Then, again, as though determined that his steps shall not stray from the beaten track, inspectors visit his branch four or five times during the course of a year, and, needless to say, the board thinks it neither necessary nor desirable to advise him of the day one will arrive. When the inspection is a short one the unwelcome visitor counts the cash, checks the bills and securities, just glances casually through the ledgers and then takes his departure, when the atmosphere seems lighter by his very absence, for exalted officials are a weariness to the flesh. But during a long inspection, which occurs about twice a year, the manager has to make a short report upon every overdrawn account in the books. This done, he gives his report to the inspector, who reads through his remarks and proceeds to criticize them. Having added a few words of his own, the visitor posts the bulky report to the advance department at the head-office, and, finally, it is laid upon the board-room table. Then the fun begins. The manager, after a few weeks of anxious suspense, receives a long list of caustic inquiries relating to certain overdrawn accounts which have failed to satisfy the board, together, perhaps, with imperative instructions to get such-and-such overdrafts reduced to certain figures at a given date. Sorely tried in temper, the poor agent sets about answering the questions put to him, and then, much against his will, he writes to certain clients whom he asks to give him a call.

Now, perhaps, the customers of the joint-stock banks will understand why they receive so many letters requesting them to keep their accounts at the agreed limit, or even to reduce or pay off the overdraft unless they can deposit either more desirable or additional security. At such a moment an irritable person is disposed to regret that “a company has neither a body to be kicked nor a soul to be damned.”

CHAPTER IX
HOW TO CHECK BANKERS’ CHARGES

Bankers make up their pass-books in two ways. When the customer is in account with the banker the cash he pays in appears on the right-hand side of his book, and the cheques he draws out on the left. The more general method, however, is to make the bank in account with the customer, when the debits and credits in the pass-book are an exact copy of the client’s own cash-book, whereas the entries in the bank’s ledger are reversed. The latter and more usual practice will be adopted in this chapter.

Customers often complain that they are unable to check their half-yearly charges, that they do not quite understand at what rates they have been charged; and as some bankers are most careful to add the interest and commission together, and then to enter the aggregate in the pass-book as “charges” simply, it is a little difficult to understand how they expect their clients to check their interest and commission. For instance, suppose a man is charged £5 2s. 6d., and that the banker writes in his pass-book:

By charges, £5 2s. 6d.

Here we have a puzzle that is more than Chinese in its intricacy and suggestiveness, for it is evident that unless the customer remembers that he has arranged to pay, say, 4 per cent. per annum interest and ⅛ per cent. commission, he will experience considerable difficulty in verifying the figures. As a matter of fact, the companies are not particularly anxious to enlighten him, for see how easily the client could have checked his charges were they specified thus:—

By interest at 4 per cent.£420
By ⅛ per cent. commission on turn-over 0 15 6
By postages050
£526