3 top lists of the 5 best online brokers

By Peter Andrew

Broker ages

I have an uncle who's a multimillionaire. And he's always talking about the latest call he's received from his broker. When I was a kid, I somehow pictured the person who called him as a thin, elderly gentleman with parchment-thin skin, wearing a morning coat and wing collar, like one of those plutocrats that they used to feature in 1930s Hollywood movies.

But I was wrong. Even when I was a little boy, brokerages employed thrusting young people who were as far away from the top hat stereotype as you could get. And you can get a lot further now. Because today there are two sorts of brokerages: those that provide proactive, personal service and advice to high net worth individuals such as my uncle, and those that offer do-it-yourself online trading environments that are open to everyone.

Discount brokers

Traditional brokers call up clients with hot tips and recommendations that supposedly provide investors with an inside track. But that comes at an eye-watering price, and it's not at all clear that their record of spotting likely winners is as good as they sometimes claim.

Discount brokers often have the same information online that their traditional counterparts offer, but it's up to you to dig it out, and act upon it. The good news is that their fees are a tiny fraction of those changed in the high-end part of the brokerage market. So now the question is:

By Peter Andrew

Student checking accounts in ancient history

As a student, I had a novel approach to the management of my personal finances. Let's call it the Ostrich Strategy because it mainly involved burying my head in the sand. Each semester various bank statements and (I assumed) increasingly threatening letters arrived from my bank, and these were carefully filed--invariably unopened--in a box under my bed. Twice a year, they were ceremoniously transferred from the box, the envelopes still sealed, into the nearest trash can.

The Ostrich Strategy worked well for me for two main reasons. First, the bank manager was a friend of my parents, and knew that I (or they) would eventually make good on my overdraft. And, secondly, it all happened a long time ago, in those distant days before credit scoring took off.

Student checking accounts now

You may or may not envy me the cavalier approach I was able to take toward my student finances, but one thing's for sure. Today if you try doing what I did some decades ago

by mimicking the behavior of Struthio camelus, you're likely to mess up big time. A dodgy credit score can give you a worse hangover than a frat house party, and it's one that's going to last for years after you graduate.

The good news is not only that you're almost certainly more responsible than I used to be, but also that you

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 Maricelle Ruiz-Calderon

When I got my first credit card, I didn't know too much about how to use one, or the benefits, or drawbacks of credit cards. I didn't shop around - I simply accepted the credit card that my bank provided. Luckily for me, it offered a good deal and my family advised me to never charge unnecessary expenses. Even so, there are definitely some things I wish I knew about credit cards back then.

Credit Cards 101

Since a credit card is a loan, MasterCard recommends that you pay by the end of the month or as soon as possible to avoid interest charges. If you use your credit card responsibly, you should obtain a high credit score, enabling you to take out other loans to pay for school, a car and a home.

"[A credit card] can be very helpful in case of emergency and definitely help in establishing a credit record," Mary Sommers, financial aid director at the University of Nebraska, tells Omaha.com. "If you have no credit record and you've paid cash all your life, you may be a very good money manager, but you're still going to have trouble getting a house mortgage or a car loan."

However, irresponsible credit card use can definitely hurt, including keeping you from getting a job out of college, so make sure you have a plan for credit card use prior to getting one.

Here are a few credit cards

By Marcia Passos Duffy

I have to laugh when I see the interest my bank deposits into my checking and savings accounts each month. It is barely worth the effort to add in the pennies (but I do).

But if you think, like I once did, that you are doomed to get low percentage rates on any money you have squirreled away in you bank, you are mistaken. You don't have to settle for miserly interest rates -- particularly if you have enough accumulated in your combined checking and savings accounts to open up a "rewards" checking account.

Rewards checking accounts are typically no-fee, no minimum deposit, and can earn up to 3 to 6 percent in annual percentage yield (APY). This is higher than most savings accounts, CDs, and even money market rates. What's the catch? Well, there are actually five.

The basics of a rewards checking account

To get the "reward" of a high interest rate checking account you do need to fulfill some basic conditions (banks may vary on conditions), but these are generally what's required:

One other important catch: The highest interest rates for rewards checking accounts are often given by local and regional banks, and credit

By Joe Taylor Jr.

Instead of flooding my mailbox with balance transfer offers, lenders have been bombarding my web browser and my DVR with ads that make me believe that picking the right credit card can help me live the good life. And while I still would love some help knocking down the interest on a few emergency purchases I made with plastic, the Chase Freedom credit card could convince me to cash in on my love for keeping my wallet streamlined.

The recession forced many lenders to rethink their approach to customer service, and Chase certainly took its lumps after trying to swallow what some folks call a forced acquisition of Washington Mutual's credit card portfolio. In line with the times, the Chase Freedom card forces critics to take a second look at five compelling features designed to help consumers use credit responsibly.

Getting debt-free beats no balance transfer fee

First, the down side. Chase Freedom is one of those cards that carry a five percent processing fee for balance transfers. Unless you qualify for the lowest possible APR on the card and you're transferring a balance from a card with very high finance charges, switching to a Chase Freedom wouldn't be a good move on that count.

However, Chase Freedom is the first card in a long time that helps you strive to become debt-free. Chase used the Freedom card to pilot its "Blueprint" series of online account tools. The