Money Blue Book

Reviews Of The Top Online Banking Options For High Interest Rates

If you’re searching for a list of the best online banks to deposit your savings in, then you’ve arrived at the right place. One of the most common, if not the most often asked question I get as a personal finance blogger, is which bank I would recommend to those looking to get the best interest rate of return for their money.

While some of us plow our personal savings into home mortgage payments or invest them into stocks, most of us invariably keep a certain stash into more accessible bank accounts for emergency fund purposes. Others like myself use high interest savings accounts to save up money for specific targeted purposes – in my case, I’m saving up for my future down payment for a house. So, if you’re keeping money in a bank account anyway, why not try to get the highest interest rate possible? To address this need – below, I’ve compiled a list of what I believe to be the best online banks available today – banks that offer the best deals for high interest savings and high yield savings accounts. Many of the recommended firms are also very competitive in the area of certificate of deposits (CD’s) and checking account rates as well.

Unfortunately, with interest rates at historical lows across the board given the current ongoing economic climate, the term “high yield savings account” is more of a comparative delineation than a descriptively absolute one. Just a few years ago during the glory days, one could easily rake in a hefty 5% to 6% APY rate with popular online savings accounts and high yield CD rates. But those days are long gone and today, the top online banks only offer anywhere from 2% to 3% tops. But despite the overall lower rates at the present time, the yields found at these Internet based banks still greatly exceed the nearly zero percent interest rates found at most local brick and mortar banking institutions. Think the best bank accounts are found at places like Citibank, Bank of America, Chase Bank, or  Wells Fargo? Think again. The APY rates offered by Internet based online banks almost always greatly exceed the paltry interest rate offerings of the brand name banks, while offering the same FDIC insurance limit guarantees and transactional security protections that are equal to, if not better than that offered by the big boys.

Benefits Of Online Savings Accounts: Impressive Rates With FDIC Insurance

Because of much lower overhead costs, online banks generally pay much better rates on savings accounts, checking accounts, and CD’s. Online bank accounts are also much less likely to have minimum balance requirements than ordinary retail banks. They also offer many conveniences and advantages over accounts at traditional neighborhood banks and credit unions. So long as the customer has access to an Internet connection, online bank account transactions can be performed, balances can be checked, and funds can be transferred in and out anywhere and anytime. The ability to keep 24 hour tabs on your account funds, pull up account history data on demand, and eliminate the need to conduct transactions in cumbersome paper form are some of the clear advantages of web based banking. To compete with the traditional big name banks, a large majority of online banks have eliminated their monthly fees and account minimums, and now offer a wealth of free financial services that include free bill pay, free budgeting tools, free fund transfers, and free out of network ATM usage.

Below is comprehensive review of what I’ve found to be the top online banks for high interest checking and high yield savings accounts. Each offer, except for the first one – provides for full FDIC insurance limit protection for account holders – guaranteeing the safety and security of account funds from unexpected loss.

List Of The Best Online Bank Accounts For Savings, Checking, and CD Rates

1) Lending Club - While not an online bank in the traditional sense, Lending Club offers a comparable peer to peer lending (P2P) program that matches prospective consumer lenders with prospective borrowers, all with a variety of disclosure safeguards to ensure a generally low default rate. While the program has gone mainstream and garnered quite a bit of positive feedback from the press and new members, it’s been able to stick to the fundamental basics and continue to offer its lending account holders the ability to reap a consistent 9.60% average interest rate of return. For those seeking an impressive high yield savings account alternative to online banks, Lending Club is worth a look. If you wish to know more, please take a look at my review of Lending Club where I explore in depth how the online program works and evaluate it to see if it truly is a legitimate non-scam way to earn a higher APY rate on your savings.

2) Everbank – I highly recommend Everbank if you’re looking for a top tier online bank that offers great rates for savings accounts and checking. EverBank’s product offerings are diverse and includes features like money market accounts, CD’s, credit cards, and even currency investments options. You may not be as familiar with Ever Bank as you might be with a few of the other banking names on this short list, but they’ve been around for some time. Since the beginning, EverBank has always earned awards and praise for its banking features and online services. Money Magazine rates EverBank as one of its “Best Of Breed Online Banks”, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranks the firm’s Everbank FreeNet checking account very highly, and even Forbes Magazine has ranked the bank among the “Best of the Web” for numerous years.

