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!

Related Reading

• How to Pay a Bill from Your Tangerine Bank Account
• How to Pay a Bill from Your PC Financial Bank Account

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