Every mobile notary quote mixes two kinds of charge. One is the fee for the notarial acts, which most states cap. The other is everything you do to get the acts done somewhere other than your office: travel, waiting, printing, after-hours work, parking. Keeping the two apart is the single most useful habit in pricing, and it is how the calculators on this site and the iPhone app present every quote.
What the state maximum covers
A state notary fee maximum is set for notarial acts: taking an acknowledgment, administering an oath, executing a jurat, certifying a copy. In Washington, for example, the verified record gives the acknowledgment as Up to $15.00 per act. In New York it is Up to $2.00 per signer. Those figures are about the act. They are not about driving to a hospital at 8 p.m.
That is why the calculator’s compliance check looks only at the notarial-act line. It compares what you entered for each act with the verified maximum and reports one of five outcomes: within the verified statutory fee limit, above it, no statutory maximum found, rule not verified, or not evaluable for the entries. It never uses the words legal or illegal, because what is permitted for your commission is a question for your commissioning authority, not a calculator.
What sits outside it
Travel, waiting time, printing, scanbacks, after-hours fees, parking and tolls, and a loan signing’s service fee are separate services. Here is a Washington job that has several of them:
| Notarial acts2 × acknowledgment, 1 × jurat | $45.00 |
|---|---|
| Travel22 mi × $1.25/mi | $27.50 |
| Waiting time35 min · first 15 min included | $20.00 |
| Parking / tolls | $8.00 |
| Total | $100.50 |
- Notarial acts
- $45.00
- Travel & service
- $55.50
The $15 per-act maximum is from the verified Washington record. The travel, waiting and parking figures are example values.
The notarial acts are one line. Everything else is separate service fees, and the calculator shows both totals under the quote so neither can be confused with the other.
Separate is not the same as unrestricted
A charge that sits outside the notarial maximum can still be regulated. Some official sources address travel fees directly, and several require you to tell the client up front that the travel fee is separate:
A notary may charge a travel fee to perform a notarial act if the notary and the person requesting the notarial act agree upon the travel fee in advance of the travel, and the notary explains that the travel fee is both separate from the notarial fee and neither specified nor mandated by law.
Notaries may also charge a travel fee if (1) the notary explains to the person requesting the notarial act that the travel fee is in addition to the statutory maximum fee for the notarial act and is an amount not determined by law and the person requesting the notarial act agrees in advance to the amount of the travel fee; or (2) the fee charged is equal to or less than the standard mileage rate allowed by the Internal Revenue Service.
Others set rules for how you present all your fees:
A notary public must not charge or receive a notary public fee in excess of the fees fixed by the Department, and if a notary charges fees, the notary must provide an itemized receipt for all fees charged.
If you charge for other services, you should itemize those separately, and must inform the customer of all charges before performing the notarial act. (Official results did not address travel/mileage specifically.)
How to present the two on a quote
- Show the notarial acts as their own line, with the count: “2 × acknowledgment, 1 × jurat”.
- Show each service as its own line: travel, waiting, printing, after-hours.
- Agree the service fees, especially travel, before you travel. Several states’ sources require it.
- Give the client the total and, if they ask, the split between notarial fees and service fees.
The mobile notary fee calculator produces exactly this layout. For the state-by-state rules behind the notarial line, start with notary fees by state; for the travel line, how travel fees work.
This site provides pricing and statutory-fee reference information for convenience and is not legal advice. Laws and fee limits may change. Verify current requirements with your commissioning authority.