Everbank’s most popular account feature – the highly regarded Yield Pledge Money Market Account – requires a minimum initial deposit of $1,500 and starts out at an extremely high introductory rate that overwhelming tops most high yield savings rates in the market. After a 3 month introductory period, the rate automatically adjusts to a slightly lower rate, but one that is still competitively higher than that offered by other online banks. Thereafter, there is no monthly fee so long as a balance of $5,000 is maintained. For more details and commentary, see my Everbank review.

3) Ally Bank – Formerly known as GMAC Bank, the new Ally Bank markets itself as a new age approach to online banking – one that offers transparency and a reformed way of doing business with its flexible array of unlimited sub accounts, daily interest compounding, no minimum deposits, no monthly fees, no minimum balances, and no sneaky disclaimers. I personally have deposited quite a bit of cash with Ally Bank and have found their online banking services to be very straight forward and reliably clean cut. Ally’s banking rates are very high and there are no confusing tiered interest rates to contend with. What you see is basically what you get – with the usual assortment of high yield savings accounts, money markets, and high yield CD’s. However, what’s uniquely appealing about Ally Bank is its offering of no-penalty CD deposits that allow account holders to avoid paying any fees to transfer money out prior to the CD maturity date. For more info about Ally’s banking features, please read my Ally Bank review.

4) E-trade Bank – Known more for its online brokerage arm, ETrade is what I call a one stop shopping all-in-one banking/discount brokerage firm. They offer pretty much the full package in the way of banking and brokerage services – including high interest savings accounts, checking, credit cards, mortgage services, CD’s, Roth IRAs, and investment gudiance. Best of all, Etrade does not impose any minimum balance requirements to open a new account. While E trade’s Complete Savings Account is not currently the best online bank in terms of offering the highest interest rate for deposits, it makes up for this mild shortfall by offering an extremely broad array of services from one source. Those that want the ability to instantly transfer money back and forth freely between their banking and broker accounts will find Etrade to be extremely appealing as the company seamlessly integrates the two services into one. If you want to know more, see my Etrade bank review and my Etrade broker review for my opinionated take.

5) FNBO Direct Bank – FNBO Direct is the online banking division of the First National Bank of Omaha – a bank with a great reputation that has largely escaped the credit crisis that has plagued most of the other banks in some shape or another. FNBO Direct offers competitive rates for its account holders and imposes no fees or minimum balance requirements. Fund transfers are quick and links to other bank accounts are easy to set up via a series of test trial deposits. ATM card options are available for those that wish to access their account funds from traditional live automated tellers. The bank’s high yield savings account was one the first to start offering super high rates during the heyday of Internet based banks, and continues to be one of the most popular choices for its consistently high interest rate offerings. As with all of the recommended banks on this list, FNBO offers full FDIC insurance limit coverage for account deposits. Please check out my FNBO Direct review if you wish to learn more about the online bank.

6) HSBC Direct Bank – Named as the best cyber bank and having the best online savings account by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance in years past, HSBC Direct is a top tier bank in terms of reliability and name recognition. While its interest rate yields for its no-minimum-balance high interest savings accounts have fluctuated along with all of the other online banking names out there, HSBC’s rates remain very competitive. Along with its bank account offerings, the firm also offers a convenient array of banking features such as ATM debit cards and free online bill payments. Highly regarded for its commendable customer service reputation, HSBC also provides its banking customers amazing access to its growing network of convenient bank branches and ATM’s located all over the world (with new locations being constantly added). Check out my HSBC Direct review for even more insight.

7) Capital One Direct Bank – While probably much more famous for its lineup of “What’s In Your Wallet” Capital One credit cards and its popular build-your-own credit card Card Lab feature, Capital One provides its savings account customers with pretty competitive rates through its online direct banking program. With Capital One Direct Banking, members get access to InterestPlus Savings, high yield money markets, certificate of deposits, and even business money market accounts. While there are no mandatory account minimum requirements and no sneaky service fees, a balance of $10,000 or more is required to get the highest APY rate that Capital One has to offer. Online bank transfers are always free, and linking your Capital One savings account to existing external bank accounts for quick and easy transfers is very easy to do.

