BMO Review 2025: Checking, Savings and CDs

Non-competitive rate and monthly fee. BMO's money market account has a rate of 0.55% APY on balances between $5,000 and $24,999. The rate increases with higher balances, but remains far lower than many high-yield savings accounts. The monthly fee is $10 but is waived if your daily balance is at least $5,000. (This account did not factor into the bank’s overall star rating; the savings account, which has no monthly fee and no minimum balance requirement, was considered instead.)

Minimal rate but no monthly fee. BMO's Savings Builder account has a low rate: 0.01% APY. To compare, the national average savings rate is 0.38% APY. There’s no monthly fee, and you can open an account with $25. There are also budgeting tools for savers. We considered this account in the bank’s overall score because it’s the account that’s most widely available.

» Shop and compare: See this month’s best savings rates

Slight savings boost in the first year. Every month of the first year that you deposit $200 or more into the account earns you $5 as a reward for saving money. Those 12 separate opportunities can total $60 extra in your account by the year’s end. But this boost doesn’t make up for the lowest possible savings account rate you can have.

Consider BMO’s online division for a better rate. BMO Financial Group (which BMO is part of) also offers BMO Alto, which is online-only and features a savings account that pays a far high rate in all states – 3.60% APY. But with the higher rate comes a trade-off: BMO ATMs and branches aren’t available to BMO Alto customers. (Read our review of BMO Alto.)

Mostly low rates except for some irregular term CDs. BMO's regular certificates of deposit range in term from three months to five years and require $1,000 to open. The rates tend to be better than those you'd find at brick-and-mortar banks, but you can still find better rates elsewhere, especially if you consider CDs at online banks. BMO does offer CD specials; they tend to have better rates than the bank's standard CDs, but are offered for less conventional term lengths.

Robust help channels and highly rated mobile apps. BMO has multiple support channels, including live phone support with extended hours on weekdays and weekends, and around 1,000 branches in the U.S., which includes branches the bank received when it acquired Bank of the West in 2023. For the more tech-savvy, there are online savings tools as well as highly rated mobile apps.

Overdraft buffer, but overdraft fee. The bank doesn’t charge an overdraft fee if your account is overdrawn by $50 or less. But if you overdraw your account by more than $50, BMO charges a $15 overdraft fee per transaction, up to three times a day.

To avoid overdrafts, free overdraft protection transfers are available from a linked checking, savings or money market account or an overdraft line of credit, which has an annual percentage rate (APR) of 18%.