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Is Your Online Broker Living Up to His or Her Promise

Other reasons to switch include poor customer service (nobody picks up the phone no matter how long you wait or when you call), difficulty accessing the web site, confusion navigating the web site or limited trading platforms.

If the only way to trade is online—you can't even do telephone trading or broker-assisted trading if you want to, even if it means paying more—it may be time to switch.

Whether it's a high volume of trading activity on the broker's web site, or you're having a thunderstorm and you've lost Internet access, a lot can happen to prevent you from being able to trade online. (Can your online broker do THIS?)

You want to know you can at least talk to the broker on the phone if there's a problem.

Finally, if you're getting nickeled and dimed to death with fees for everything from paper statements to switching out of mutual funds too quickly, it's time to switch.

NEXT: How to Move Your Brokerage Account