Personal Finance

BMO Charging overdraft protection fee on savings account.

  • Last Updated:
  • Oct 2nd, 2014 1:26 pm
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Newbie
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Jun 26, 2012
50 posts
104 upvotes
OTOWN

BMO Charging overdraft protection fee on savings account.

Went through my statements online and noticed for the past two months I've been charged $4.00 for overdraft protection. I never signed up for this and I didn't see a statement that it was going to be implemented. Are there any banks that let me do banking free of charge? I hate dishing out cash for stuff I don't want!

Sorry, I'm just venting and wanted to let you know that if you bank with BMO, check your statements for the charge.
2 replies
Sr. Member
Apr 28, 2014
675 posts
185 upvotes
Oakville, ON
FartyMcGee wrote: Went through my statements online and noticed for the past two months I've been charged $4.00 for overdraft protection. I never signed up for this and I didn't see a statement that it was going to be implemented. Are there any banks that let me do banking free of charge? I hate dishing out cash for stuff I don't want!

Sorry, I'm just venting and wanted to let you know that if you bank with BMO, check your statements for the charge.
It's industry wide now, unfortunately. I assume you have a formal Overdraft Arrangement on the account now.

Back in the good old days, you only had to pay the interest on the Overdraft when you used it. No extra charges.

In their never-ending quest for more Non-Interest Revenue, the industry has moved towards Overdraft fees.

Either you pay $4.00/month fixed charge for your Overdraft, plus the interest when you use it (useful if you use your overdraft multiple times in a month)

OR

No fixed monthly charge; you pay $5.00 every time there is a debit entry in your account that creates or increases the overdraft, plus interest (if you hardly ever use overdraft, but figure you may once in a while).

BMO made these changes August 1; I hear what you are saying that you didn't know. However, BMO did post notice in their branches and online 60 days before the changes, as they are required to.

My suggestion: call into Direct Banking to complain. Tell them BMO assumed you wanted to go on a fixed monthly overdraft charge without obtaining your informed consent. I used to work there. They are completely capable of reversing the charges, although it depends a lot on the mood of the agent you get.

As for the future, either take the $5.00 option, of if you don't need the Overdraft, have the agent send a Service Request to your branch to get the Overdraft cancelled.

A third option, if you have another bank account, or a MasterCard or Line of Credit, is to have BMO set up an Overdraft Transfer Service in the system so that if your account is ever overdrawn due to a cheque or PAD you forgot about, the funds come off the account you have specified to pay the cheque or PAD.

The Overdraft Transfer Service used to be included; regrettably, that now cost $5.00 per transfer as well.

Gotta love those Big Five Banks!! You may be able to find a Credit Union that doesn't jack customers like this.
Jr. Member
Mar 15, 2009
197 posts
103 upvotes
Vancouver
BMO sent out notices in April/May saying they were changing the overdraft protection fees starting August 1, 2014. Before if you had overdraft you wouldn't be charged if you didn't use it. But now you can either choose "Standard" which is $4/month or the "Occasional" option which carries no monthly fee.

I've never used mine so I just told them to cancel it altogether. Just talk to your branch and they'll credit your account for the fees and change the option on your overdraft.

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