Update 9/19/23: Deal is back and increased from $300 to $400 and $500 to $600. Valid until December 8, 2023.
Update 5/21/23: Bonuses are now $300/$500.
Update 5/16/23: Bonus has been extended until September 15, 2023
Update 2/5/23: Extended until 5/12/23.
Update 11/1/22: Bonus has been reduced to $250/$400.
Update 6/12/22: Bonus has been increased back to $300/$500.
Update 5/3/22: Extended until May 31st.
Update 2/21/22: now $250 and $400 until April 29, 2022
Update 1/5/22: Deal is back and valid until January 31, 2022.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $500
- Availability:
Must open in branch, all branches are locatedCan be opened online in AZ, FL, IL, IN, KS, MO, MN and WI. I imagine out of state applications will work in branch. [Branch locator] - Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: Cannot fund with a credit card
- Monthly fees: $15-$20
- Early account termination fee: $20 if closed within 90 days, bonus will post after 120 days
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date:
October 31st, 2018October 31st, 2019January 31st, 2020 September 30th, 2020 January 31, 2021April 30, 2021.May 31, 2021
The Offer
- BMO Harris is offering two business checking bonuses. Both require opening an account in branch. They are as follows:
- $300 Essential Business Checking bonus:
- Open a new Essential Business Checking account between June 4, 2022 and September 30, 2022
- Deposit at least $5,000 within 30 days of account opening.
- Once your balance reaches $5,000, your balance cannot drop below $5,000 for the next 90 days.
- Have at least 10 electronic transactions post to the account within 90 days of account opening. Electronic transactions can be any combination of ACH credits or debits, online bill payments, mobile deposits, wire transfers or debit card POS purchase transactions. ATM transactions and POS credits do not qualify.
- $500 Business Advantage Checking bonus:
- Open a new Business Advantage Checking account between June 4, 2022 and September 30, 2022
- Deposit at least $10,000 within 30 days of account opening.
- Once your balance reaches $10,000, your balance cannot drop below $5,000 for the next 90 days.
- Have at least 10 electronic transactions post to the account within 90 days of account opening. Electronic transactions can be any combination of ACH credits or debits, online bill payments, mobile deposits, wire transfers or debit card POS purchase transactions. ATM transactions and POS credits do not qualify.
The Fine Print
- You can receive either the $200 checking bonus or the $500 checking bonus.
- To receive a checking bonus, you must open the account in a BMO Harris branch and present the promo code email from BMO Harris.
- Your account must be open and in good standing when the bonus is paid approximately 120 days after opening.
- For Business Advantage Checking, the accrued interest will be increased by the amount of the bonus.
- The accrued interest will be credited at the next scheduled interest payment, which may be after the 120 days.
- Offers are not available to existing BMO Harris business checking customers or those who have closed a BMO Harris business checking account within the past 12 months.
- Bonus is not considered part of the opening deposit and will be reported to the IRS for tax purposes.
- You are responsible for any applicable taxes.
- Offers are subject to change without notice, cannot be combined with any other offer and are limited to one per customer. The minimum deposit to open a small business checking account is $100, however to receive the bonus you must open the account with the minimum as stated below.
- To receive the $200 checking bonus: 1) Open a new Essential Business Checking account between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019. 2) Make a minimum opening deposit of $1,500 in funds not currently on deposit at BMO Harris Bank or its affiliates. 3) Maintain a minimum daily balance of at least $1,500 in the account for 90 days following account opening. 4) Have at least 10 electronic transactions post to the account within 90 days of account opening. Electronic transactions can be any combination of ACH credits or debits, online bill payments, mobile deposits, wire transfers or debit card POS purchase transactions. ATM transactions and POS credits do not qualify.
- To receive the $500 checking bonus: 1) Open a new Business Advantage Checking account between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019. 2) Make a minimum opening deposit of $5,000 in funds not currently on deposit at BMO Harris Bank or its affiliates. 3) Maintain a minimum daily balance of at least $5,000 in the account for 90 days following account opening. 4) Have at least 10 electronic transactions post to the account within 90 days of account opening. Electronic transactions can be any combination of ACH credits or debits, online bill payments, mobile deposits, wire transfers or debit card POS purchase transactions. ATM transactions and POS credits do not qualify.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
You don’t need a specific account currently and the first three months of fees are waived. After that the fees are as follows:
- Simple Biz Checking. Requires a $100 monthly balance
- Essential business checking: $15 monthly maintenance fee. Waived with $1,500 average collected balance
- Business Advantage checking: $20 monthly maintenance fee. Waived with $5,000 average collected balance
Our Verdict
Seems like a great deal to me, the requirements should be fairly easy to meet for most people. What bonus you go for will likely depend on whether you can float $5,000 or not, the $500 deal is definitely better if you can. Either way both deals are a return of 10% over the course for 120 days or so (annualized return of 30%+). That’s the good news, the bad news is that BMO Harris is known for slow bonus posting and having to manually follow up to get your bonus. If you don’t believe me please read the comments on the personal bonus. Given that this has an in branch component and it’s for businesses, I’m hopeful that the bonus posting will be easier. Either way I’d get the contact details of your bank and a reference number for your application when signing up so you have a good point of contact if anything goes wrong. I’ll be adding this to our best business checking bonuses for sure.