8) ING Direct Bank – As the grand daddy of them all, ING Direct has been around the longest since its emergence during the early dot com era of 2000. Since then, ING Direct has solidified itself as one of the best online banks with some measure of streamlined improvements to its online interface over the years. While the firm’s bank rates have fluttered around of late, its yields are still competitive and exceed the rates offered by most neighborhood banks. Overall, ING Direct banking products are easy to open, easy to use, and ideally suited for those new to online banking. One thing that most reviewers of financial products generally agree on – is how simple and straight forward ING products are to manage. ING offers a wide array of banking and investment products with its seamless union of ING Direct savings, checking, and investing features via ING ShareBuilder. The firm’s very popular Orange Savings Account offers a competitive interest rate with no monthly fees and no account balance minimums. Its Electric Orange Checking account also enjoys similar praise and positive reviews from the online critics. Another greatly appreciated feature of the bank is also the ability to utilize ING Direct referrals to refer friends and family members, allowing them to enjoy special first time member bonuses as new account sign ups.

9) Dollar Savings Direct – As a newly acquired online bank by much larger parent Emigrant Bank, Dollar Savings Direct continues the tradition of offering great high yield savings rates for its flagship product. New savings accounts are easy to open hassle free with no account maintenance requirements, no maintenance fees, and no hidden charges. New accounts do require an initial minimum deposit of $1,000, however thereafter, there is no stated obligation that account holders must actually maintain that balance. If you are an aggressive bank rate chaser like myself and desire the safety and security of full FDIC insurance coverage for your liquid cash assets with the added benefit of high rates, you should definitely click through and check out what Dollar Savings Direct Bank has to offer. For more details, take a look at my Dollar Savings Direct review.

10) WT Direct Bank – Chances are, you’ve probably never heard of WTDirect bank before as they are a relative unknown compared to some of the bigger names above. However, as the online arm of Wilmington Trust FSB, the parent bank has been around for quite some time since the early 1990’s.  Currently, WT Direct offers a pretty attractive high yield online savings account that features a pretty top tier interest rate. Best of all, there are no minimum deposit requirements, no account maintenance fees, no limits on the number of linkages to external accounts, and all deposits earn interest regardless of balance amounts. One caveat however, is that the highest tiered interest rate for the savings accounts require balances of at least $10,000. If all other savings account alternatives above don’t suit your fancy, savings account holders with at least $10,000 to store away will find WT Direct to be a solid high yield savings option.

Searching For Other Alternative Sources Of High Interest Rates

Generally if you want the perfect mix of cash liquidity, account accessibility, and competitively high interest rate yields for your bank account funds – you ought to stock with high yield savings accounts. But if you’re willing to exchange a little bit of liquidity and lock up your monetary funds for anywhere between periods as short as a month to periods of 5 years or longer, you might be able to get a better interest rate yield via certificates of deposit. Check out my list of the best CD rates for what some of the top online banks are offering in that department.

Speaking of rates, those of you who are disappointed with the pitifully low interest rates on checking account funds might be surprised to know that there are high yield reward checking accounts out there that offer extremely high interest rates on checking balances. The rates offered are frequently the same or even better than the best online savings accounts and top level CD rates. The catch with these high interest reward checking accounts is that they often have stringent maximum balance limits and frequently require account holders to execute a certain number of debit card transactions a month to qualify. But if you’re up to the task, they may be able to provide you an impressively excellent rate of return for your money.

Reviews of the Best Paid Online Surveys: Avoid Internet Survey Scams

If you are searching for a genuinely legitimate paid online survey, you’re at the right place. The following is a recommended list of popular online marketing firms that are offering free paid surveys and is a nice resource for people looking to make some money online from home or earn a little bit of extra cash on the side by filling out short survey questionnaires. After much research with a lot of trial and error, I’ve compiled a list of what I’ve found to be the top paid online survey programs that compensate participants with either cash or gift card rewards for completed surveys.

If you’ve already conducted an online search via Google.com or Bing.com for the best paid surveys, then you’ve probably already noticed that the vast majority (95%) of those search results invariably lead to some rather scammy looking links or to websites that try to convince you to fork over a membership fee for exclusive access to some secret list of paid surveys. It’s a sad and rather sobering sight to see, but the Internet is littered to the brim with such misleading resources and self interested clutter. Don’t buy the marketing hype or misleading online promotions that suggest that you must actually pay money to gain access to some super secret list. If a survey company starts asking you to pay an upfront charge, run away as fast as you can – lest you unwittingly succumb to the online scam. There is absolutely no reason that you ought to ever pay for such services as they can be legitimately and freely obtained online without cost.

