Most people know how to buy or sell a stock, but many are too lazy to bother looking into the different features that each brokerage firm offers. Here are a few ways that an online broker tries to help its customers.

Some brokers offer retirement planning tools to see how your portfolio is doing for the long term. It would give you investment suggestions according to your goals to make sure you are on the right track.

You may not see stock broker and credit cards mixing but the best cash back credit cards are actually offered by stock brokers. Of course, they are offering it to get your business but I will take any advantages I can get.

Brokers will bill pay is ultra flexible, especially when combined with a margin account. No, you shouldn’t borrow money to pay your bills but the extra leeway is convenient when you need a few days to transfer your funds.

The higher end brokers are adding security by offering a security token. The physical token updates its pin to make sure that you actually own the token when you are logging in.

Stock brokers really want you to use their account, so they are going to give you an ATM card and reimburse you any fees that you incur while withdrawing money through ATMs. It’s really convenient.

Some online stock brokers come with physical branches, and may have employees there that can offer investment advices. They also provide face to face technical support should you have any questions with the account.

Several online brokers actually charge you trade commissions to reinvest your dividends. How outrages is that? Before you sign up, make sure you know what you are getting into.

Multiple brokers are starting to offer a high yield savings account along with the investment account. This is great because you can use it as a cash sweep account and earn high yields.