BMO Harris Personal Checking $300 Bonus

BMO Harris Bank is giving you 3 months to accumulate $4,000 in direct deposits to earn a $300 welcome bonus for opening a new Smart Advantage™ or Smart Money™ checking account. Even better? They're also offering a $5/month kicker if you save regularly.

It's not available nationally, but if you're in one of the targeted states, you can open an account online to grab that cash.

How To Earn The Bonus

The BMO Harris Personal Checking promotion requires you to set up direct deposits in order to earn the $300 bonus.

Full requirements to receive this bonus are:

1. Open a new Smart Advantage™ or Smart Money™ account using the link below.
2. Within 90 days, have a total of $4,000 in direct deposits.
3. Bonus is credited directly to your checking account approximately 100 days after account opening.

The fine print

• Available only to those who live in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Arizona, or Florida.
• Qualifying direct deposits are any paycheck, pension payment, Social Security payment, or other government benefits payment electronically deposited into the account from an employer or outside agency.
• If you choose to open an account at a branch, you'll need to first receive a promo code by entering your email. If you open online, the promo code is automatically applied.
• Not available to existing personal checking customers, or to those who have closed a personal checking account within the past 12 months.
• You are only eligible for one checking cash bonus; you cannot open multiple checking accounts and receive multiple cash bonuses.; however, you can stack this with a savings account bonus.
• Day 1 is the day you open your account and begins the tracking period. If you open your account on a day other than a Business Day, Day 1 is the next Business Day. The checking account type you have on Day 90 will determine which cash bonus you are eligible for.
• In order to receive the cash bonus, you must meet the associated criteria for that account.

How does this personal checking offer from BMO Harris compare?

To help you determine how this bonus stacks against the rest, here are some of the most popular offers available right now:

Citi®

Citi Priority Account

Bonus

up to $2000

Account Type

Personal Checking

Expires In

14 days

Requires

• Min Balance

Full Details

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank Smartly™ Checking

Bonus

up to $600

Account Type

Personal Checking

Expires In

21 days

Requires

• Direct Deposit

Full Details

Fifth Third Bank

Personal Checking

Bonus

$275

Account Type

Personal Checking

Expires In

101 days

Requires

• Direct Deposit

Full Details

Why BMO Harris Bank?

BMO Harris Bank is headquartered in Chicago, and has about 500 physical locations across 8 states. For their checking accounts, BMO expands its reach by joining the Allpoint ATM network, which gives you access to about 40,000 fee-free ATMs. They also offer online and mobile tools to help you take care of most banking tasks without needing to go in-branch.

BMO offers personal checking, savings products like accounts, MMAs and CDs, business and commercial accounts, home and auto loans, credit cards, and IRAs. They also offer their "Premier Services", which is a wealth management service that aims to help you define and work toward a financial plan.

While BMO offers more accounts and services than some of the online-only banks, most of their rates are only competitive with the big banks (read: not very high), so keep that in mind.

Learn more in our BMO Harris Bank review

Smart Advantage™

Smart Advantage™ is BMO Harris Bank's basic checking account. There's no cost if you sign up for paperless statements.

While this is a straightforward account without many frills, the account does give you access to BMO's network of 40,000 ATMs, their mobile app and online tools (including access to Total Look^®, which helps you manage all of your accounts, even those external to BMO), a chip-enabled debit mastercard and a discount for any mortgages or home equity lines of credit.

Fees

Smart Advantage™ does charge a monthly fee of $5, but there are ways to get this waived:

• Enroll in paperless statements in BMO Digital Banking

Smart Money™

Fees

Smart Money™ does charge a monthly fee of $5, but there are ways to get this waived:

• Be under 25 years of age

BMO Harris Bank Locations

You may sometimes be required to visit a branch in-person to take advantage of a welcome offer. Or, you may just prefer the convenience of banking with institutions that have locations near you.

Fortunately, BMO Harris Bank has a total of 527 branches in the United States.

Get a better idea of how well BMO Harris Bank can serve you by checking out their branches closest to your area: