5 Features to look for in the best online banks

By Kelly Richardson

The tech revolution encourages us to perform many of life's tasks on the Internet--and banking is no exception. So rather than fight upstream, I decided a few years ago to try online banking. I was with one of the major players in the industry, so naturally I went with the Internet banking interface that they offered--which turned out to be a major mistake. Here's why.

First, opting to bank online meant that they expected me to no longer need the assistance of branch tellers and charged me hefty fees if I did. Next, getting online help was a purely stressful process--the FAQs were hardly any help and the toll-free number was frequently busy. And, finally, they imposed a monthly fee to download my own banking records to the financial management software I used on my local machine. Long story made short--my foray into online banking was frustrating to say the least.

However, there is a golden lining to this story. And that lining is choice.

Online banks have sprung up all over the World Wide Web, giving you and me the option of comparing institutions to choose from the online banks that actually want our business. So I compiled a quick list of the 5 features that the best online banks possess in hopes you'll follow me to financial bliss.

1. The best online banks take your privacy seriously.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has published a set of guidelines that

By Gina Pogol

As a business writer and editor, I spend a large part of my day keeping up with economic news (these days that usually involves watching helplessly as financial poop hits the proverbial fan) and working up a lot of indignation over the country's economic state. So it's been a very long time since I spared a thought for credit unions, but they're worth paying attention to.

Credit unions: the historical prospective

Credit unions were a natural outgrowth of the medieval guild system in Europe, which provided business services to their members. The first modern credit union was formed in Germany during the Industrial Revolution in 1864, and the first credit union in the U.S. was started in Massachusetts in 1909. However, credit unions were slow to win acceptance here, probably because Americans like that whole rugged individualism thing and co-ops are for sissies...

Credit unions: yawn

Traditional, yes -- but credit unions are not sexy or hip. They don't have mascots and they don't own football stadiums. You won't find a lot of bells and whistles and gee-whiz at your local credit union. But you also won't find a CEO making gazillions of dollars while amassing a worthless subprime portfolio and begging for a bailout.

What makes credit unions different?

Credit unions are run for the benefit of their members. Here is a list of the characteristics that define credit unions:

• Non-profit cooperatives
• Owned by members
• Run mostly by volunteer board members

On the other hand, most depository

By MoneyBlueBook

Special Promo Offer: For New OptionsHouse Accounts

Whether you're a buy and hold investor or a savvy trader of penny stocks, I'm pretty sure commissions and fees are a few of those brokerage conditions that you pay particular attention to. If you aren't too concerned with them, then perhaps you ought to be. After all, high fees and hidden trading costs have a nasty way of surreptitiously consuming huge chunks of your potential stock gains and profits. Nowadays, there really is no reason why any investor ought to pay full price for his or her stock investing needs. There are a broad range of heavily discounted brokerage firms to choose from, each offering its own unique online trading experience and each touting its own unique mix of low fees and hassle free conditions.

If you're not completely new to the world of investing, I recommend checking out OptionsHouse, a fairly intriguing newish entrant to the discount broker foray. While the name OptionsHouse may be unfamiliar to those not intimately plugged into investment circles, the company is a fairly established company, associated and backed by PEAK6 Investments, one of the biggest options trading brokerage companies around. Despite the "options" moniker in its name, the firm is not an exclusive options trading firm as it provides a large wealth of resources for stock trading as well.���� While options trading is its primary expertise and specialty, the company still caters to the stock and fund investors out there - touting trading rates that are some of the

By MoneyBlueBook

If you're searching for a list of the best online banks for your savings, 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 on 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 in more accessible bank accounts for emergency fund purposes. Some like myself also use high interest savings accounts to save up money for specific purposes -- in my case, I'm saving up for a future down payment on 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, I've compiled below a list of what I believe to be the best online banks available today -- banks that offer the best deals for high yield savings accounts. Many of the recommended firms are also very competitive in the areas of certificates of deposit (CDs) and checking accounts as well.

By MoneyBlueBook

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

By MoneyBlueBook

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