Don't expect your banker to be impressed by unsalable, unknown securities. Two shares of stock of the kind plainly indicated by a great English novelist are better for the purpose than sheaves of "cats and dogs."

"They were the finest in the market, the aristocracy of investments, based on enterprises of which every business man . . . knew the entire soundness. They conferred distinction on the possessor, like a great picture or a rare volume. They stifled all questions and insinuations. Put before any jury ... as an evidence of character, they would almost have exculpated a murderer."

But loans are by no means the only advantages a bank depositor enjoys. Once he has made his first deposit in cash or in checks, he is at liberty to draw upon this account of his by means of his own checks, payable to any one whom he chooses to make them payable to.

How to write a check has already been described.

This service which a bank renders is so commonplace that we rarely think of it. The bank takes checks and pays them, taking the risk of the checks not being genuine and the possibility of the money being paid to the wrong person. This service is of great value to the depositor, as it saves him the inconvenience and expense of making cash payments. It saves him the chance of loss and robbery incident to keeping on his person or premises a large sum of cash. The bank charges nothing for this service, provided only the depositor does not draw his account down below a small minimum.

Thus the bank depositor is able to pay bills by mail with the liability of loss reduced to a minimum. This payment of bills by means of check does away with the necessity of receiving and retaining receipts. A check can not be cashed until the person to whom it is made out indorses it on the back. Thus the bill is automatically and legally receipted, because the check in course of time is returned to the depositor who made it out. Another advantage already referred to is that the customer can deposit or withdraw money by mail at a distance.

The bank will collect checks that the depositor has received on other banks, even from far distant cities. Usually nothing is charged for this service, even when the amount is as small as one dollar. This is a great convenience for a depositor. The value of this is little realized by most of us. You can best understand it by thinking out some good plan for collecting the money on these checks without using a bank for the purpose. Banks also collect bond coupons and receive dividends for free collection.

Banks relieve depositors of the risk of caring for coins and bills. Bank burglaries are extremely rare as compared with those in private residences. Banks, of course, maintain burglar and fire proof safe-deposit vaults far stronger than most individuals could afford to have. This is a prevention against fire as well as robbery.

A bank deposit (except a time deposit, known commonly as a certificate of deposit) is repayable on demand. Not only must the bank pay back the full amount which is deposited, but it also agrees to pay any sum within the total amount, and if it fails to do so, it may be sued for damages. The bank is legally responsible to the depositor for every penny, which is not true in anything like the same sense of most investments. The depositor has an evidence always at hand of his deposit, in addition to the books of the bank itself. If he has taken out a certificate of deposit, he holds the certificate itself; if his account is subject to check he has a pass book.

If the depositor agrees to leave a fixed sum with the bank for, say, six months without checking it out, he often receives two or three per cent. interest.

Practically all state banks and trust companies and loan and trust companies pay interest, usually as high as two per cent. even on accounts subject to check, the interest being computed on daily balances, provided there is a fixed minimum. The rate paid varies and the required minimum daily balance varies, but in New York few banking institutions pay on balances of less than five hundred dollars. In smaller cities and towns the minimum is usually less. It is all a matter of personal negotiation and depends upon the locality. No general rules can be laid down. National banks are less inclined than others to pay interest on balances, unless the deposit is very large and inactive, that is, not subject to frequent checking.