Consumer complaint received 2020-01-14
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Unexpected increase in interest rate

Complaint:
I am reaching out to you in hope that you can help me resolve an ongoing issue with my Care Credit account. 
I opened an account back in XX/XX/XXXX at my doctor 's office. At that time I received a letter from Care Credit along with my credit card. They offered a 0 % interest for 24 months with fixed payments. I went paperless shortly afterwards to preserve trees. I didn't have any issues with the account until later ( XXXX ), when I was convinced to use Care Credit at the XXXX of XXXX XXXX. That doctor 's office offered me the same deal : 0 % interest on 2 medical procedures as long as I don't miss or delay any payments. I was told that Care Credit will automatically debit my checking account every month with fixed payments. I did not get any statements regarding the new transactions from Care Credit via email nor paper. I noticed that my monthly payments immediately went up as they were debiting my checking account, so in my understanding, everything was fine. 
Ever since, Care Credit debited my checking account every month ( they also determined the amount they charged me ), so I thought I was being compliant with the terms explained to me. 
Towards the end of XX/XX/XXXX, as I was nearing the end of my fixed payments with Care Credit, I called them to make sure my last payment was due in XX/XX/XXXX. That is when the representative first mentioned to me that there was, in fact, a 26.9 % APR going in full swing on some of my transactions. I was very confused, as at that time I did not understand there even could be an APR on a Care Credit account. I was sold a 0 % deal. It took me sometime to understand the way they operate : 4 different charges on the same account with completely different terms. Yet, just one combined monthly payment ( initiated and determined by Care Credit ). For some of the transactions, Care Credit did in fact honor the promised 0 % APR deal and the fixed payments were set up so that I would meet my requirements for that 0 %. Meanwhile other transactions slipped into a 26.9 % APR, as Care Credit charged me way less than they should have every month, just little enough so that I would not meet the criteria and slip into a 26.9 % APR. I tried calling multiple representatives to explain that I was sold a different product and get the situation resolved. At first, I was offered to send a letter to a PO Box . Apparently, Care Credit does not do email communications in XX/XX/XXXX, nor does the company offer their corporate leadership 's phone numbers to customers like me with escalated situations. We were able to reach a mid- level manager, XXXX XXXX who kept wasting my time for several weeks ( so that I occur even more APR ), giving me empty promises and pushing the blame entirely on me. I was told that it is not their problem that I did not get any correspondence from them ; it is not their problem that I was sold a 0 % fixed-payment product by the doctor 's office, which ended up being a 26.9 % APR credit card. I feel like I am a victim of false advertisement. I also feel like Care Credit intentionally confuses their customers with multiple transactions under 1 account with 1 single monthly debit yet on completely different terms. If the terms are, in fact, all different, why not make this clear to a customer? Why not mail a separate package for each of the transactions to a customer, and have them read terms and disclosures and then determine options for each of the transactions separately? Why not separate those transactions into separate accounts with separate payments? Why empower and incentivize doctor 's offices to sell their product, yet not even follow up with those offices to ensure they deliver correct information to consumers? Why perform direct monthly debits from their consumer 's checking account with amounts smaller than needed for that given consumer to meet the 0 % APR criteria? Why make it so impossibly hard for a consumer to even figure out what is happening to their account? Or to reach the right person over the phone/email? 
I feel like I have been tricked into a 26.9 % APR credit card, under a false promise of it being a 0 % fixed payment deal. I have so many credit cards with 0 % APR deal, that this would have been a no-brainer for me to pay off Care Credit balance at any time to avoid getting hit by a 26.9 % APR. In fact, I was going to use my debit card at XXXX   of XXXX XXXX in the first place, had they not convinced me to use Care Credit, had they not posted " 0 % Care Credit '' advertising all over their walls. Now I am stuck with thousands of dollars in APR balance, and all I get from " Care '' Credit is that they don't, in fact, care about their customers.

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