How to Redeem BMO Rewards for Max Value

BMO has an entire ecosystem of credit cards dedicated to earning BMO Rewards, its in-house points currency. The earn rates across BMO’s credit cards are strong, so let’s take a look at how to redeem BMO Rewards for maximum value.

The Best: Travel or Invest with BMO

Redeem for Travel

Lucky for those of us who earn points to travel, the best use case for BMO Rewards is redeeming directly for travel. The redemption rate is 150 points = $1 or 0.67 cents per point (CPP).

BMO retired its in-house travel portal back in August 2022, which was great news. The redemption rate for travel stayed the same at 0.67 CPP, but you can now book directly with any provider.

Say you use your BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard to pay for a Marriott stay. You book directly with Marriott to accrue elite nights, earn points, and take advantage of your elite benefits. In this case, you’ll earn 5 BMO points per $1 spent on travel. You can then redeem your BMO Rewards points directly as a statement credit against the charge at a rate of 0.67 cents per point.

The BMO Ascend World Elite currently offers an elevated welcome bonus of 100,000 BMO Rewards points, worth $670 in travel, along with a first-year annual fee waiver.

Invest with BMO

As a second interesting option, you can turn your BMO Rewards points into cash at the same redemption value as travel, provided you invest directly with BMO.

But unlike travel, redeeming BMO Rewards this way has additional restrictions: you must redeem at least 15,000 points, then in increments of 15,000. This corresponds to $100, $200, and so on.

Other Options: Gift Cards, Merchandise, and Statement Credit

You absolutely can redeem your BMO Rewards points towards gift cards and merchandise with varying CPP. These are always lower value than redeeming for travel or investing with BMO, but are better than redeeming for a statement credit.

With gift cards and merchandise, aim for a redemption value of at least 0.5 CPP. It’s also best to wait for a promotional period where BMO typically offers 15% off discounts. You need the full points balance to redeem for gift cards, but you can pay for merchandise with as few as 80% of the points needed and top up with up to 20% cash.

The last option for redeeming BMO Rewards is directly for a statement credit towards any purchase. You can redeem 15,000 points = $50, which is half the amount you’d get if you redeemed for a travel purchase. Needless to say, this is the least valuable way to redeem BMO Rewards and should be avoided.

Rack Up Lots of BMO Rewards

If you use a BMO Rewards card for daily purchases, you might be surprised at how quickly your points add up.

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege earns 5X the points on groceries, dining, drugstore purchases, gas, and travel.

The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite also earns 5X on groceries, dining, and gas. In addition, it earns 5X on transit. In the eclipse portfolio, the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege leans toward travellers, while the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite is positioned more as a lifestyle card.

The welcome bonus right now is up to 200,000 points on the $599 annual fee BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege and up to 70,000 BMO Rewards points on the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite, with the latter also waiving the annual fee in the first year.

Takeaway

BMO Rewards are an underutilized points currency, with simple, straightforward redemptions. Book directly with the travel provider of your choice and redeem points for statement credit at 0.67 cents each or invest with BMO at the same points value.

It’s also easy to build up a sizable BMO Rewards balance, thanks to the 5X multipliers on the BMO Rewards credit cards.