Also since I’m sure some people won’t read the fine print, yes you’ll be able to get this bonus even if you’ve received a bonus on the personal account and even if you still have that personal account.
Hat tip to abhirupduttamit
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- 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
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Post history:
- Offer extended to October 29, 2021
- Update 7/12/21: Valid until September 30, 2021.
- Update 6/30/21: Deal is back and valid until July 11, 2021. Hat tip to Ted
- Update 5/11/21: Deal has been extended until May 31, 2021.
- Update 2/12/21: Deal has been extended until April 30th 21. Hat tip to Carl J
- Deal has been extended until January 31, 2021.Update 7/18/20: Deal is back until September 30th, 2020. Hat tip to reader Carl
- Update 2/1/20: Deal has been extended until April 30th, 2020. Length of time the money needs to stay in the account has changed from 60 to 90 days
- Update 11/3/19: Bonus extended until January 31st, 2020.
Was anyone else able to open an account and complete the bonus without uploading business registration? It asked for one during the application process and I closed the tab, then I got a email 5 min later saying my account was opened regardless..
I understand minimum deposit is a 100usd, but once open how long do I have to get the 4k into the account? And can the money be transfered from my personal BMO? Im trying to get both bonuses, 400usd in personal checking for 4k DD in 120days n 400usd in biz checking for keeping 4k for 120days. Both accounts r w my SSN as I’m sole prop, n both into the same home banking, same phone, different emails tho… Am I good to go?
Has anyone open both BMO accounts together? the personal and the business checking? I nkow the business checking makes u sit 4k for 120usd for 400usd, which doesnt seem ideal tho, when the personal is only DD 4k or 7.5l for 400 or 600usd respectively. thanks ref:
personal:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/il-wi-mn-in-az-fl-ks-mo-bmo-harris-350-checking-300-savings-bonus/
biz:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/az-fl-il-ks-mo-mn-wi-bmo-harris-200-500-business-checking-bonus/
So, is this opened nationwide now? It’s letting me progress….
Opened July 24th, received $300 bonus pending today.
My opening ACH deposit of 10k took a mind bending 17 calendar days to hit, 10 of which I did not even know my account was open yet. Get 10.1k in ASAP like the other posters.
So P1 approved just fine, P2 was declined based on ChexSystems (? better than P1’s)
Your QualiFile score: 0619 Date of QualiFile score: 11/14/2023
Key factors that adversely affected your QualiFile score:
I6 PUBLIC RECORD TIME AT BUSINESS INQUIRY ADDRESS
I1 INSUFFICIENT BUSINESS DDA INQUIRY HISTORY
I4 PUBLIC RECORD PHONE TYPE ON BUSINESS
I3 INSUFFICIENT BUSINESS DDA ACTIVITY SAME FI
Also, it doesn’t appear that P2’s Chex report was actually pulled? So not really sure what basis was to deny but doesn’t seem it was Chex… (P2 did open personal account with Bmo ~2 months ago, P1 longer ago, not sure if it matters).
How timely, this just happened to P2 here, too. She was on the phone with reps for over an hour and they were zero help.
From BMO’s declination letter:
Your QualiFile score: 0619 Date of QualiFile score: 11/11/2023
Key factors that adversely affected your QualiFile score:
I6 PUBLIC RECORD TIME AT BUSINESS INQUIRY ADDRESS
I1 INSUFFICIENT BUSINESS DDA INQUIRY HISTORY
I4 PUBLIC RECORD PHONE TYPE ON BUSINESS
I3 INSUFFICIENT BUSINESS DDA ACTIVITY SAME FI
From the Chex report:
Reason Code Description
1.GC UNIQUE DDA INQUIRY ACTIVITY
2.GB TIME SINCE DDA INQUIRY ACTIVITY
3.GD INSUFFICIENT DDA INQUIRY ACTIVITY SAME FI
4.GE RECENT UNIQUE FI DDA INQUIRY HISTORY
It seems like they may be they pulling a different Chex report – is your P2’s business address different from the home address? My business and personal address are the same and I didn’t have any issues, but my P2 has a “real” one with an office and everything.
