Lodavo vs BMO: What BMO's 5.00 Percent Promo Asks For

BMO’s Savings Amplifier account advertises 5.00 percent. The number is real, and so is the condition attached to it. You have to open a BMO chequing account at the same time, and the rate runs 120 days before the account settles back to 0.45 percent. That’s a useful place to start a Lodavo vs BMO comparison, because the two are built around different things. BMO is a full bank. It holds your money, pays a rate on it, and puts a branch and an advisor within reach. Lodavo is a free savings app that rewards you for saving. You connect the account you already have, and the balance you keep earns you free tickets in a weekly draw for up to $10,000.

What is the difference between Lodavo and BMO?

At BMO, the rate worth having comes with a condition. The 5.00 percent needs a chequing account opened alongside it, and the Savings Builder bonus needs you to add $200 in a given month. Lodavo asks nothing of the money. It doesn’t hold your savings, and each $25 you’ve already set aside earns a free ticket in a weekly cash draw.

BMO’s side of this is a full bank, and the oldest one in the country. Your deposits sit with Bank of Montreal, a CDIC (opens in a new tab) member, insured to $100,000 per category. The chequing account, the credit card, the mortgage and the investments all sit behind one login, and there are branches and advisors if you’d rather handle any of it in person.

Lodavo sits alongside all of that and asks for none of it. As Canada’s first prize-linked savings app, it has no account to open and nothing to fund. You connect a Canadian bank account you already save in, and each week what’s in it earns you free tickets in a draw for up to $10,000, with at least $100 going to a user every week.

How BMO savings accounts work

BMO’s savings accounts cost nothing to hold. The rate is where the decisions are, because the good numbers are attached to something you have to do.

The 5.00 percent, and what you open to get it

Savings Amplifier is BMO’s high-interest savings account. It charges no monthly plan fee and asks for no minimum deposit, and BMO advertises a promotional 5.00 percent on it for 120 days. The condition, in BMO’s own wording on the Savings Amplifier page (opens in a new tab), is that you open the savings account together with an eligible chequing account: Performance, Premium, Blue Rewards, Plus or Practical.

That matters because those chequing plans are not free. The cheapest is Practical at $4 a month, and it has no balance waiver, so the fee runs for as long as you hold it. Here’s roughly what the promo leaves you over its 120 days, assuming you take Practical and pay the $4:

On a decent balance the promo is worth having. On about $1,000 it isn’t, because the four months of chequing fees cancel almost all of it. The savings account on its own, with no chequing plan to pay for, would have left you more. The way around the fee is the Plus plan at $12.95, which drops to nothing if you keep $3,000 in it daily. If you have that $3,000 to spare, the 5.00 percent costs you nothing at all.

Where the rate lands after 120 days

Savings Amplifier posts 0.45 percent, on every balance, per BMO’s own rates page (opens in a new tab). The other two savings accounts pay less: Savings Builder pays 0.050 percent, rising to 0.500 percent in a month you increase the balance by $200 or more, and Premium Rate Savings pays 0.010 percent. Chequing accounts pay nothing.

For context, the Bank of Canada (opens in a new tab) has its policy rate at 2.25 percent, held again on September 2, 2026. A 0.45 percent savings rate sits well under that, which is normal for a big branch bank, and it’s what the online banks point at in their own ads.

What the chequing plans cost

Five plans, priced by how much you transact, per BMO’s chequing comparison (opens in a new tab). Practical is $4 a month for 12 transactions and Plus is $12.95 for 25. Performance and Blue Rewards are both $17.95 with unlimited transactions, and Premium is $30.95. Plus, Performance and Premium cancel the fee if you keep a daily balance of $3,000, $4,000 or $6,000. Practical and Blue Rewards have no such waiver, so whatever they cost, you pay.

How Lodavo works with your BMO account

Lodavo is free, and setting it up takes about two minutes. You connect a BMO chequing account, savings account or deposit-based TFSA through Plaid (opens in a new tab), which reaches roughly 99 percent of Canadian deposit accounts, and the access it grants is read-only. BMO connects cleanly, with its own page on Plaid’s institution list, so there’s no workaround to know about. Our BMO connection page covers the steps.

From there your tickets follow your savings. Every $25 you have set aside is one ticket. The draw runs weekly and pays up to $10,000, with a guaranteed prize of at least $100 going to a user every week. You don’t have to take that on faith either. The provably fair page shows how each week’s result is generated and checked, and the contest rules set out the odds and who can enter.

Can you use Lodavo and BMO together?

Yes, and for most people that’s the end of the question. Nothing gets closed and nothing gets transferred. Keep the chequing plan, keep the Savings Amplifier, keep the promo running if you’ve got one, and connect that same savings balance to Lodavo so it also earns you free tickets each week. Your BMO login, your app, your rate and your CDIC coverage carry on exactly as they are.

So Lodavo vs BMO isn’t really two options. BMO pays the interest and insures the deposit. Lodavo turns that same saving into weekly draw tickets, and adding it costs nothing.

When BMO is the better choice

Stay with BMO on its own if what you’re after is any of this:

• You want branches, ATMs and an advisor you can sit down with.
• You want chequing, savings, a card, a mortgage and investments behind one login.
• You want your savings insured, which a CDIC member covers to $100,000 per category.
• You want a guaranteed return on your savings, which is what a bank account is for.
• You can keep $3,000 to $6,000 on deposit, which cancels the chequing fee and makes the promo free money.
• You’re opening a first savings account and have a few thousand dollars to park for four months.

If it’s the 0.45 percent posted rate that’s the problem, that’s a different question, and BMO alternatives in Canada lines up the banks paying more.

If you’re staying at BMO anyway

Add Lodavo if:

• You want the balance you’re already keeping to be worth more than 0.45 percent to you.
• You’d rather not open a second account or move a dollar to be in a draw.
• You want it free, without another bill or another login.
• You like BMO and aren’t going anywhere.
• You want a reason to leave the money alone that 0.45 percent doesn’t give you.

There’s nothing to trade off here. Lodavo isn’t asking you to swap a rate for a chance at a prize, because it isn’t replacing the rate you already get. Whatever your account earns, it keeps earning, and the tickets are free on top. That’s also why it’s worth adding while a BMO promo is running. The 5.00 percent keeps paying for its 120 days, and every one of those weeks the same balance is in a draw.

Every $25 you have saved is a ticket in a weekly draw for up to $10,000. Get Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or Google Play Store (opens in a new tab).

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.