As by far the greater number of a bank’s customers keep their accounts in credit, we will begin this chapter by considering what average balance should entitle a person to have his account worked free of charge. In London, a man who opens a small account with a bank, and whose credit balance averages £100, will not be debited with any commission at the end of the quarter or half-year when the companies rule off their books, while in the suburbs an appreciably smaller balance is accepted, and, occasionally, interest is allowed there upon current-account balances, though one will have to press pretty hard for it. Competition is now so keen between bank and bank that it is sometimes possible to make very close terms. In the country it is considered that an average balance of £50 upon a small account pays expenses. However, the bank-manager, who is as human as the gentleman who sells one a dog, seldom neglects to make a small charge upon these accounts when he considers that their owners will stand 10s. a year or so. Broadly speaking, you can please yourself whether you pay it or not. This class of business, of course, is absolutely safe; so the customer, if he cannot come to terms with the manager, is able to take his account to the cheapest market, always remembering that it is never wise to bank with a second-rate firm, whatever advantages may be offered. Though a man keep a balance of £10,000 to his credit, he will not receive one penny in the shape of interest unless he ask for it, and, even after having arranged a rate, it is advisable to check the banker’s figures and ascertain that you are getting it, as, sometimes, they are apt to err in his favour, through small debits that have been deducted from the interest, and which, consequently, do not appear in your pass-book. The following illustration, perhaps, will show how matters stand:-- A keeps an average balance of £150 B ” ” ” ” £600 C ” ” ” ” £5,000 The banker, if B and C are easy-going men, whose financial experience is small, will conduct their accounts on the same terms as he does A’s. He will, that is to say, work each account free of charge. But such treatment is evidently unfair, for if A’s account is worked free, then assuming that those of B and C give but little more trouble, each is entitled to some allowance upon his average balance. They should certainly endeavour to obtain it.