BMO Auto Loan CARFAX Policy: Does BMO Include a History Report?

BMO does not hand out a free CARFAX or AutoCheck report, and as of October 17, 2026 its U.S. website does not show an auto loan you can apply for at all. The consumer loans page lists two products, a home equity line of credit and a home equity loan. BMO also stopped taking car loans through dealers in September 2023. So if you bank with BMO and you are buying a used car, the history report is yours to pull, and the financing probably is not coming from BMO either.

I went through BMO's U.S. loans and payments pages on Saturday afternoon, Pacific time, plus BMO's newsroom and the 2023 coverage of its dealer exit. A note on method: bmo.com would not answer a plain curl request from our box, so I am citing those pages by name rather than linking them. What I quote below is what the pages said when I loaded them.

What BMO's U.S. site offers in October 2026

The "Loans and Lines of Credit" page on bmo.com/en-us shows a HELOC and a home equity loan, and that is the list. The old auto loan calculator pages, like the one comparing a rebate with dealer financing, now open that same home equity page, and so does the personal loan address. The only rate I can quote is a home equity one: a 15-year home equity loan as low as 7.99% APR for applications from August 3 through November 2, 2026, which needs a $50,000 minimum loan, a FICO score of 780 or higher and autopay from a BMO checking account. Using your house to pay for a car can turn a bad used-car purchase into a lien on your home, so think hard first.

Existing car loans still live at BMO. The payments page tells auto loan customers where to mail payments to BMO Bank N.A., and says its Express Loan Pay service works for automobile, boat and RV loans. If you have an old BMO or Bank of the West car loan, that is where you manage it. None of those pages mentions a vehicle history report, as a perk or as a requirement.

Where the old Bank of the West loans fit

BMO's newsroom says it completed the purchase of Bank of the West from BNP Paribas on February 1, 2023, adding nearly 1.8 million customers and more than 500 branches and offices, with systems conversion expected in early September 2023. If your car loan was with Bank of the West, it is a BMO loan now. That changes who you pay. It does nothing to the car's history.

Why the dealer path closed

BMO quit indirect retail auto lending, the kind where the dealer's finance office sends your application to the bank, in September 2023. CBC News, carrying Reuters' report, said the bank was winding down that business in both Canada and the U.S., that dealer agreements ended effective September 15, and that contracts approved before then would still be funded. It also noted BMO's bad debt provisions had jumped to C$492 million from C$136 million a year earlier. The Globe and Mail put BMO's auto loans outstanding at $17.4 billion in its figures, 2.7% of the bank's credit portfolio.

At the time, a BMO spokesperson told the Globe the bank would keep offering auto loans through a "wide range of personal banking options," and Auto Remarketing reported on September 21, 2023 that BMO's commercial lending to dealers for inventory was unaffected. Three years later, that personal-banking path is hard to find on the U.S. site. If you want a firm answer, call BMO at 1-888-340-2265 and ask whether it will finance a specific used car, and get any offer in writing. I would not plan a purchase around it without that call.

For you at the dealership, this means the finance manager will not be sending your deal to BMO. The money will come from someone else, and the dealer will probably slide its own free report across the desk. Read our take on whether a dealer's free AutoCheck is enough first. The dealer picked that report and printed it. And BMO may well finance the lot's inventory, which tells you nothing about the car you are looking at.

How BMO stacks up against other banks we checked

Our M&T Bank auto loan CARFAX policy post covers a bank that still lends both directly and through dealers. The KeyBank and Regions write-ups cover direct-only lenders, and TD Bank works through dealers. Our U.S. Bank post found a dealer pre-approval and a personal loan for private-party cars. BMO is the odd one: no dealer channel, and no auto loan on its U.S. site that I could find. None of them includes a free report.

Checking the car yourself

Look, the history check is the same no matter who lends. Decode the VIN with NHTSA's vPIC tool, search NMVTIS for salvage, flood and junk brands, and read the CFPB's auto loan guides before you sign. Be wary of a seller who sends a PDF report but stalls on the VIN. Fake reports take minutes to make.

CarVins is a licensed reseller of CARFAX and AutoCheck and is not affiliated with CARFAX, AutoCheck, Experian or BMO. In mid October 2026 a single report here costs about $5.50 for guests or $4.50 for members, with a bundle near $6.75, versus roughly $39.99 to $44.99 at retail. Confirm the price at checkout.

Sources

• BMO U.S. "Loans and Lines of Credit" and "Payments and Deposits" pages on bmo.com/en-us, read Oct. 17, 2026 (unlinked; the site blocks automated checks)
• BMO newsroom: acquisition of Bank of the West (Feb. 1, 2023)
• CBC News / Reuters: BMO winds down indirect auto (Sept. 2023)
• The Globe and Mail: BMO winds down retail auto finance
• Auto Remarketing: BMO statement (Sept. 21, 2023)
• CFPB auto loans, NHTSA vPIC, NMVTIS