Chapter XXVI - Look Before You Leap
- 1. As to receipts.
- 2. Notes in bank.
- 3. Well to know.
- 4. Discharging liens.
- 5. Prompt but not too prompt.
- 6. Be in no haste to invest.
- 7. Meet dues promptly.
- 8. Counting money.
- 9. Ready money.
- 10. In traveling.
We are not quite through with the note.
When making a payment of principal or interest on a note, be sure to take a receipt for the amount, stating specifically what the payment is to be credited to. In addition, if it be possible, see that the sum paid be endorsed on the back of the note itself.
The endorsement of the sum paid on the back of the note bars its being negotiated for more than the amount actually due.
Sometimes the owner and the maker of a note live at points some distance apart. If you were the maker of the note, and wanted to make a payment, but wished to avoid the expense and annoyance of a trip, what should be done?
In this case a good plan would be to write to the owner of the note, asking him to send it by a certain bank in your neighborhood where you can pay. The bank will receive the cash, make the endorsement in your presence, and then send its check for the amount with the note to the owner.
You must pay the cost of this transaction.
Or you may send the amount to be credited on your note, through a bank draft, as already indicated.
Never destroy a cancelled note.
NOTES IN BANK
If you have money at a bank your note will form the chief evidence of indebtedness and be the paper for which the security is pledged.
Keep careful track of the date of payment and the amount. There must be no neglect or carelessness.
Never permit your note to go to protest.
If for any reason payment cannot be made at the time fixed, then the better way is to go, as soon as this is learned, to the bank or other holder of the note, and frankly explain the situation.
Bankers are not shylocks. They realize that good and responsible men are often disappointed in their collections, or in the payment of a sum on which they depended for the settlement of their account with the bank, and in such a case they are usually willing to grant an extension.
Private individuals, as note holders, should be treated in just the same way.
WELL TO KNOW
When calling at a bank for your note, always give the exact date on which the note falls due.
If the note belongs to another party, and is held by the bank for collection, then mention the name of the person to whom it was originally given.
If the bank has sent you a written notice about the note, take the notice with you. It will be found to contain all the desired facts.
Banks keep their own notes in one place and those of their customers in another.
Banks keep each date by itself, and can so find required notes more readily if the owner's names and the dates are given.
DISCHARGING LIENS
Remember a mortgage is a lien or security given for the payment of a note.
If you get a mortgage, have it recorded at once.
If you pay off a mortgage, take it at once to the office of record and have the discharge of the instrument properly entered on the folio in which the mortgage is recorded.
Many lawsuits have resulted from the temporary neglect of this important duty.