Alto Bmo Reviews 21

Attempted to transfer my money out of the account and it was immediately frozen for "fraud". Customer service has offered 0 assistance. They will not unfreeze the account, offer any solutions, or tell you what is going to happen to your money after they systematically close your account. The verbatim response I got to my inquiry was "When the analyst makes a determination on your account and mails out the termination letter, that will tell you what is happening to your money." Find a different entity to do your business with. BMO Alto is the worst financial institution I have ever worked with and it's not particularly close.

I had an account with Alto BMO for several years. The first time I tried to transfer money out of it a froze the account, even though the receiving bank had been verified for several years. I have had a terrible time trying to get my money back. I will file a Better Business Bureau complaint and if needed a complete with the consumer protection Bureau

Bad experience. Short grace period. Can’t withdraw my CD.

I opened an for me and my wife, online. I transferred a considerable amount of money from my credit union account into the theirs.

My wife got an email with a form to fill out so she could have access, and got a message saying 'we are unable to approve your application'. Mind you, she is on all of my bank accounts, and has excellent credit. They gave no reason for denying her.

I called BMO and their customer service rep said he was unable to tell me why she was denied, and that the only thing I could do was to close my new account, and open another, and again attempt to add her.

Expecting this to be a time waster, I decided to transfer the money back to my credit union.

When I tried to transfer the money back to my credit union, I got an error response from BMO, saying they were unable to link to my account (funny that they were able to when I transferred the money in.)

I then opened an account with another bank, did so, and set up a transfer. BMO said they'd send to micro-transfers of less than $1, which they did. They were supposed to transfer the rest within I think, 48 hours.

I went to log on to BMO the next day, and the system said I was locked out due to suspected fraud. I called BMO. I explained the situation to the rep, who then said she had to transfer me to the fraud department. After explaining it again, this rep pulled up my account and said, 'They transferred you to the wrong department. I do fraud on debit cards. Let me transfer youI'.

The third rep said, 'I don't know why they transferred you to me. This is an internal department for the employees. I can't transfer you out, so you have to call back.'

I did so, and that rep transferred me to someone else, who told me to email a copy of my ID and bank statement to their fraud department. I'm still waiting for a resolution.

BMO alto has the worst website and customer service. I am unable to access documents and have been trying to cancel a CD before it renews. The most I’ve gotten is I convoluted information from the customer service rep. I would stay away under any circumstances. The rep was impatient and condescending. Despite several attempts, it appears I can only stop the renewal process on the day it matures. Outrageous! I’m still trying to figure out how to get my money without incurring a penalty despite the fact that I am only two days from maturity.

My wife and I have had joint accounts with BMO for 30 years. Applying for a joint BMO Alto savings account, my wife was denied. No explanation in the email she received. Called customer service and they could not provide an explanation. They said to call the phone number at the bottom of the email my wife received. There was no phone number. Wife and I both have credit scores over 800 so that should not be an issue. Customer service was totally unable to help in any way. Time to move away from BMO Alto and BMO

Although when I opened a JUMBO CD online I indicated it was to be jointly held with my husband - we could not add him as joint owner later. Called and was told there was no alternative - COULD NOT TELL US WHY - COULD/WOULD NOT OFFER ANYONE SUPERIOR TO TALK TO - said NO PHYSICAL address - WOULDN'T GIVE NAMES OF WHO WAS GIVING US THE RUN AROUND.... HORRIBLE!!! WITHDRAWING OUR MONEY ASAP

I tried 5 times to open a savings account online. Every time my application was rejected with absolutely no explanation. I then phoned customer service. I was told they could not provide me a reason why my applications were rejected, but I was free to try again. Ridiculous. I've been a customer of BMO Bank for over 20 years, have all of my checking/savings accounts with them and a 840 credit score.
This is extremely disappointing! I may need to move to a new bank that respects their customers.

I tried twice to open a 5 year CD online for $100,000. Both times my application was rejected with absolutely no explanation. I then phoned customer service. I was told they could not provide me a reason why my applications were rejected, but I was free to try again. Ridiculous.

I have a high net worth with zero debt and a credit rating over 800. I view the bank as being highly unprofessional as a result of this encounter.

This company seems bogus! I have perfect credit and No reason to be turned down for an account. I tried calling and nobody can give me a valid reason. They refuse to connect you to a manager. I easily opened accounts at 5 other banks after their denial. Something fishy about this company. Beware!

It is amazing to me that a financial organization that boasts 200 years of experience, cannot get their crap together. I tried opening a savings account and a CD. My online application was denied😳. I have multiple accounts with several of the largest financial institutions and never had this issue. Well, called them and I was told by a rep and a supervisor that no one in that company can tell me why. They cannot open an account for you, only online! Really? I have excellent credit, gave them all the info they requested, yet rejected for reasons only known to?? How they are in business, I don’t know but seems that trusting them with my hard-earned money is not wise. Perhaps blessings in disguise. I can only hope it is not a discriminatory process to decline minorities.

