BMO Harris Bank Review 2023

For business owners in a few (mostly Midwestern) states, BMO Harris offers an alternative to the big chain banks while still giving you a traditional banking experience. But does BMO Harris offer good business banking―or will you wish you’d gone with one of those bigger banks instead?

We think you’ll like BMO if you’re looking for business account choices, business financing products, and some nice perks and bonuses for new business customers. But if unusual account fees, bad customer reviews, or limited availability bother you, BMO Harris may not be a good fit.

Now, let’s see if your business has a future with BMO.

BMO Harris Bank has four different business checking account options, so you pick the one that aligns with your business needs.

Note that if you want to apply for any of these checking accounts, you’ll have to get in touch with your local BMO branch―you can’t open a BMO Harris account online. (Sigh.) Annoying, but not necessarily a dealbreaker. Fortunately, BMO does offer online banking and mobile banking after you’ve signed up.

So what are your banking options?

If you don’t mind online banking and you don’t deposit much cash, the BMO Digital Business Checking account offers the best value. It gives you unlimited free transactions (almost unheard of for a physical bank!) and an average monthly fee (waivable with just $500 in your bank account). It just doesn’t give you much in the way of free cash deposits. But for mostly online businesses, that shouldn’t matter much. (But in that case, we’d recommend one of our best online banks for business instead.)

For a more deposit-friendly but still affordable account, there’s BMO Simple Business Checking. It keeps the low monthly fee, but it’s even cheaper to waive with this account―just a $100 balance will work. This account only gives you 100 free transactions and $1,000 in cash deposits. So for basic use, it’s affordable. But if you plan lots of transactions, the extra fees could add up fast.

BMO Premium Business Checking gives you more free transactions and cash deposits each month―about double what you get from Simple Checking. The monthly fee on this account is a bit higher, and you need an account balance of $1,500 to waive it. Still, the savings on transaction and deposit fees could easily make this the better value for your business.

If you need more transactions and deposits, you’ll probably prefer BMO Elite Business Checking. Aside from more free transactions and deposits, this bank account also gets you free incoming wire transfers. Even better, it earns interest (though at an unimpressive 0.01% interest rate). To waive the monthly maintenance fee, you’ll need to keep an average balance of $5,000 in your Elite Business Checking account or $15,000 across your business BMO bank accounts.

Then there’s Business Analyzed Checking. As the name suggests, this is an analyzed checking account. That means you don’t get any freebies. Instead, you get earnings credits based on your account balance, and you can use those credits to offset any account fees. Analyzed accounts like this one usually make sense for businesses that carry big account balances.

Finally, if you’ve got a non-profit, you can get BMO’s Non-Profit Small Business Checking. It has no monthly fee (woo!), but otherwise it works pretty much the same as the BMO Premium Business Checking account.

No matter which BMO bank account you go for, you’ll want to pay attention to a few specific fees.

Just like at most traditional banks, BMO Harris won’t charge you ATM fees for in-network ATM transactions. (It partners with a network of about 40,000 Allpoint ATMs.) But for out-of-network ATMs, BMO charges an ATM fee on top of whatever fee the ATM owner charges. So, uh, look for in-network ATMs.

Other fees, like overdraft fees, non-sufficient fund (NSF) fees, and wire transfer fees are pretty typical.

Except, as we said earlier, BMO charges one unusual banking fee: an account closing fee. This fee applies only to accounts closed within 90 days of opening. Again, we’re pretty suspicious of this unusual fee. To avoid it, we suggest you really make sure you’re ready to commit to BMO Harris before you open a bank account.

BMO Harris Bank also has a couple types of business savings accounts: a standard savings account and a money market account. (No certificates of deposit though.)

Unfortunately, BMO doesn’t list an interest rate for its Business Savings Builder account. That typically means the interest rate is nothing great. And the 1% interest rate on the Business Prime Money Market account isn’t exactly stellar. But if you mostly need a separate deposit account for setting money aside, a low interest rate may work fine for you.

(If you really want a great interest rate on a business savings account, we recommend checking out Small Business Bank.)

For a cheaper savings account, you’ll want to go with Business Savings. It has the lower monthly maintenance fee, and you can waive that monthly fee with an average savings balance of just $500. 

For a better interest rate, you’ll probably prefer the Business Prime Money Market account. (Money market accounts typically have higher interest rates than standard savings accounts.) It has a slightly higher monthly fee, and you need an average savings balance of $10,000 to waive it.

Now that you’ve seen your BMO Harris account options, let’s talk about those perks and discounts we mentioned up top―like the ones you can get for opening a new business checking account.

As of this writing, BMO Harris has quite a few signup perks for its different business products:

• Waived monthly maintenance, coin, wire transfer, and transaction fees for 93 days after opening a new business bank account
• 0% introductory APR on new business credit cards
• Bonus signup points for BMO’s reward business credit card
• Waived annual fee for one year when you open a business line of credit

You know a decent amount about BMO Harris now. But how does it compare to other banking options for small-business owners?

BMO Harris is on the cheaper side for traditional banks, especially with its Digital Business Checking account (the one with no transaction fees). But when compared to online banks that tend to charge no fees, BMO Harris still ends up being the pricier option.

And of course, BMO Harris simply isn’t available in most states. No traditional banks are, but BMO has a very small footprint even for a traditional brick-and-mortar bank. That could be a problem if you want to expand business into other states.

In fact, that brings us to some of the drawbacks you should consider about BMO Harris.

BMO Harris has three big drawbacks we want you to know about: its availability (or lack thereof), the weird fees, and bad customer reviews.

As with pretty much any traditional bank, a big BMO Bank drawback is its availability―which in this case is pretty limited. BMO Harris operates in just nine states:

• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Kansas
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Wisconsin

(If BMO Harris doesn’t service your state, we suggest you find the best bank for business in your state instead.)

That limited availability may not bother you if you’re looking for a local-ish bank in one of those states. But if, say, you’re planning on expanding your business into Colorado sometime soon, you might want a bank with a wider footprint.

Another thing about BMO Harris that gives us pause? It’s one of the only banks we’ve seen that advertises a closing fee when you close a bank account within 90 days of opening it. The fee alone is annoying enough―but the fact that BMO has such a fee makes us wonder just how many people switch to BMO only to decide it’s not all cracked up to be. Based on the poor customer reviews? Could be a lot.

BMO Harris customers don’t have a lot of good things to say about the bank.

On Bank Branch Locator, BMO Harris earns a 2.8 out of 5.¹ Mostly, you’ll find complaints about specific bank tellers and bad customer service (especially over the phone) at specific branches―though we did some positive reviews of specific branches and employees.

We found even worse BMO Harris Bank reviews on its Better Business Bureau profile (which, to be fair, is true of most businesses), where it earned a 1.07 out of 5.² Again, it’s lots of customers complaining about poor customer service and how it can take a long time (weeks!) to get issues resolved.

What’s the takeaway here? Well, while we’d like to see more positive reviews, BMO Harris Bank reviews look a lot like the reviews you see for other traditional banks. Those numbers, while low, aren’t much lower than the ratings other banks get. And we didn’t see any particular red flags―just the mediocre customer service that, honestly, we’ve come to expect from lots of banks.

So while BMO Harris may not offer the banking experience of your dreams, it probably isn’t much worse than other traditional banks you’ve dealt with.

We told you that BMO Harris offers perks on things like credit lines, credit cards, and payroll. So let’s go ahead and cover all the business stuff BMO Harris offers aside from banking.

As you’d expect from a traditional bank, BMO Harris offers a few different business loans and lines of credit.

(And remember, you can get a 0.25% discount on your interest rate when you make automatic loan payments from your BMO Harris checking account.)

Its line of credit, term loan, and SBA business loans should be versatile enough to work for all sorts of businesses.

But BMO also has financing for a couple specific industries: dental practices and trucking (the latter of which is pretty uncommon).

Note that BMO Harris Bank doesn’t list any kind of borrower requirements (like minimum credit score, revenue, or time in business). But since it’s a traditional bank, expect it to look for a credit score in the high 600s, $200,000 or so in revenue, and at least two years in business.

BMO also offers a couple different business credit card choices. They’re both Mastercards, and neither charges an annual fee. (And like we said earlier, you can get a 0% introductory APR on these cards.)

One version is a rewards card, so you can earn when you spend. You get 1.5 points for each $1 you spend (comparable to some of our favorite small-business credit cards). The other version doesn’t offer any rewards (which usually means a lower APR).

Finally, BMO Harris Bank offers a handful of other business services:

• Merchant processing
• Payroll processing
• Cash management
• Health saving accounts (HSAs)

And that pretty much sums up BMO Harris Bank.

BMO Harris has some good things to offer businesses (in very select states). It’s got a nice range of bank account and business service options. Even better, BMO offers quite a few deals and bonuses when you sign up for those accounts and services.

Still, we have some reservations about BMO―especially its unusual account closing fees and less-than-ideal customer reviews.

Ultimately, we think BMO Harris Bank can offer decent banking for your business. Just make sure you know what you’re committing to so you don’t have to worry about those account closing fees down the road. 

Not sold on BMO? Find some alternative banking options on our rankings of the best banks for small business.

We researched BMO Harris's business account options, banking fees, customer service availability, customer reviews, and more. We scored it on many of those factors, and then used those scores to compare it to dozens of other lenders and come up with our BMO Harris assessment.

BMO Harris doesn’t have any truly free business checking accounts―they come with monthly fees, deposit fees, and transaction fees. But you can waive the monthly fee on most BMO Harris business checking accounts by maintaining a certain account balance. 

So depending on how you use it, you could end up with a more-or-less free checking account from BMO.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.