Consumer complaint received 2024-09-14
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (CA)

I received multiple offers to open a new BMO Cash Back Credit Card this summer. After some contemplation I decided the 5 % back on streaming, cable TV, and satellite services combined with Cell Phone Protection made it worthwhile to sign up as a secondary card.

I recently received my first statement and the cash back rewards were not as advertised. I called their Rewards department on Saturday XX/XX/2024 and had a very poor experience. The first person put me on hold multiple times to lookup information and continually got it wrong. First they told me I wasn't receiving the correct rate because I had to spent {$2500.00} each quarter before I was able to earn anything more than 1 % on a purchase. This is clearly false as I had gas station charge that earned the expected 3 % back. It's actually the opposite and gas and groceries have a {$2500.00} maximum reward per quarter. They told me that my TV service, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX didn't count as cable TV or a streaming service and that my phone provider, XXXX XXXX, didn't qualify for their Cell Phone Protection program. 

They then transferred me to Customer Support who I discussed this with again. Customer Support thought XXXX did qualify for the Cell Phone Protection program but couldn't say for sure. They said that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was categorized incorrectly and I would need to speak with the Rewards team about it. So I was sent me back to the Rewards team.

The second person with Rewards, now my third representative, told me I would have to call back in XXXX to verify if I was covered by the Cell Phone Protection program. They then told me that I would need to contact XXXX to have XXXX bill my credit card differently in order to get the advertised 5 % cash back. I reached out to XXXX while still on the phone with BMO Rewards and confirmed with XXXX that they don't categorize the charge and that is in fact up to BMO to categorize. The Rewards representative said they were surprised to hear that and couldn't do anything about it.

I then asked to close my account so they sent me back to Customer Support for a fourth person to talk to. I asked to apply the {$2.00} of earned rewards to my bill and then I would pay it in full to close the account. I had previously tried to apply the rewards through the BMO app and it said I needed to earn an additional {$12.00} before I could redeem my rewards. The Customer Support representative said I would need to go back to the Rewards department to redeem my rewards. I said it wasn't worth my time to wait on hold for a fifth person and to please close the account and make this go away. 

While closing the account, they then asked me how I would like to redeem my rewards, I could go online or talk with someone else. I repeated it wasn't worth my time to go to a fifth person and I had already tried to redeem them online unsuccessfully. 

The Customer Support representative then said the account is closed and to please cut up the card and throw it away. I did that with pleasure and asked to please remove me from all BMO offers in the future as I never want to deal with them again. 

So now the card is destroyed, my account is closed, I'm a few dollars poorer for having missed out on rewards, and I've wasted several hours of my life.