BMO Bank Review 2024

BMO’s products and services are geared toward a broad range of customers both in the U.S. and globally, from modest income earners to the wealthy. The bank maintains more than 1,000 branches, and many of its deposit accounts can also be opened online. While the bank offers a full suite of banking and loan products, yields on some of its deposit products are below average.

Customer support

Branch availability. BMO has a limited brick-and-mortar presence, with approximately 1,000 branches across 24 states. 

Service hours. The customer service line is open for general inquiries from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. CT on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. CT on weekends. However, lost cards can be reported at any time of day.  There is also an online customer support form. “BMOs support team was helpful,” said a Bankrate staff member with a BMO account. “It was easy to get in touch with a real person, and they were knowledgeable about both the features of their application and the laws and regulations regarding the transferring of money.” 

Cash bonus. As of this writing, BMO is offering a $250 cash bonus to those who open either a Smart Advantage or a Smart Money checking account and meet qualifying direct deposit requirements within the first 90 days. A $400 cash bonus is being offered to those who open a Relationship Checking account and meet qualifying direct deposit requirements within the first 90 days.

Digital experience

Highly rated app. BMO Bank’s mobile app has a high rating on the Apple App and Google Play stores. Collectively, more than 100,000 users have rated the app. It offers digital tools needed to monitor and manage accounts. The bank's Total Look tool lets you manage all your accounts, even non-BMO accounts, in one place, create a budget and track your spending. BMO also allows peer-to-peer payments with Zelle.

However, a Bankrate staff member with a BMO account noted that the app can be buggy at times. “The app had some odd quirks when transferring money to external accounts,” the staff member said. “Depending where you clicked that option, you would potentially get an error stating ‘this feature is not available for your account.’” Moreover, this staff member’s tax forms weren’t uploaded to the website or app, even though they should’ve been available.

The above images were last updated on March 13, 2024.

BMO is one of the largest banks in North America by assets. It is headquartered in Chicago. The Bank of Montreal is BMO’s parent company and BMO Financial Corp. is its U.S. holding company. BMO’s roots date to the mid-1800s. In all, BMO provides personal and commercial banking to more than 12 million customers globally.

Insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., it has more than 1,000 branches in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

In September 2022, the bank began a phased approach of updating its name and logo from “BMO Harris” to simply “BMO,” citing the fact that 4 out of 10 personal banking customers already leave off “Harris Bank” when describing their relationship with the bank.

In April 2023, BMO launched an online bank called BMO Alto. It offers a high-yield savings account and six terms of CDs that earn competitive yields. None of the accounts require a minimum balance.

Both BMO and Chase maintain bank branches — although Chase operates a much larger branch footprint that spans all 48 contiguous states, whereas BMO branches exist in only 22 states. BMO provides access to more ATMs, however, since it’s part of the Allpoint network of over 40,000 ATMs. By comparison, Chase operates 16,000 ATMs. Both banks allow customers to open some accounts online.

As far as monthly maintenance fees, both BMO and Chase offer deposit accounts with either no such fees or ones that are easy to waive by meeting manageable minimum balance requirements. If you’re looking for competitive savings account rates, however, you’ll want to look elsewhere, since both banks’ savings accounts earn rock-bottom yields.

BMO offers competitive standard CD rates to customers who live in states where the bank doesn’t maintain branches; otherwise, its standard CD rates are low. At Chase, standard CD rates are very low across the board. BMO also offers five promotional CDs earning competitive rates. Chase offers featured CDs that earn higher rates than its standard CDs when customers earn the relationship rates, but higher CD rates can still be found elsewhere.