Let x represent amount of money that Tony needs to deposit to avoid a fee.
We have been given that Tony has $727.29 in his checking account. He wrote a check for $248.50 today.
Let us find amount of money left in Tony's account after writing a check of $248.50 as:
![\$727.29-\$248.50](https://img.qammunity.org/2021/formulas/mathematics/high-school/92ohm6mz4rmwq5pg85k6uzrq1q4gsyq7vf.png)
After depositing x dollars in account, total amount of money in Tony's account would be
.
Since Tony must maintain a $500 balance to avoid a fee, so amount of money is his account should be greater than or equal to 500.
We can represent this information in an inequality as:
![727.29-248.50+x\geq 500](https://img.qammunity.org/2021/formulas/mathematics/high-school/ui321tjx0jsn83gwpd0f0kliof3j8p1jin.png)
Therefore, our required inequality would be
and option C is the correct choice.
Let us solve for x.
![478.79+x\geq 500](https://img.qammunity.org/2021/formulas/mathematics/high-school/o7bagomwqwnocza2rq3yf7ifc2ufh3zlni.png)
![478.79-478.79+x\geq 500-478.79](https://img.qammunity.org/2021/formulas/mathematics/high-school/y3kg2ww3eo7zltxkad579bi8hmqwgpctv9.png)
![x\geq 21.21](https://img.qammunity.org/2021/formulas/mathematics/high-school/svqo92z111xp04eez0mpanhsvrf72a3pga.png)
Therefore, Tony must deposit at-least $21.21 to avoid a fee.