I filled out an online application on my ipad to open a short term CD, provided all of my and my husband's personal identification, including ss#s, emails, home address and phone #s.
I got to the point where I chose my external bank to link to in order to make the deposit. It would not link, just kept spinning. I then went on my laptop and tried to retrieve the application. It was not found, so I attempted to apply again, but it was denied. I finally received an email that said my application was denied. I called customer service to ask why it was denied, and was told that they cannot reveal the reason. The customer service rep was very smug and said they cannot give a reason for denial. I asked who I could speak to in order to find out the reason. He said, no one. He denied that this bank is affiliated at all with BMO.
As far as I know, this could be a scam.
I want answers as to where my personal information has been stored!!

BMO Alto advertises 5.1% rate for savings. Tried to open acct three (3) times. Denied three times. BMO opened a regular savings account and I called and canceled; this is brick and mortar and pay little interest which I am not interested in. Why would they open up one account but not open up there high interest BMO ALTO acct. They give no explanation and do not answer questions. POOR Performing bank DO NOT recommend. Stay away!!!

Don't be tempted by the high interest rates! Horrible processes and customer service. The "froze" my account and couldn't/wouldn't give a reason why. The customer service rep was useless in providing a clue why they wouldn't release a transfer out of the bank. They were glad to take the deposit, but now won't release my money! Stay away from this bank!

After reading all the complaints, I can now see why…This online banking with BMO Alto is so confusing??!! It appears you are able to open an account and link an external bank to make the transfer but you don’t even get any welcome email and so you have no information whatsoever about this new account you supposedly just opened yet they want to make sure they get your funds first is what seems to be happening here. So realizing this online bank is SHADY, I immediately cleared my linked bank so they won’t get my money… thank God for the good save on my hard earned money. My suggestion is Don’t do business with these people, they are NOT transparent and you may risk losing your dough!!!😠

I wanted to open both a high-yield saving account and a one year CD. I saw this bank listed on several websites for best interest rates. I went through the application process and was denied. They sent an e-mail that did not say why I was denied but suggested that I try again as something may have been entered incorrectly. So I tried again and was again denied. I have excellent credit and I was very sure that all my information was entered correctly. I then remembered that my credit is frozen at the 3 bureaus so I enabled a temporary thaw on those and went back and tried again and again denied. Next, I called their customer service. They could not tell me why I was denied nor could they offer any suggestions. I guess this bank does not want the $250K that I was trying to deposit. I will take my money elsewhere and from the poor reviews I'm actually glad that my application was denied.

This bank is a scam. I have been locked out of my account with no way to get access even after speaking to a representative. I just did speak to someone after a 15-minute wait and then after he so-called helped me, he dropped the line. I tried to get into the account and I still can't access my money. I don't know a bank can be open and allow this to happen. If it is an online band and you can do business online, what is the point. When you call, they ask if you are having trouble getting access to your account? Somehow they already know this information. I hope I can get my money back.

Lost cell phone. Can't get into account without cell phone sent code. Waited 45 minutes on phone to talk to customer service. They told me they could not help me access my account and that I had to buy a new cell phone. No supervisor available. Will close my account and bad mouth them to everyone.

This whole nightmare with this bank started when I tried to transfer $35 from my savings to my checking acct at my external bank. I got a "In Review "message. Later I tried to transfer $40 my savings and CD accts. When I notified customer service that I wanted to close my accts. I was told it would take 2 days. On third day no money was transferred. At that point I started calling daily to find out what the delay was. Every day I called there were any where from 30 to 50 calls ahead of me. There are no managers or supervisors to speak to about problems. Long story short it took 14 miserable days to close accts when I was told it would take 2 days. I filed a formal complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on 11-28-23. My accts were finally closed. There are so many complaints filed against BMO that something shady is going on with this bank. Every day starts out with 50 or more calls on the customer service line. The data on the CFPB shows a huge number of complaints.

I've had a BMO Harris checking account for years. I opened an Alto BMO account a month ago and put $5k in. Last Thursday I started a transfer to my checking account, within BMO, and it said the transfer was under review. I'm in the middle of buying a house and needed the money so I called them on Friday and they said the money would be available tuesday b/c it needed to be reviewed. I need the money so I call Monday to confirm it will be available Tuesday and I'm told it won't be for another couple days. The rep is cold and RUDE. I ask for a manager but of course there isn't one available. I call Tuesday, another moron rep who doesn't even understand what I'm talking about. She tells me it won't be available until the following MONDAY!!! That's over a week to transfer MY OWN MONEY within the SAME BANK. Steer clear of this scam. I don't know if I'll ever get my money back from them! I'm closing all BMO accounts as a result of this.