Beth's bank charges a service fee on a regular checking account for ea

I guess answer should be E, as no information is given about the depositing.
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thanks for the response, but can we assume/take deposit into consideration? I was confused wheather to consider deposit or not, so I decided not to and picked different answer, which was wrong. The given asnwer is E though..

can you write more about such kind of problems ..? this is GPrep question though..

Beth's bank charges a service fee on a regular checking account for each month in which the balance on the account falls below 100$ at any time during the month, did the bank charge a service fee on Beth's regular checking account last month?

1. During last month, a total of 1000$ was withdrawn from Beth's regular checking account.

2. At the beginning of last month Beth's regular checking account balance was $500

I thought because we don't know when exactly the balance was viewed, because there is no date in particular, and the cash might be withdrawn before viewing the balance, during which there will be no service charge or there will be a service charge if the balance was viewed after withdrawing.........

Is this because of above reason the answer is E???Please help

My reasoning, fwiw...

1) During last month, a total of $1000 was withdrawn from the account. However, neither that nor the stem tells us what Beth started the month with. So #1 is insufficient.

2) At the beginning of the month, the account started with $500. Well, that's helpful, but that by itself doesn't tell us anything about withdrawals. So #2 is insufficient.

#1 and #2 tell us what she started the month with and how much was withdrawn during the month, but we don't know if there were deposits made during the course of the month. So I'd answer E.

question stem: anytime the bal falls below 100, it triggers a service fee.
(1) 1000 withdrawn. INSUFF as we do not know the balance as well as if any amount is deposited.
(2) Opening balance 500. INSUFF as we do not know withdrawal.

(Together) opening balance = 500 and withdrawal = 1000 but we still dont know if any deposit was made to counter the withdrawal. INSUFF.

So E

1. No info on starting balance, so don't know if $1000 withdrawal resulted in <$100 in the account. Insuff.
2. Beginning balance = $500. No info in withdrawl. insuff.

Together, beginning = $500, withdrawal = $1000, but what about deposit? E it is.

Hi Bunuel,

The official answer is E. This is my reasoning. Please advise if I am wrong. Thank you.

(1) What we only know is how much money is subtracted from the account, but we don’t know the beginning balance, so it is INSUFFICIENT to know whether Beth need pay for service fee.
(2) What we only know is the beginning balance of the account, but we don’t know the transactions during the month, so it is also INSUFFICIENT.
(3) What we know is the a) beginning balance and b) total withdrawal, but please note that the total withdrawal doesn’t mean that the amount is subtracted at ONE time, and we don’t know how many times and the amount Beth made the deposit, either. So with (1) and (2) it is still INSUFFICIENT.

chetan2u Do we have to assume that there will be a deposit? Or is it like since we cannot assume if there was a deposit or not, we pick choice E to show this un certainity?

Gmat will mention explicitly when we do not have to consider deposit by - "If there were no other transactions in the account,"

Check this question https://gmatclub.com/forum/john-deposited-10-000-to-open-a-new-savings-account-that-83953.html
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I think this question is not serious. although the banking accounts depositing and withdrawing in common sense, but the question does not refers like that. As the question, no one know whether the customer can deposits and withdraw as many times as they can.

Exactly, we dont know whether there were any other transactions or not. There might have been deposits or might not. We cannot assume. Hence we dont know whether her balance goes below $100 or not. So information is not sufficient. Thats why answer is E.

Can someone advise me on my dilemma - "when to assume or not to"

The question has no mention of depositing cash, but we have to assume that the information is incomplete as there is a possibility for a deposit to change the balance (or at least that is the preferred rationale).

However there are some sets based question where, similarly worded argument, one should not consider outside information? Just to be specific, I am referring to this red pure wool sweater question.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/of-the-800-s ... 75446.html

While the comparison of the two questions may not be wise, I hope someone can understand my dilemma here with regards to assumption and can kindly advise a good rule of thumb (if there is any?).

Hey khan0210

This kind of problem will never occur when you are solving official questions(on the GMAT).
Everything will be mentioned clearly and you will not be expected to assume anything!

Unfortunately, this is not a very good question and that is the reason for the confusion.

Hope this helps you!

Target question: Did the bank charge a service fee on Beth's regular checking account last month?

REPHRASED target question: Did Beth's balance ever go below $100?

Statement 1: During last month, a total of $1,000 was withdrawn from Beth's regular checking account.
Were given no information about her starting balance, so we can't say whether or not Beth's balance went below $100
INSUFFICIENT

Statement 2: At the beginning of last month, Beth's regular checking account balance was $500.
Were given no information about how much money Beth withdrew over the month, so we can't say whether or not Beth's balance went below $100
INSUFFICIENT

Statements 1 and 2 combined
Here are two CONTRADICTORY scenarios that could have occurred:
Case a: Beth begins the month with $500. On Day 2, she deposits $500 more. On Day 3, she withdraws $1000. In this case, Beth's balance went below $100.
Case b: Beth begins the month with $500. On Day 2, she deposits $10,000 more. On Day 3, she withdraws $1000. No other deposits or withdrawals are made for the rest of the month. In this case, Beth's balance NEVER went below $100.
Since we cannot answer the REPHRASED target question with certainty, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer = E

Cheers,
Brent

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