Is It Really Possible To Make Money Online By Taking Paid Internet Surveys?

For starters and particularly for those of you easily misled or swayed by delusions of dancing dollar signs in your head, let me be very clear – the paid online survey websites listed below are not scams, gimmicks, or get rich quick schemes. No one is going to become a millionaire or earn enough money with these surveys to retire. Paid surveys can help you supplement your full time day job with some extra spending cash to pay the bills (up to anywhere from as little as $25 to as much as $200 or more per month), but that’s the extent of their financial usefulness. If you’re a stay at home mom, a full time student, a retiree, or even a working professional who wants to kill some time on a regular basis by knocking out a few quick surveys for some free money, these compensated surveys will definitely appeal to you. But those of you looking to turn online survey taking into some type of part time job are much better off working as a blogger and directing your efforts towards blogging to make money. At the very least, part time blogging has a greater potential to turn a simple hobby into a full time and sustainable online job than survey taking ever could.

However, in terms of earning a little bit of honest cash on the side, free paid survey offers are verifiably legitimate sources of income. Paid survey websites work by referring to their members survey inquiries provided by real companies. Most of the referring retailers are owners of consumer brands that you and I are probably already familiar with – brands that range from popular grocery food products and recognizable household goods, to manufacturers of popular electronic devices and automobiles. The retail companies rely on these regular survey samples to design and market their products, and are very willing to pay a small amount of money to compensate individuals for their survey taking time. Along with the usual assortment of survey inquiries based on your previous history of consumer usage and experiences, occasionally you also get lucky with a specific request to try out new and untested products. I enjoy it immensely when survey companies send out actual consumer products for me to review in person – items that include everything from experimental trial shampoos to shaving razors, to snack crackers and ear phones. After examining and trying out the products, you are expected to rate your experience on a sliding scale based on a variety of determinative factors.

The pay out rate for each online survey varies depending on the subject matter and the length of time that each is expected to take. The easy $1.00 surveys can take as little as 1-10 minutes to complete, while the more difficult but more lucrative $20 – $25 health care and fitness related paid surveys may take as long as an hour or longer. Depending on your personal demographics, you may or may not qualify for a large number of the potential paid online surveys out there – as it all depends on what the marketing companies are looking for at any given time. But if you want to fully maximize your online survey income potential, I highly recommend that you sign up and register for as many legitimate survey sites as you can. The more survey programs you have a relationship with, the more likely you will be able to maintain a steady flow of survey taking opportunities to make money from. As always, be sure to use a spare email account, lest you get overrun by survey emails (although you can always shut the survey messages down at any time by request).

Reviews Of Recommended Paid Online Survey Sites (All Are Free To Join):

1) NFO My Survey – The MySurvey Consumer Panel website is one of the very best free online survey providers out there and one that I highly recommend for aspiring paid online survey takers. Not only is their website very accessible and easy to navigate, their online surveys pay quite well. Since I joined as a panel survey taker years ago, they’ve provided me a consistent stream of paid survey opportunities on a wide array of interesting topics, including numerous fun product review solicitations that were mailed to my home for me to try out and opine on. Though the company utilizes a point system for dishing out reward incentives, the points are fully redeemable for cash checks and gift cards. The company also allows participants to earn additional money through referrals of their own.

2) Synovate – The Synovate Global Opinion Panel pays cash for completed online surveys and offers actively engaged participants the opportunity to receive a fairly steady burst of paid online survey chances on a regular basis. The Synovate survey company’s payout rate is quite competitive but dependent on the survey’s subject matter. Keep an eye out for those lucrative health care related surveys as they pay $10 and up. Synovate does provide product review opportunities as well and I’ve received my fair share of fun experimental bathroom products to review.

3) Ipsos I Say – Ipsos is a pretty big name in the marketing research world. While they focus primarily on in home product reviews and consumer product surveys, they still generally provide a reasonably balanced mix of of survey opportunities for their participating members. If you are interested in receiving freebies and getting free survey test products in the mail to review, you might want to give Ipsos a try. In regards to these in-home freebie products, you are generally free to keep the products regardless of whether you actually fill out the accompanied survey or not.

