Consumer complaint received 2020-06-05
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: IN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't increase or decrease your credit limit

Complaint:
When I got the Care Credit Card, issued on behalf of Synchrony Financial Bank, about a little over two years ago, I had a credit score of roughly XXXX. 

I had a {$1500.00} credit limit which was increased to {$3000.00} after about six months. 

So, I use this card for mostly Pharmacy, vet and a XXXX  bill. I made full on Time payments for the first year I had this card. Sometimes, I paid twice a month. At the beginning of last year, this card roughly had a {$1400.00} balance, which is the highest balance I've ever had on it. So I wasn't even using half the limit. 

In all of the time I've had the card, I was late one time, and I did not realize that payments were due at XXXX  XXXX and I paid about three hours after the deadline but it was considered late and I offered to pay the late fees and they declined and took the late fees off. I was crying on the phone because I've been working on my credit for 5 years and I was so worried that I missed that deadline. Normally, I had been paying once or twice a month so I never really had to worry about a deadline. 

Last year, I lost my job for 6 months. Despite the worry of eviction in losing my whole life oh, I still made these payments every month and on time. Now, it was the minimum balance, but I make sure it got paid even before I bought groceries. 

It was last XXXX when I got notification that my credit utilization went from 12 % to 90 %. Even through my turmoil, my credit score kept increasing because I do the right thing. We received zero notification from this company and I learned about the utilization increase from XXXX XXXX, which I check everyday. I went online to the CareCredit site and realized that they decreased my limit from XXXX to XXXX. So it left me with about {$100.00} left on my limit. 

I did not understand this and CareCredit claimed that something on my credit triggered the decrease. I know that that was a fictitious reason as my credit score was 60 points higher than it was when they gave me the card and a XXXX limit and I have not missed a payment for any credit card or loan that I have. I have a 100 % on-time payment history on my credit. 

So I began to research this company, which I should have done before I agreed to take the card, to realize that this exact scenario has happened to thousands of other people. If you get any sort of balance on your Care Credit Card, no matter if you pay or not on time, they will begin lowering your balance until you pay it off and then they will close your account with no reason. 

So I was terrified that would happen and further damage my credit. So at this point, I'm using 98 % utilization on this credit card because of the limit decrease, and I begin to pay off the balance because just that act alone caused me to lose 40 of the 60 points I had gained over the last year on my credit. 

I pay off the entire balance over a 60-day period of time and I leave {$50.00} on the card because I was worried they would close it when I paid it off. I requested an increase, which they denied, and within 3 days of that request, I learned that they have, again, decreased my credit limit from XXXX to {$500.00}. 

Now, this just happened and I did not receive any notification whatsoever. XXXX XXXX has not yet picked this up and even though I have a credit rating of almost XXXX I'm sure this will again lower my score. 

And I am confident that when I pay that {$50.00} balance off, they will close my account like they have thousands of other people and will further destroy everything I've worked for for the last five years. 

How is this legal? How is this fair that they can make changes to so jeopardize all of my hard work and something that my whole life relies on and they don't even have to notify me for it? 

They've gotten every time and they've gotten interest and I have attempted to reach out to the company so many times but every single person you talk to tells you something different. You're high risk, how do you define high-risk? No answer. So making every payment on time without fail is high-risk? Was I not supposed to use the card? I'm high risk because for six months I pay the minimum balance? So, as a human being, I'm not allowed to be laid off and not have everything I've worked for implode because of it? And they wouldn't have even known about my situation outside of that I paid minimum payments but still on time without fail. 

How can this company treat so many people like this and get away with it? Consumer Reports, XXXX, XXXX, every place that has Synchrony Bank reviews says the same thing. Care Credit says the same thing. If you use any of the balance at all and even make a minimum payment, they close your account as soon as you pay it off or sometimes even before.

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 explanation