4 per cent. per annum 4 per cent. per annum on £35,154 £3 17 1 on £37,422 4 2 0 ⅛ per cent. on £117 0 2 11 ⅛ per cent. on £617 0 15 6 Postages, _nil_ 0 0 0 Postages 0 5 0 Balance to be refunded 1 2 6 -------- -------- £5 2 6 £5 2 6 ======== ======== The commission on £617 is 15s. 5¹/₁₀d., but a banker would charge 15s. 6d. Mr. Jones, we can see, has been overcharged to the extent of £1 2s. 6d., and we may rest quite assured that he will not be easy in his mind until he has recovered this sum from his banker. Sometimes a customer, when ruling off his own books, draws a cheque for, say, £600, and pays it to his credit at the bank. This would be a cross entry. But does he understand that this sum will be included in his turn-over, and that if he be charged ⅛ per cent. thereupon, he pays 15s. to his banker for making a couple of entries in his ledger? Again, if the manager charge him three days’ interest at 5 per cent. per annum upon the sums paid to his credit, he will pay another 5s. (about), and at this rate a cross entry of £600 would cost him 20s. The luxury, it must occur to him, is expensive; and as this illustration is not a figment of my imagination it is evident that everybody who keeps a banking account should understand how to check a banker’s charges. It seems an act of supererogation to point out that the average account would contain very many more entries than the one under review, but if the reader will carefully follow these instructions he should find little difficulty in checking the charges in any bank-book. Where the account has been overdrawn during the entire quarter or half-year the first “total” column must be used. Our example is that of a mixed account, and both columns are required; but should the account be a creditor one, then the extensions are made in the second “total” column, and the banker, of course, will allow the customer a rate. When checking the interest of a loan account it is advisable to obtain a separate pass-book from the banker, and not to take out the entries from the current-account pass-book wherein the interest is debited. Should it be found that the commission has been charged upon the amount of the loan, the customer would ask for an explanation, and in checking his interest he would proceed in exactly the same way as shown in our example.