4) Survey Savvy – I really like Survey Savvy as the company is one of the best paid Internet survey sites in the market today and offers its participants a pretty lucrative referral program for their friends and family members. The company pays its members money for both personally completed surveys as well as completed surveys made by referrals. Payouts are dependent on the length of time and subject matter involved, but for friend and family referrals, you can earn $2.00 for every survey your direct referral takes and yet another $1.00 for every survey taken by their referrals. Based on the way Survey Savvy has things set up, online participants have multiple tiered opportunities to rack up income pretty quickly.

5) Global Test Market – I’ve been using Global Test Market to supplement my part time survey income for some time now. The company offers a fairly consistent number of survey taking opportunities for both American and international survey registrants looking to maintain a consistent stream of paid survey jobs. Even if you don’t qualify for a survey offer that is sent to you, you still get to accrue reward points simply by looking over it. Participants earn Global Test Market Points for completing surveys, redeemable for a variety of reward incentives. Like all of the survey companies reviewed on this list, Global Test Market is completely free and not contractually compulsory (you’re not forced to answer all surveys if you don’t want to).

6) Greenfield Online – If you are trying to find a legitimate paid online survey company that will provide you a significant number of survey gigs at a consistent pace, Greenfield Online is definitely for you. Greenfield has access to a lot of offers and provides payment in a variety of forms, including cash checks and free entries into their regularly renewed prize drawing. Here’s my little advice for registrants of Greenfield Online – stick to the cash payment only surveys and consider skipping the ones that only offer prize drawing entries. Cold hard cash beats raffle drawings any day. Sure you, might get lucky, beat the odds, and win the lottery, but your chances are slim to none that you will.

7) My Points – Want to get paid for reading spam emails? Then give MyPoints a try. The company is legitimate and at any time you want the emails to permanently stop, simply unsubscribe. MyPoints is not really a paid online survey provider per se, but they do offer survey opportunities as part of their reward earning system. The company offers a very large variety of ways to earn bonus points for future prize and merchandise redemption. If you are determined to make money online, I recommend trying out MyPoints as a resource. You can earn points by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or even by signing up for online trial offers. If you don’t want to sign up for any unnecessary services, I recommend that you simply stick with the Survey Mail and Bonus Mail opportunities to earn reward points.

8) American Consumer Opinion Panel – The American Consumer Opinion Panel, or ACOP as it’s commonly called, is a personal favorite of mine due to the speed at which the company issues out compensation checks for completed paid surveys. Depending on the type of survey completed, ACOP participants can expect to be paid anywhere from $4 to $20 depending on the length, qualification requirements, and subject matter of the survey. If you desire to be paid more and reap anywhere between $25-$50 for each opportunity, you might want to consider signing up for ACOP sponsored online focus group reviews whenever those rare offers present themselves.

9) Lightspeed Consumer Panel – If volume of surveys is the most important factor to you, then definitely consider signing up with Lightspeed. The consumer survey company offers a tremendous number of paid online survey opportunities, paying out reward points for each completed survey. Reward points are fully redeemable for cash payments, gift cards, and other merchandise based prizes. For the professional survey takers out there who can speed read and crank through a large number of surveys in one sitting, Lightspeed has the potential to be quite a lucrative part time income cash cow for super active participants.

Update: Get 100 Free Trades With This E-Trade Promo Offer I Just Found

Back when I first started getting serious about investing during college, E-Trade was one of the very first online brokerage firms that I opened a trading account with. My inaugural entry into the world of investing occurred around the time of the dot com bubble in 1999 – when E-Trade wasn’t exactly known for its cheap commissions or discounted fees. At the time, one couldn’t really consider E-Trade a true discount broker – as back then, the firm catered more to the savvier advanced traders who were willing to pay substantially more for exclusive access to premium research and stock tracking tools. But over the years, with the rise in the popularity of Internet based discount brokers offering supremely low cost options for cheap stock trades, E-Trade’s fee commission structure has gradually fallen to where it is now today. Fortunately, despite the fall in pricing over time, the firm has not sacrificed any of its premium account features but rather has continued to grow and steadily outpace its competition in terms of building a better online product for typical do-it-yourself investors like you and I.

Today, while ETrade isn’t the cheapest discount brokerage around, it’s one of the top online investment solutions for those looking to reap the maximum product offerings available without having to fork over the rip off fees and hefty commissions levied down by most of those big name full service brokerages on Wall Street. If you’re primarily a self directed, do-it-yourself investor who wants all of the beginner and advanced trading tools from a single console without having to turn to multiple online sources for all of your financial needs – E-Trade Financial might be exactly what you need.

