Consumer complaint received 2023-03-16
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: WA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
I have been trying for two months to pay my PayPal / Synchrony Bank credit card payment.

The moment the payment is a day late, they block access to the online account and force the consumer to call. I don't trust over-the-phone payment systems and don't need to tolerate verbal abuse by their billing agents.

This is not the first time this company has used this abusive billing practice to prevent customers from making their payments online and reviewing charges on their accounts. Last time I found several charges, but by the time I was able to access my account, it was too late to file a claim. This is not fair debt collection.

I've requested at leas

t two or three times a week via e-mail service that they unblock my access so I can pay my payment. I'm now about 40 days past due, which is going to impact my credit because they refuse to allow me access to make my payment. When I did call the number, it said there was no account associated with my phone number. Their systems do not recognize me, yet they call me several times daily and send text messages and emails daily, but their system claims no account exists. They're trying to force me to talk to their collections department on the phone and give my full social security number so they can locate my account, and I am not providing that information via the phone. This seems to be an unfair business practice when there is no way for me to make a payment. I have no checks, I've always paid bills online. I can not access statements or activities and have no way to know if any unauthorized charges have gone through. All my statements are in the online portal because I have paperless billing. Even though I have been struggling between jobs, this is the ONLY account I am behind on, which should tell you something. Their practices are preventing me from paying what I owe. If they want me to pay, they need to stop arbitrarily blocking access to my payment portal so I can actually submit a payment. I don't have a physical card for this account. I haven't used it in months and did not realize it had been lost, likely when I moved six months ago. I can't even send a cashier 's check to their billing address at this point, because I do not have the full account number. I've sent this request so many times via their e-mail customer service, yet they refuse to even acknowledge my messages or attempt to resolve the issue so they can collect payment. This should not be an impossible request, and they should not be able to ignore my countless requests to access my account online or in the app. Both m
ethods disallow access, claiming no account exists.

If no account exists, then I guess I do not owe them money.

If they want to be paid, they should allow customers to pay how they feel comfortable.

These kinds of punitive practices should be disallowed if they aren't already.

Fair debt collection is just that : Fair. This abuse of process is not fair.

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