Dripread - Book

do
business. Whether it or other banks hold them for collection, they will
be presented to your bank when due.

Pay your notes, etc., on the day they fall due, and early in the day if
convenient, or leave a check for the amount with your bank on the day
before your paper matures. Banks will not pay notes or drafts without
instructions.

Keep a careful record of the days of maturity of all your paper. Banks
usually notify all payers a few days beforehand when their paper
matures, but this is only courtesy on their part and not an obligation.

Exchange.

"Exchange" means funds in other cities made available by bankers' drafts
on such places. These drafts afford the safest and cheapest means for
remitting money. Drafts on New York are worth their face value
practically all over the United States in settlement of accounts.

Collections.

A draft is sometimes the most convenient form for collecting an account.
The prevalence of the custom is due to the fact that most men will wait
to be asked to pay a debt. If a draft is a time draft it is accepted by
the person on whom it is drawn by writing his name and date across the
face. This makes it practically a note, to be paid at maturity.

Notes or drafts that you desire to have collected for you by your bank
should be left at the bank several days before they are due, so as to
give ample time to notify the payers.

Borrowing.

Banks are always willing to loan their funds to responsible persons
within reasonable limits. That is what they exist for. There is, of
course, a limit to the amount a bank may loan, even on the best known
security, but the customer of the bank is entitled to and will receive
the first consideration.

The customer should not hesitate, when occasion requires, to offer to
the bank for discount such paper as may come into his hands in the
course of business, if, in his opinion, the paper is good. At the same
time he should not be offended if his bank refuses to take it even
without giving reasons.

Indorsing Checks, Etc.

When depositing checks, drafts, etc., see that they are dated properly
and that the written amounts and figures correspond. The proper way to
indorse a check or draft--this also applies to notes and other
negotiable paper--is to write your name upon the back about one inch
from the top. The proper end may be determined in this way: As you read
the check, holding one end in each hand, draw the right hand toward you,
and turn the check over. The end which is then farthest from you is the
top. If, however, the check, draft or note has already been indorsed by
another person, you should write your name directly under the other
indorsement, even if that is on the wrong end. If your own name on the
face of the check, draft or note is misspelled, or has the wrong
initials, but if the paper is clearly intended for you, you should first
write your name as it appears on the face, and under it your regular
signature. You should indorse every check you deposit, even though it be
payable to bearer.

Mistakes in Banking.

Mr. Samuel Woods, a member of the American Institute of Bank Clerks,
recently contributed to Munsey's Magazine an interesting article on the
subject of "Mistakes in Banking." From this we are permitted by the
courtesy of the publishers of Munsey's to reproduce two of the
facsimiles shown.

One wrong word, or figure, or letter--the right thing in the wrong way
or the wrong place--the scratch of an eraser or the alteration of a
word--or any one of these things, in the making or cashing of a check,
is liable to become as expensive as a racing automobile.

The paying teller of a bank, says Mr. Woods, must keep his eyes open for
new dangers as well as old ones. The cleverest crooks in the country are
pitting their brains against his. After he has learned the proper guard
for all the well-known tricks and forgeries it is still possible that an
entirely new combination may leave him minus cash and plus experience.

But it is not the unique and novel swindle that is most dangerous,
either to a bank or an individual. It is the simple, ordinary mistake or
the time-worn trick that makes continuous trouble. Apparently, every new
generation contains a number of dishonest people who lay the same traps,
and a number of careless people who fall into these traps in the same
old way.

Check-Raising Made Easy.

One of the first lessons, for instance, that a depositor should learn
before he is qualified to own a check-book is to commence writing

The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing / A Manual of Ready Reference