Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $300 for checking, $200 for savings
- Availability: Requires opening in branch, all branches are located in the following states: AZ, FL, IL, IN, KS, MN, MO, WI, WA [Branch locator]
- Direct deposit required: Yes, at least two direct deposits
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: Up to $1,000, might code as cash advance in branch
- Monthly fees: $12, waivable
- Early account termination fee: $50 if closed within 90 days, you’ll also forfeit the bonus if you closed the account within six months.
- Household limit: None mentioned
- Expiration date: April 28th, 2017
The Offer
No direct link (see offer image below)
- BMO Harris are currently offering up to $500 in bonuses on their checking & savings accounts. Bonuses are as follows:
- $300 checking bonus:
- Bring this mailer (see below) to any BMO Harris Branch and open your checking account
- Complete at least two qualifying direct deposits within 90 days
- $200 savings bonus:
- Bring this mailer (see below) to any BMO Harris Branch and open a statement savings account with at least $10,000
- Main your $10,000 balance for 90 days
- $300 checking bonus:
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Your best option is to open the BMO Harris Everyday Checking ($10 monthly fee), the monthly fee is waived if you meet any of the following requirements:
- You receive an external deposit of $500 or more
- The minimum daily balance is $1,000 or more
- You’re a college student and you request a fee waiver. This will result in the account being fee free for a period of four years
- Your BMO Harris Select Checking® account meets its $10,000 minimum Combined Balance requirement, and you have requested we link this account to your BMO Harris Select Checking account to receive benefits under Relationship Waiver. (Monthly maintenance fee waiver is limited to one (1) BMO Harris Everyday Checking account.)
- Your BMO Harris Portfolio Checking® account meets its $25,000 minimum Combined Balance requirement, and you have requested we link this account to your BMO Harris Portfolio Checking account to receive benefits under Relationship Waiver. (Monthly maintenance fee waiver is limited to a total of two (2) BMO Harris Everyday Checking accounts.)
- Your Wealth Checking account meets its $25,000 minimum Average Daily Balance requirement, and you have requested we link this account to your Wealth Checking account to receive benefits under Relationship Waiver. (Monthly maintenance fee waiver is limited to a total of two (2) BMO Harris Everyday Checking accounts.)
Early Account Termination Fee
You need to keep your account open for a minimum of 120 days to keep the bonus, in addition to this if you closed it within 90 days you’ll be charged an additional $50. You also need to keep it open for six months or the bonus will be forfeited (this might not be the case anymore).
Our Verdict
There is a public nationwide $200 checking account bonus. Reader Curmudgeon was able to successfully get enrolled in this offer, they asked if anybody could just print out the flyer and enroll. He got this response: “He said the bank would prefer that people bring in the original flyer so they can verify their address against the flyer, but as long as they have that promo code then the bonus should work”. YAR tried to open with no flyer and was unsuccessful, Richard was also unsuccessful.
It seems like they might have a database of addresses they are verifying against, but who actually knows with BMO Harris because they are all over the place. I’d recommend trying to get something in writing about the bonus being applied to your account, or at least getting your bankers name if you decide to proceed with this bonus.
The savings bonus is likely worth considering as well as you’re getting a 2% return over just 90 days. If people could share their experiences in the comments below that would be fantastic. For now I won’t be adding it to our list of the best bank bonuses due to the fact that it’s so YMMV and we don’t have a lot of data points.
Big thanks to reader, Curmudgeon who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
3/20/17 – opened savings acct, deposited $10k
6/22/17 – $200 bonus paid
That brings me to a little more than $4000 so far this year in bonuses between my wife and I. 🙂
Thanks DoC!
Curmudgeon, do you remember when we can take out our $10k. I thought it was 120 days but I can’t find my flyer (banker gave it back to me).
DP :
2/21/17 opened both checking & savings, same day deposit of $10K
6/22/17 $200 bonus paid
For checking I forget, but I did payroll DD and I get paid monthly, so bonus posted in April.
The $10k needs to be kept in savings for at least 90 days.
The $200 savings bonus gets deposited within 30 days after that 90 day period is met. Mine posted about 24 days after meeting the requirement.
Once you get the bonus you’re free to move the funds out. I moved all of mine out (except enough to avoid a monthly fee) a few days after the bonus posted.
Bonus posted today, the 20th of the month. Used my mom’s address. She says she does not remember getting any fliers from them, so the address database verification may not be true.
Still waiting on my bonus to post. For those that ACH’d the DDs, what bank(s) did you use? Thanks in advance.
Just received exactly same mailer. It says the expiration date is Jun 30th.
Promo code is DMMAY17CHK500
Thanks, lots of other readers also getting it.
My $300 bonus posted 4/20, so either BMO Employee above is incorrect, or I was in fact targeted and didn’t know it. Either way, I got the higher bonus. 🙂
Still waiting for the savings bonus, but that’s a minimum of 90 days so I won’t see that until late May / early June at best.
Curm, did you use a legit DD or an ACH to satisfy the requirements? If an ACH, which bank, if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks much.
I used payroll direct deposit.
I work for BMO. Accounts opened using the promo code with the flyer are checked against an address database. You will not receive the bonus if you were not targeted. I saw the DP about being “upgraded” from the public offer, the only way you will get the bonus increase is if you received a flyer. We can type in whatever promotional code we want, however when the code is processed it will show you didn’t get the flyer and it will not post.
Was able to open in branch without the flier with no issues. The banker (super nice guy) confirmed the code would work, and to call him if I didn’t receive the bonus.
I’m still waiting for my bonus to post from 130 days ago from creating account. Had to create a service request case w/ BMO. YMMV
My BMO banker sent me a page from their internal guide on this bonus. One part reads:
“not available to existing BMO Harris personal checking customers (including signers on joint accounts) or those who have closed a BMO Harris personal checking account within the past 12 months.”
It looks like this deal will be highly branch- or banker-dependent. My banker upgraded me from the public $200 offer to this $300 + $200 offer before I even knew it was available so he certainly did me a favor.
I don’t have a better picture of the mailer since I found it on the web, but I did take it in and ask him about it. I think if you actually print it out and ask to use that promo code shown you’ll have a better chance.
I have doubts that the code is geographically limited since my banker confirmed it was the right code. So either everyone uses the same code, or somehow I managed to find the only version floating around that works for the Kansas/Missouri market.
Thanks for all the info like always Curm 🙂