Tag Archives: BMO

Should I Accept BMO’s Offer of $2000 of Free Accidental Death Insurance?

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I’ve been a customer at BMO since my university days. There were no RESPs back then and my parents banked with BMO so they liked being able to transfer money from their account to mine for free from their home branch. No need to worry about lost cheques or late rent payments. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Even so, I was suspicious when an envelope arrived telling me to open it because they had a free reward they wanted to offer me: When I opened it, the offer was $2000 of accidental death insurance for one year.

$2 000 In Accidental Death Insurance Is Insulting

Frankly, I found the offer more insulting than interesting. BMO requires me to keep half this amount in my bank account just to get free chequing. Even the CPP Death Benefit is $2500 (although that is taxable income to the person who receives it.) This is such an incredibly small amount of money I doubt it would even pay for the refreshments at a wake or funeral service.

Why Did They Offer “Accidental Death” Insurance Not Life Insurance?

It’s another insult: it’s because they know that “accidental” deaths are very uncommon in my age and gender bracket. Deaths from disease are Number One for my group. So they chance they might have to pay out is fairly high for a true life insurance policy and is very very low for an accidental death policy.

Why Is BMO Really Making This Offer?

  • Well, firstly they want you to open the envelope so they can get their advertising in your line of sight.
  • And secondly, they want to remind you that they sell insurance nowadays.
  • Thirdly, they want you to consider buying more coverage from them, either for accidents or for other insurance risks.

I also have a bad feeling about the “for one year” part of their offer. I wonder if the policy will automatically renew with you having to pay for it after the end of the first year if you enroll. The offer already clearly states that if you request additional coverage, you will have the premiums deducted from your bank account, which is partially identified on the offer.

Unfortunately, I can’t find any details about whether there is an auto-renewal or not on the letters they mailed to me. I hope no one finds out the hard way that there is such a scheme in place!

Should I Accept the Offer of $2000 in Free Insurance?

Personally, I’m not interested. In particular, I’ve had trouble getting BMO to properly handle changes in GIC instructions at renewal so I’m not confident that they would cancel this policy at the end of the first year before any premiums became due.

If you really think $2000 is worth it, by all means accept. Be very sure to select the “I opt out of receiving information and offers on BMO Insurance products and services” box on the form, though. If you don’t, I’d be very surprised if you don’t get a phone call or email asking you to increase your coverage.

And make sure to contact BMO a month or so before your coverage is due to expire to ensure it does not get renewed into a contract that costs you an unexpected amount.

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How to Set Up a Bill Payment Using BMO Online Banking

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OK, so far I’ve tested paying bills from Tangerine and PC Financial. In both cases, somewhat to my surprise, it all went well. Now I’m going to try to set up a bill and pay it from our BMO Online Banking program: wish me luck!

As usual, I will do my test with our Bell telephone bill. That’s because although I share nothing (else) in common with the woman in Fifty Shades of Grey I do like the threat of suffering endlessly while trying to straighten out a billing error with Ma Bell. OK, maybe it’s because I can see the results of a bill payment online on my Bell account fairly quickly. Or maybe it’s because I like to play for high stakes. I dunno. But here goes anyway.

How to Create a New Account to Pay Using BMO Online Banking

  1. Sign in to your BMO Online Banking program and take a second to review your recent transactions looking for any computer fraud: Phew. No problems.
  2. Click on the tab called Payments and Transfers.
  3. There’s a long list of links down the left side of the screen. Under the heading My Payments and Transfers, click on: Add a Payee

The Add a Payee: Enter Details Page

  1. From the drop-down list for Payee Province, select the province the bill is coming from. For example, since I live in Ontario, I selected Ontario.
  2. In the Payee Name field, start typing the name of the bill. For Bell telephone, I tried Bell. The system will present you with a list of possible matches. From the list, remembering the hassles elsewhere, I selected Bell One Bill.
  3. In the Account Number field, the system prompted me to enter a 14 digit alphanumeric account number. So I did. I got the number from a recent Bell bill where It was listed and described as the “14-digits number for online/telebanking.” It’s not actually my account number.
  4. In the Nickname field, type a name to help you identify what company you will pay if you choose this number from a list in the future.
  5. I typed the service at Bell for which I am paying.
    (No, I did not just type #*$*%&% although it was tempting.)
  6. Click on the Verify Payee button.

The Add a Payee: Verify Details Page

Review the info you submitted. If it looks ok, click on the Add Payee button.

The Add a Payee: Complete Page

Review the confirmation message.

Now to try actually paying Bell a buck or two to see if it gets credited to my account.

How to Pay a Bill Using BMO Online Banking

From the list of links down the left side of the screen, click on Make a Payment.

The Make a Payment: Enter Details Page

  1. From the drop-down list for the From field, select the bank account from which you wish to pay the bill. As warned, be sure there will be enough money in the account before setting up a payment, especially for the future.
  2. From the drop-down list for the To field, select which bill you wish to pay. I chose my nicknamed Bell account.
  3. In the amount field, type the amount you want to pay.
  4. You can then either accept the date proposed or click on the calendar to select a future date to pay the bill. I accepted today’s date. (Watch out if you are paying bills after hours, on weekends or on holidays: the bill will not be paid immediately!)
  5. Click on the Verify Payment button.

The Make a Payment: Verify Request Page

Review the details of your proposed bill payment.

If it all looks good, click on the Submit Transaction button.

The Make a Payment: Complete Page

Review the details of your bill payment including the reference number.

You may want to cut and paste the confirmation information into a document and save it to a secure storage device such as a USB stick. The confirmation has your bank transit number and bank account number and your bill’s account number so you don’t want to leave this information unguarded.

Now I’ll have to watch my payment history at Bell and see if and when the payment arrives.

I went back to the My Accounts tab and clicked on my bank account. I can see the money has been deducted from my bank account with a note saying it has been sent to Bell. So it looks good so far.

UPDATE: The amount was credited on my Bell account the second morning after I made the payment. Phew!

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Have you ever got zinged by a late payment fee when paying a bill online? Please share your experiences with a comment.