Thanks! My P2 used same address for home and business (which is same one I used). Agree they seem to be pulling some other report though.
Btw, where did the “From the Chex report” come from? Personal Chex report? Chex score report? Thanks!
There are actually two reports available from Chex.
The first is the consumer disclosure, which is what most people are referring to when they talk about Chex; that one has the list of inquiries.. The second is the consumer score report, which is where that 0619 number comes from. You can access both by opening the Request Reports menu in the upper-left corner.
I suspect there may be two different profiles since neither the numerical scores and the descriptions match, and my P2’s work address and phone number don’t appear on the file.
Got it, thanks. Did you P2 have a BofA Business Checking account whereas you did not, by chance? That is only other difference I can think of between P2 and myself. Also, I have had my personal BMO account longer, but doubt that makes a huge difference (several months’ difference at the most).
She did have a BoA account years ago, but it would have been closed quite a while ago. I did open a BoA business CD a few months ago, but this was maybe half a year after I opened my BMO accounts.
In other news, she called Chex today and apparently there is a separate business report that cannot be accessed online – you have to either submit a request via mail or over the phone. She opted to do it while she was on the line and they asked a bunch of questions about old business address, business names, etc.. Seems like quite a hassle but we should be receiving this mystery report sometime in the next week or so.
Thanks for sharing about the separate business report from ChexSystems. Interesting, I don’t find any mention of it on their website, and certainly not the form to mail to request it. Let us know when your P2 receives the report, please. Thanks!
Just called today. No specific form. To request the ChexSystems Business Disclosure Report, mail a letter with:
Name of Business
Tax ID or EIN number
Relationship with business (i.e., Manager, Owner, etc)
Current physical and mailing address
Any addresses that you have used in past 5 years for business
to
P.O. Box 583399
Minneapolis, MN 55458
Is P2’s Chex decline an online or in branch app? Also, did they hard or soft pull P2’s credit report?
Online app. No hard pulls on credit. Haven’t checked for soft pulls sorry. But again no Chex pull either.
Some small oddities of business account:
– shows up in online login but when send secure message asking to verify promotion they ask to call
– no way to use the online activation instructions as it only sees personal debit card, phone call method works fine though
their system is paradoxical, i had to add a new # to login, then goto bank transfer page to verify the existing email and phone. So you must do the verification on the 1st go.
Thanks for sharing your datapoint!
The bonuses of this bussiness account and personal account do not affect each other, right? Thanks.
From the fine print:
“Offers are not available to existing BMO Harris business checking customers or those who have closed a BMO Harris business checking account within the past 12 months.”
From DoC’s post:
“Also since I’m sure some people won’t read the fine print, yes you’ll be able to get this bonus even if you’ve received a bonus on the personal account and even if you still have that personal account.”
Since I’m sure some people won’t read DoC’s post either, the answer to Eason’s question is yes.
I read the term and I want to confirm it. I just opened a personal account, thank you very much.
If you plan on applying for BMO, don’t use Chrome or Safari. I errored out with both of these, and then finally got through with Microsoft Edge.
I applied using my business EIN and immediately received an email requesting I upload proof of my tax identity number (TIN). Uploaded a copy of the EIN form I received from the IRS, and then was approved less than an hour later.
I’m going for the $600 bonus, and I don’t use paper checks (all digital banking here 😃) so I plan on doing an ACH transfer of $11K by day 10 to meet the average collected balance requirement. And then will do $1 ACH pushes to meet the other requirement.
1) How do you withdraw money from BMO business account without signing up for $40/month separate “online banking for business” account? From BMO digital account, which is free, there are NO EXTERNAL transfers allowed.
What is everyone doing for the 10 qualifying transactions? Definition seems pretty broad …
I did ten $1 ACH pushes.
Thanks! It worked to get the bonus? Or don’t know yet?
Ten ACH credits (of any amount) that post within 120 days of account opening satisfy the transactions requirement:
“3) Have at least ten (10) electronic transactions post to the account within 120 days of account opening. Electronic transactions can be any combination of: ACH credits or debits, real-time payments, online bill payments, mobile deposits, wire transfers or debit card POS purchase transactions. ATM transactions and POS credits do not qualify as electronic transactions.”
Thanks!