Consumer complaint received 2023-05-05
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: IN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
I have an IRA account and a money market account at Synchrony Bank. In XXXX, Synchrony Bank ( SB ) made a mistake when they distributed my IRA RMD for that year and has refused to correct it. As a result of their mistake, my federal and Indiana income tax liability is {$430.00} more than it would have been had they distributed the amount that I requested. The details are as follows : On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, in compliance with instructions from the IRA Department, I sent a letter and attached Request for Distribution form < XXXX XXXX to : Retirement Services, Synchrony Bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX GA XXXX requesting that the bank amend my RMD distribution for XXXX as follows : Reduce FOR THIS YEAR ONLY the RMD from {$12000.00} to {$10000.00}. 

By way of these same documents, I also instructed them to distribute this reduced amount from my IRA CD account, withhold 10 % of this amount for federal income tax and 6 % for Indiana state income taxes, and to deposit the balance into my Synchrony Bank money market account on XX/XX/XXXX. I telephoned Synchrony Bank about 2 weeks later and received confirmation that they had received my request and would comply with it. 

However that did not happen. The last statement of the year, XXXX XXXX XXXX, shows that the amended amounts of distribution and withholdings were withdrawn from my IRA CD account on XX/XX/XXXX just as I requested. But then, for some reason that I can not understand, they were deposited right back into that account, and on that same day the larger amount -- without IN state withholding -- was distributed from another of my IRA CD accounts and reported to the IRS on that years XXXX < XXXX >. 

I did not discover this error until my son arrived on XX/XX/XXXX to help me with my income taxes. Over the course of the following 6 weeks, we made many phone calls to the Synchrony Bank IRA department without ever getting them to explain this error and correct it. 

Fed up with getting nowhere by telephone, between XXXX and XXXX XX/XX/XXXX my son and I corresponded with Synchrony Bank by logging into their website and using SBs secure messaging option to request that they correct their mistake by transferring {$2100.00} from my money market account back into my IRA CD and issuing a corrected 1099-R with the reduced distribution amount. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX refused to do this claiming that I had agreed to this transaction during a phone conversation on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, 5 days after they had already transferred the wrong distribution. On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I requested that they send me a letter by USPS first class mail describing how this happened and including the transcript of the phone conversation and other documents they cited as their reason for doing so. 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, SB told me that they would not take this request for a letter by email and requested that I telephone their IRA department supervisor. I telephoned SB on XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX and was never allowed to speak with a supervisor about this problem. On XX/XX/XXXX, an SB IRA representative told me that she would confer with SB executives about this problem and get back with me. That has never happened.

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