Online brokerage accounts have turned the brick-and-mortar brokerage firms of yesteryear into dinosaurs. Why deal with an account manager on the phone or in-person when you’re granted complete autonomy over your account through 24/7 online access? Not to mention lower commissions, and bonus offers when first signing up.

These are our favorite online brokerage accounts.

ShareBuilder

ShareBuilder, owned by ING DIRECT, provides a user-friendly and rapid-fast way of transferring funds from your bank into your brokerage account, or ING deposit account. External account transfers are similarly pain-free. When you subscribe to their Advantage program, the rate per online trade is an affordable $7.95. Otherwise it’s $9.95. So it makes sense to sign up. Easy, cost-effective, reasonable rates . . . why not?

OptionsHouse

OptionsHouse offers lots of freebies, and displays quality streaming charts. Their regular commission for stock trades is cheap (just $3.95). Signing up now comes with 100 commission-free-trades, which amounts to a hefty $395 of free trading (click here).

Sweet deal.

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade provides solid overall research tools and reliable support. However, its commission rate stands a bit higher than the competitors at $9.99.

E*Trade

Same as TD Ameritrade, the commission rate is $9.99. However, that rate drops to $7.99 after 150 trades per quarter. Most people are familiar with E*Trade from the company’s ubiquitous marketing campaigns. They’re everywhere—commercials, the sides of buses. Although their service is dependable, competitors continue to bite away at them with lower rates. Signing up now, though, you can earn free trades for the first 60 days.

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