While there are other broker options that offer much cheaper rates, ETrade does provide its account holders a tremendous amount of value for their money. The company’s services are very ideal for those looking for a complete, one stop shopping source for all of their investing and banking needs. Other popular and recognizable discount brokers like TradeKing, Scottrade, and even Zecco offer perhaps cheaper rates for stock and option trades, but they are somewhat outmatched by E-Trade’s completeness and comprehensiveness in the account tools and resources department. Unlike many of its financial peers and rivals that focus squarely on either investment or banking services exclusively, E-Trade’s primary allure stems from its ability to offer a mass appeal of products from a singular inter linked and centrally managed financial platform. With features for both long term passive investors and active day traders alike, E-Trade touts everything from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IPO’s, foreign currencies, foreign stocks, and exchange traded funds (ETF’s) – to its bank based products like high yield savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, certificate of deposits (CD’s), and even Etrade branded credit cards.

Best Discount Broker Overall According To Online Brokerage Reviews

I’m just a regular guy who has some amateur experience with stock market investing and who also currently trades with an E-trade account. I really like E-Trade a lot, primarily for its all-in-one packages – but then again, you certainly don’t have to read my discount brokerage reviews and just take my word for it. Take a look around at what others are saying about the online broker. Even objectively speaking, ETrade is one of the most highly touted “Best of Breed” financial firms in the market today and has received numerous awards and accolades for its features and highly regarded customer service reputation. Out of numerous highly ranked brokers, and for the third straight year since 2007 and 2008 – the publishers at SmartMoney (A Wall Street Journal magazine) again picked Etrade as the overall top discount broker for year 2009. E-trade ranked high in almost every category including customer service, trading tools, research tools, banking services, and selection of mutual fund & investment products. Even Barron’s Magazine, in its 2008 online broker survey – rated Etrade in its top 10 best online brokers, awarding it 4 out of 5 stars – for categories such as trade experience, trade technology, usability, range of offerings, research amenities, portfolio analysis & reports, customer service & access, and costs.

E-Trade Pricing: Low Cost Commissions and Investment Brokerage Fees

Like I mentioned earlier, although it’s not the absolute cheapest of all of the discount brokerages, E-trade’s rate fees and commissions are pretty competitive considering all of the account features and tools the company provides to you at your disposal. Etrade’s commissions for stocks and option trades are dependent on how frequently you trade and the balance amount invested in your account. As evidenced by the pricing chart above, the standard base pricing rate is $12.99 per stock trade trade and $0.75 per options trade. Those with balances of $50,000 or more in their linked Etrade brokerage and banks accounts, or engage in more than 30 equity trades per quarter enjoy a lower commissions rate via enhanced Power E-trade promotions at $9.99 per trade. Those who trade even more frequently at 1,500 trades or more per quarter (such as by day traders of penny stocks for example) and those with substantial assets – may qualify for super cheap pricing of $6.99 per trade or lower.

All-In-One Brokerage: Etrade Complete Banking and Power Etrade Investing

Voted as “Best In Breed” by Money Magazine for its popular banking services, E-Trade is not only a big time brokerage, but also a popular provider of FDIC insurance protected savings and CD options such as the following:

• High interest Max Rate Checking Account
• High yield Complete Savings Account

While APY interest rate offerings by Etrade’s checking and savings accounts could use a boost of late, they do provide brokerage account holders additional choices beyond just leaving their un-invested cash sitting idly in their accounts. Because the Etrade bank and brokerage services are so interconnected and linked, many account holders utilize the higher APY rates offered by their Etrade online savings accounts as primary cash sweep solutions for their idle brokerage cash. This compatibility between the brokerage and banking platforms make monetary transfers between the two quick and easy via free instant transfers and affords a tremendous degree of FDIC insured flexibility for optimizing your cash investments. In terms of maintaining real life access to your Etrade banking funds, although the firm’s banking arm only offers a tiny handful of actual brick and mortar based retail locations across the United States, it does offer customers the convenience of unlimited ATM fee reimbursements and refunds from any machine, any bank, nationwide.

Premium Online Tools For All Individual Investment and Retirement Accounts

When aspiring investors sign up for an online brokerage account with Etrade, they are buying into Etrade’s Complete Investment Account program which provides what the firm calls – an integrated investment and cash management system, with its unity of investment, banking, loan, and even credit based services at once source. Those retirement minded investors out there looking for the best IRA broker might want to give an Etrade-managed account a try. The firm is a popular fit for those seeking the necessary resources to help them in achieving their long term individual retirement account planning objectives.

