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Comment by chpmrc | Hacker News Reader

Funny story: I keep receiving a $0.01 monthly invoice from AWS for a very old account (opened 5+ years ago) I have lost access to. I have no idea why (the invoice doesn't list the services being used) and the associated credit card has expired a long time ago. They requested notarized documents to prove my identity. Obviously I'd rather settle my $6 (+ interest) debt 50 years from now than give hundreds to a notary today!

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It doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars to notarize something. https://www.nationalnotary.org/knowledge-center/about-notari...

Edit: as the other comment mentions, most banks where you have an account offer this for free. My local UPS store where I have a mailbox also offers the service to me for free.

I'm not from the US.

In the USA, in Marin County, I was charged $25 per document. The guy doing it was adding a finger print, which is not a bad idea if the originator of the document is present.

(Finger print is not legally required though.)

GP is probably not in Germany, but just an example of why I’d be uninterested in getting something notarized here unless my continued freedom and/or good fortune depended upon it:

American notary: someone who doesn’t have a history of fraud, sat through a workshop and passed a test.

German Notar: a very specialized lawyer, bills like a very specialized lawyer.

Theoretically, you can get stuff notarized at US embassies and consulates, for $50 and an appointment, must bring your own witness(es). That of course has not been an option much of the past year.

Any bank at which you are a customer will notarize documents for you for free.

I'm not from the US. This is not available in any of my banks.

If notarization isn't common in the country where you are, you should probably escalate through AWS support in that country. They probably have an alternate procedure. If you're talking to US-based support, they are used to thinking this is a trivial request. Getting something notarized is something that can be handled in 5 minutes at places as common as convenience stores. Most people have coworkers that are notaries and can do it without even getting up from their desk.

If that's not the case in your country, ask them for a different procedure. It's not something they intend to be onerous.

I'm not interested in recovering that account anyway, I'd spend more money (in terms of time spent dealing with them) on trying to get it back than what I'd owe in a few decades.

In Germany you can also get documents notarized in (Catholic) parish offices. I think they do it for free.

That said, this sounds unreasonable and if you're not in the US this may violate consumer protection regulations if they didn't require the same level of verification to sign the contract in the first place.

It is unreasonable but it's just not worth engaging with them even to exchange a few emails, financially speaking :)

All states, with exceptions listed below, cap notary charge to $10 at most. Most states are less. These states don't have limits one way or another:

Alaska

Arkansas

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Loisiana

Maine

Massachusetts

Puerto Rico

Tennessee

Vermont

I'm not from the US.

Then you have not provided enough information to validate your claim. For example, the EU imposes price controls as well, while in Japan it can be expensive.

However, there's a much simpler route: Amazon is a US country, so you can simply use notorize.com for $25.

My claim is that it's ridiculous to send $0.01 monthly invoices for an inactive account, not sure what you mean by "validate", maybe it isn't that funny of a story? :) But it doesn't make sense for me to spend even $1 on anything regarding this matter. I'm ok with not having access to that account anyway. If anything they should pay me to go through the hassle.

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