Best BMO Chequing Accounts In Canada For December 2024

We’ve compared 123 chequing accounts at 19 nationally available banks and credit unions to find some of the best options available. See below to learn more about why we picked each account, the pros and cons, and to access individual bank reviews.

• BMO Plus
• BMO Performance
• BMO Practical
• BMO Air Miles
• BMO Premium

Some of the BMO accounts come with additional benefits, as you can see listed in the summaries above. Often these benefits are additional perks and discounts for other BMO financial products. Common benefits include discounts on annual credit card fees and fees waived for specific BMO savings accounts. The accounts with the higher monthly fees have the most benefits.

While some of these best BMO chequing accounts are labelled as unlimited, there are still some fees and charges to be aware of. Although, some accounts will waive the below fees and/or have special offers for them:

• ATM Fees: Non-BMO ATMS will incur a fee of $2 per withdrawal in Canada and $5 per withdrawal outside of the country.
• Global Money Transfer: $5 per transfer.
• Standard overdraft protection: $5 per month.
• Excess Transaction Fees: $1.25 per transaction.

Right now, BMO is offering new clients who open specific chequing accounts a welcome bonus. These range in amount depending on the type of account, but for those BMO accounts discussed above, here are the current offers:

• BMO Plus: $100
• BMO Performance: Up to $700
• BMO Practical: No welcome bonus offer at this time
• BMO Air Miles: No welcome bonus
• BMO Premium: Up to $700

Note: You may be required to take some extra steps to receive these welcome bonuses.

Opening a BMO chequing account is relatively straightforward and can be done physically in person by visiting a branch or, if you prefer, online.

If you would like to do it in person, visit the nearest BMO branch and meet with a representative. Let them know which account you would like to open and they will guide you through the process. To open a BMO chequing account, you will need appropriate documentation. Note that these documents need to be originals, not photocopies.

The documents will need to show two pieces of information:. one will have to have your name and address and the other has to have your name and date of birth. These can include government-issued IDs, such as a passport or driver’s license, Canadian utility bills, tax documents, credit cards or banking statements, etc.

How to Open a BMO Chequing Account Online

BMO also allows you to open a chequing account online. To do this, you can click on the page of the account you would like to open and follow the instructions. If you are already a customer, a lot of your identifying details will already be in BMO’s system. If not, you will need to disclose . Follow the steps as listed to open your bank account online.

BMO is one of Canada’s “Big Six” banks. It’s been around for years and is used by thousands of Canadians every day. There’s a lot of trust when it comes to this bank, especially with older generations who appreciate brick-and-mortar locations. But, unsurprisingly, reviews are very skewed.

If you look at Trustpilot, you will see plenty of one and two star reviews. However, reading through, you will also notice many of these complaints are about scam calls from people pretending to be BMO, poor timing for system upgrades, and long wait times for phone calls.

Perhaps a better way to judge is by reading the Google reviews of BMO the branches in your neighbourhood. Of course, these also vary in scope, but they are more reflective of the individuals that you are most likely to deal with for your banking needs. A quick look at a few reviews for BMO locations across Ontario show, on average, many branches have three to four stars out of five.

To create this list, Forbes Advisor analyzed 123 savings accounts at 39 financial institutions, including a mix of traditional brick-and-mortar banks, online banks and credit unions. We ranked each account on 17 data points within the categories of fees, access, customer experience, digital experience, annual percentage yield, plus the minimums and balance needed to avoid the monthly maintenance fee.

The following is the weighting assigned to each category:

• Fees: 50%
• Branch and ATM access: 15%
• Customer experience: 10%
• Digital experience: 10%
• Minimums: 10%
• Balance to avoid monthly fee: 5%

Specific characteristics taken into consideration within each category included monthly fee, ability to waive the monthly fee, overdraft fee, NSF fee, other fees, ATM network, branch access, Better Business Bureau rating, Trustpilot rating, live chat availability, mobile app ratings, online bill pay availability, online banking access, minimum deposit requirements and minimum balance requirements.

Chequing accounts offering no or very low fees scored the highest, as did those offering low minimum requirements and high customer service and digital experience scores. To appear on this list, the chequing account must be nationally available.

Our research is based on information from the following financial institutions: RBC, TD, BMO, National Bank, CIBC, Scotiabank, UNI Financial, Canadian Western Bank, Coast Capital Savings, Digital Commerce Bank, EQ Bank, First Nations Bank of Canada, Laurentian Bank, Manulife Bank, Motus Bank, Peoples Bank of Canada, Simplii Financial, Tangerine Bank, VanCity, VersaBank, HSBC, Home Bank, ICICI Bank Canada, SBI Canada Bank, CTBC Bank, Bank of China (Canada), KEB Hana Bank Canada, Shinhan Bank Canada, Meridian Credit Union, Servus Credit Union, Envision Financial, Steinbach Credit Union, Affinity Credit Union, Prospera Credit Union, Conexus Credit Union, ConnectFirst Credit Union, Access Credit Union, Assiniboine Credit Union.