long as you’re a BoA customer, we notarize anything simple that doesn’t have the possibility of getting us called into court later.
Bank document or not.
This is not true of all branches. I have been with BofA for 10 years, and the branch I went into just yesterday would NOT notarize a simple document, nor do they even offer money orders at all anymore. Kind of wondering why I bank there when simple services are not acknowledged. Thinking of taking my money somewhere else.
They offer money orders but you have to pay for them. This should be national. They’re only free if you’re an advantage customer. Otherwise they are kind of expensive so you’d be better off going to a 7-11 or something similar anyway.
That is not true of the bank in Jackson, Ca. I drove to the Bank of America of which I am a customer. I asked them to notarize a form from my former bank in the city I moved from to get my safety deposit money back and I was refused because it was not Bank of
America business. I could not even pay for it. Great customer relations!
Need to get my Academic transcripts notarized . Do banks provide this service for free ?!
@Rola: Most banks I know do it for free but may require you to have an account with them. It’s best that you call in beforehand to confirm.
Hmm, well that’s great news! And yes, I’m pleasently surprised to see BofA providing this service for free.
With the number of steps it takes these days to get things submitted/approved/etc it’s nice to know this one step in the process is fairly painless!
Thanks Krunk, I’ll be stopping into my local bank of america tomo 🙂
Wells Fargo nickels and dimes for everything and only notarizes WF documents. They say it’s a federal policy, but we’re not stupid it’s something the execs told the lower level folks to tell the customers. They are greedy as hell and charge a fee to notarize a non-WF document. They’re’s no liability issues with a notary signing a document unless they know that it’s fraudulent or don’t validate identification. WF has become the worst bank ever because they are bigger than ever now. Be careful though, remember that the customers keep your doors open. It won’t take long for them to slide down the totem pole and Bank of America take the top spot because of WF greed.
I called Wells Fargo about their Notary Public services and sure enough they offer the services but only for WELLS FARGO documents. Sad, isn’t it?
Because you would think they would offer to Wells Fargo customers no matter what type of documents they are.
Well I was overjoyed reading this, but then I went to Bank of America and they turned me down saying they only notarize BOFA documents. Then I talked to BOFA on Twitter and they said they should offer notary services at the location I was turned down at, which was great because at this point I already went and paid $10 to have my documents notarized elsewhere. Overall I am annoyed and disappointed, and people who read this post shouldn’t trust that BOFA is actually nice to their customers. :\
Bank of America only notarizes their own internal documents. Go to “the UPS store”, it’s a $10 notary fee, and they actually know what they are doing.
I believe corporate policy is to notarize any document as long as you’re a customer, but each branch appears to have a different understanding of what they are allowed to notarize.
As always, it’s best to call ahead to find out if they can notarize your documents before actually dropping in.
I went today to Bank of America to get some documents notarized. but they said, they can’t do that on passport copies and an affidavit.
DOES BANK OF AMERICA NOTARIZE DOCUMENTS
I would like to know if B of A Notarizes documents at Date Palm and Roman
Best way to confirm is to call up the branch you plan on visiting.
Times have changed, i called 6 bank of america’s in my area, none of them had a notary, I was also informed they do not notarize power of attorney’s or wills, one person said I could go to a UPS store and bring my receipt for my notary fees and they would reimburse me. Another person from another branch told me, they would only do that if it was a bank document. I am convinced that banks have become a fee for service organization, you need to make an appointment to change your personal identification number or if you want to talk to a personal banker. (ironic job title) Nevertheless, I haven’t been into a brick and mortar bank in over a year, last time was to change my pin, which i didn’t have an appointment so i was turned away, next to have an appointment to be told they have no notary nor do they notarize documents that I needed. Good luck in your lonely non existent job for much longer, UPS store always has the best service, who needs a bank?