• Open an Etrade IRA or Roth IRA account - Retirement accounts offer excellent tax deferred benefits and tax deductions for maximum compound interest rate growth. Don’t miss out on building your financial future today.

In terms of looks and appearances, Etrade’s online website layout is not only professionally designed and intuitively simple to use, the online platform that it provides is easy to navigate and tinker with. Compared to some of the other discounted brokerages out there such as Scottrade, Etrade ranks much higher in aesthetic appeal and graphical design in my opinion. But it’s not just the surface features either as Etrade’s inner workings boast a pretty powerful array of real time trading tools and sophisticated market research material. Along with all of the stocks and bond investments available, Etrade also provides a variety of automatic investment plans, exclusive alerts to initial public offerings that other brokerages don’t offer, as well as superior access to more than 7,000 leading mutual funds, including 100’s of Morningstar top-rated funds, and every ETF sold. Among the fund choices, there are also more than a 1,000 no load, no transaction fee mutual funds to invest in. To help beginners and advanced experts alike wade through the pile of investment options available, Etrade provides plenty of online explanatory help with all types of stock screeners, customizable charts, and download-able software applications for your iPhone or Blackberry handheld devices – that you would need to pick out the winners.

If you’re an active trader, you might be able to qualify for lower trading costs, get better prices, and gain access to more advanced research tools through an Etrade program for advanced traders. E-Trade Complete Investment Accounts are automatically upgraded and qualified for an enhanced Power E-Trade Account when an account holder makes at least a minimum of 30 stock or option trades a calendar quarter. The enhanced Power Etrade tools offer frequent investors more advanced charting features and more in depth technical stock screeners for better viewing of complete marketing activity.

As for the universally dreaded account maintenance and inactivity fees that many brokerages impose, Etrade imposes none for retirement accounts such as IRA and Roths, and levies no monthly maintenance fees for new individual investment accounts for the first 12 months. Thereafter, so long as you maintain a brokerage balance of at least $2,000, maintain a linked Etrade bank and broker balance of at least $20,000, or execute at least one or more stock, option, or mutual fund trades per quarter – then you will avoid having to pay the quarterly assessed account service fee of $40. Etrade has apparently dropped the minimum balance required to avoid the quarterly assessed inactivity maintenance fee from the previous $10,000 in years past to the present, more manageable minimum balance of $2,000. As such, if you are a new investor with very little money to invest (less than $2,000 to play with), I’d recommend going with another brokerage firm like TradeKing or Scottrade. None of those two broker alternatives impose any maintenance or inactivity fees whatsoever. While Etrade’s account features and premium resources are much better than that provided by most other heavily discounted brokers, the fees and account maintenance terms and conditions of Etrade are much better paired up with those self directed investors who attend to trade more regularly or have more than minimal assets.

For the last week or so, I’ve been battling a particularly feisty spyware/virus infection on my home personal computer. I was using my desktop computer to browse the Internet like any other day when my PC’s performance suddenly started acting strange. One minute I was browsing the web, and the next minute my web browser was redirecting my Google search engine queries to a series of shady looking websites. Even my attempts to visit well known sites such as CNN.com or NYTimes.com by typing in the URL addresses directly into the web browser were mysteriously being redirected to adult themed websites or other advertisement filled home pages. Very soon after, a cleverly designed but obviously fake Windows Firewall alert message started popping up to warn that my computer had been infected by a Trojan virus – advising me to click on the provided link to access a supposed anti virus/anti spyware program that could get rid of it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until days after it all started that I finally realized that my computer had been maliciously hijacked and infected with either a worm or malware virus of some sort.

Dismay and concern immediately set in as I bemoaned the shear number of times I had used the compromised computer during the span of the last few days to check my Yahoo, Gmail, and business email accounts, and used the workstation to log into my confidential online bank and brokerage accounts. Who knows the number of confidential user login names and passwords I had unwittingly submitted using my infected computer that could very well now be in the hands of unknown criminals and evil-doers.

