Consumer complaint received 2022-03-23
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
Care Credit/Synchrony Bank closed my account because they said it was reported as fraudulent. I opened this account in XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX I used the card for the first time paying for veterinary services in the approximate amount of {$2400.00}. Since that time, I've faithfully made monthly payments. I recently paid the account in full. When I logged onto my consumer payment portal to verify that the account had a zero balance, the account was no longer available to view or manage. I called Care Credit customer service to inquire why. I was told the account was closed because it was reported by the primary account owner ( me ) as being fraudulent. I did not report the account as fraudulent. There are two difficulties this account closure poses for me. First, closing the account is detrimental to my credit score because it lowers my overall available credit and shortens the average age of my credit accounts. Second, if I am to retain use of a credit card that I can use solely for medical purposes, such as this one, I must reapply for a new account. Again, this is detrimental to my credit score because there would be a hard inquiry and a lowering of my overall age of credit accounts. 

Care Credit has accused me of making a call to report fraud. I did not do so. Care Credit 's fraud investigations unit only told me that the account was closed because of the fraud claim on XX/XX/XXXX. The manager I spoke with, XXXX, will not tell me when the call was received, by which employee nor will he share the voice recording made of the call in which the account was reported to be fraudulent. Care Credit 's belief that the account is fraudulent is plainly ridiculous given that I've paid the account for four years and recently paid the account in full. 

Care Credit has made other errors in servicing this account. More than a year ago, I noticed that the account balance was not decreasing, even though I was making regular monthly payments. Turns out, a very expensive payment protection service was added to the account. This service was meant to make monthly payments on the account in the event I was unable to do so. However, I never asked for or authorized this service. When I reported it to Care Credit customer service, the accumulated amount paid was, in fact, refunded, but I never asked for this service and I had been paying interest on the balance increase caused by the application of this service. 

Also, I subscribe to a credit monitoring service. I received an alert just this morning that my Care Credit account is being reported not as paid in full, but with a balance of more than {$1800.00}. The closing date of this account was much earlier in the month. Why was an updated balance sent in an unscheduled report sent yesterday to the credit bureaus for an account that was supposed to have been closed yesterday? 

Someone has made mistakes in servicing my account with Care Credit/Synchrony leading to its closure. I maintained this account properly and am being accused of making a false fraud claim. I would like these errors corrected and the account reopened and restored so that my credit score is not affected. It may be worth noting that I have three other credit accounts issued by Synchrony. All are in good standing, have never been reported late and recent amounts sent to paid off the balance of the accounts were received and applied without incident.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief