This bonus has now expired, but don’t worry BMO Harris is instead offering a $200 bonus which you can read about here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $150
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: $300
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: Up to $1,000
- Monthly fees: $10, 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.
- Expiration date: July 30th, 2015
The Offer
- Open a BMO Harris checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $150 when you receive a qualifying recurring direct deposit of $300 or more
The Fine Print
- Offer is valid for a new BMO Harris Everyday Checking®, BMO Harris Select Checking® or BMO Harris Portfolio Checking®
- Offer not available to existing BMO Harris personal checking account customers or those who have closed a BMO Harris personal checking account within the past 60 days
- Customers may receive only one BMO Harris checking account-related incentive, reward or bonus per calendar year
- Qualifying direct deposits” are recurring direct deposits of a paycheck, pension payment, Social Security payment, or other government benefits payment electronically deposited into your new personal checking account on a recurring basis, at least monthly, from an employer or an outside agency
- First direct deposit must hit account within 60 days of account opening
- They reserve the right to request documentation to support that the direct deposits are qualifying direct deposits
- Bonus will be paid out within approximately 120 days of account opening
- Account must be kept open for at least six months
- You must pay taxes on all bank account bonuses
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 six months to keep the bonus, in addition to this if you closed it within 90 days you’ll be charged an additional $50.
Our Verdict
This is a great bonus and one that I’d recommend most people sign up for. Here is what I’d recommend doing:
- Open the every day account, use a credit card to fund $1,000 (this will earn you credit card points and give you enough in the account to keep it fee free. You can see what credit cards have/haven’t coded as a cash advance here for BMO Harris)
- Set up a direct deposit of $300+ for four months, you can see what has worked as a direct deposit in the past here, you can also transfer money out of the account so your balance sits at $1,000 to avoid losing too much in interest.
- Wait for the bonus to post
- Wait six months, close account
It looks like BMO Harris is another bank that specifically allows you to churn bank bonuses once per year, much like the Chase bank bonuses. We’ve added this bonus to our list of recommended bank bonuses, which can be found here.
Last year BMO Harris offered a similar promotion, but for $200 instead of $150. It looks like people that partook in that promotion should be able to take part in this as long as they received the bonus last year and it’s been at least six months since the account was closed.
My one and only concern with this bonus is that they have the right to request proof that your direct deposit is legit, because of this it might make sense to not do $300 exactly, as this doesn’t look like a real pay check or government benefit. If possible, change your real payroll.
Hat tip to Ethan S