For those never infected by a computer worm, Trojan virus, or spyware download before and aren’t familiar with the telltale signs, you know your computer’s been infected when – strange things start happening when you’re simply doing routine work, files you originally had suddenly start disappearing, the operating system starts acting slow, or unfamiliar applications start installing themselves or strange alert messages start appearing on your screen. As a big fan and frequent user of music and movie P2P file sharing programs like LimeWire and Bit Torrent, I came to the conclusion that one of the files I had downloaded in recent days must have been infected and must’ve somehow bypassed my firewall filters and punched through my existing spyware programs and installed itself onto my computer as a parasite. While I had Trend Micro installed on my computer for some time now, I realized that I had neglected to renew my subscription and had not updated my virus definitions for some time, which may have been a contributory factor as to how the virus/spyware managed to infiltrate my computer’s defenses.

Scan Your Computer Regularly With Free Anti Spyware and Virus Software

When reality finally set in that my computer had been hacked, the first thing I did was grab my spare laptop computer (presumably clean and spyware-free), and log into all of my various email, bank, and brokerage accounts to change the passwords. Fortunately, none of my important online accounts appeared to be compromised, and no strange identity theft activities had taken place without my authorization – at least according to MyFICO ScoreWatch, the program I use to monitor and track changes to my personal credit reports. Next, I went about the task of figuring out which of the free anti virus and anti spyware software packages out there would do the best job of cleaning up the infection and ensure that such an occurrence would never happen again.

While in general, the very best online security programs such as Norton, McAfee, and TrendMicro usually require members to pay a subscription fee to gain access to their virus and spyware prevention products, there are quite a few comparably high quality alternatives out there that are available for free. Because each of the following tools utilize its own different and unique detection algorithm to scan for viruses and spywares, I recommend downloading a combination of two or three to get the maximum benefit. After spending a day or so of downloading and trying out most of the best programs, here are my recommended selections that I felt did the best job of completely ridding my computer of  pesky spyware bugs and viruses:

Best Free Anti Virus Scanning Software

1. AVG Anti Virus Free Edition: Strangely and rather interestingly, I’ve noticed that the free AVG virus/spyware algorithm frequently provides for a more thorough scan than that offered by paid software programs like Trend Micro. Go figure. AVG AntiVirus catches quite a few viruses that the others miss.
2. Avast! Home Edition: Highly recommended. Avast! Home Edition is not only light on system resources, but it also provides excellent real time scans for free.
3. Avira Anti Vir Personal: Great free application that automatically scans for and removes both viruses and spywares that lurk on your computer.

Best Free Spyware Detection and Removal Software

1. AVG Anti Spyware Free Edition: Scans for both viruses and your run of the mill malwares. Easy to use and does a very nice job of keeping your computer clean.
2. SUPER Anti Spyware: The aptly named SuperAntiSpyware program is truly super and highly recommended. The free edition is 100% free and will detect and remove thousands of spyware, adware, malware, trojans, key loggers, dialers, hi-jackers, and worms. The only downside is that the free version does not provide real time blocking or scheduled scans.
3. MalwareBytes AntiMalware: I recommend running both MalwareBytes along with Super Anti Spyware. Each is likely to pick up spyware not readily detected by the other due to differences in their detection algorithms.
4. AdAware Free: AdAware by Lavasoft is one of the oldest free anti-spyware programs available on the Internet and much of it remains the same. For no cost, the program offers a pretty decent, albeit stripped down, manual spyware detection option for your computer.

Free Online Virus Scanners

The following services offer premium virus scanning from popular brands via online interfaces. They’re all very easy to use and generally offer high detection rates. The major downside is that some require you to pay a membership fee to initiate a virus removal after one’s been detected. But nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to run a full computer scan on occasion using each of the following services to ensure a clean computer.

1. Panda Security Free AntiVirus Online
   
2. Kaspersky Lab Free Virus Scan
3. Trend Micro HouseCall
4. Eset Online Anti Virus Scanner
5. BitDefender Online Scanner
6. Symantec Security Scan
7. McAfee FreeScan
8. CA Online Threat Scanner

If you want maximum protection, I recommend using Norton or Trend Micro, along with at least one or two of the free anti virus and anti spyware programs listed above. When it comes to your precious computer files like personal photos, important Word documents, and applications you have saved in your hard drive, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

• Trend Micro Promo Offer: Trend Micro’s currently offering a limited time 10% discount on its virus and spyware program with Trend Micro promotion code: “trendpro”
• Norton Anti Virus Offer: Norton by Symantec is also currently touting special promotional savings deals for new customers.