On the other hand, the customer who accepts the rate mentioned by the manager without question fares badly, for no dealer quotes his minimum rate first. He reserves that, as is usual in the highest financial circles, until last, and he finds it difficult to look pleased when it is forced from him, because his directors, if he quoted it too often, may come to the conclusion that his hand is losing its cunning. The client will have to do more than ask in order that he receive: he must use argument that is convincing. Knowing that certain bank-managers are running about the City in search of desirable accounts, just as are bill-brokers for first-class paper, he not unnaturally comes to the conclusion that he can find a cheaper market elsewhere, so, having exhausted the gentler modes of suasion, the client finally and reluctantly threatens to apply elsewhere, or reveals the fact that he has already done so, and with what result, when the manager, if he think him in earnest, quotes his very lowest rate, and asks him not to mention it outside. Where the loan is a small one, however, the directors will not trouble themselves greatly as to whether it either goes or remains. The much-vaunted 1 per cent. above Bank rate is, of course, only paid by the small man, whose securities are not of the better class, and by the customer who has not studied the market. Some London banks, we know, charge a rate on the daily balances and a commission, but this is the ordinary country practice, so, in order to avoid reiteration, it has been thought desirable to discuss the method in the next chapter. CHAPTER VIII OVERDRAFTS IN THE COUNTRY In the preceding chapter we discussed the “loan account” and its mysteries, and now we are brought face to face with the country practice of granting the customer a “limit.” The banker, we will assume, agrees that, upon his depositing certain securities, he _may_ overdraw his current account to the extent of £1,500. This sum, then, is the client’s “limit” which he is not supposed to exceed, and if he draw a cheque that would, when presented for payment, overdraw his account beyond the agreed figures were the banker to honour it, the latter is entitled to return the document without notice. As a rule a bank reserves to itself the right of calling in a loan or advance at any moment, but in practice reasonable notice is always given.