Consumer complaint received 2023-07-05
Company: Synovus Bank
State: ME
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:
Upon signing up for the First Progress card and logging in for the first time, I became aware that payments could not be processed through the card 's online portal and that First Progress requires payments to be submitted via check ( or Bill Pay through another financial institution ). This has been a major inconvenience that was not disclosed prior to signing up for the secured credit card, but as I was attempting to build my credit I did not want to close the card and continued using it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I logged on to the card 's website to check my balance in hopes of paying of the entire balance of the card to find that First Progress had begun accepting online payments through their website. I submitted my account and routing number and made a payment for the full statement balance and I received a confirmation number at the time it was submitted. A message at the top of the screen showed the payment received. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a notification from a Credit monitoring app ( XXXX XXXX ) that First Progress had marked my account as delinquent. Upon logging into the account I could still see the message stating that a payment had been received on XX/XX/XXXX, however, the payment had not yet been drafted from my account ( I use a checking account solely for credit card payments and the entire balance of {$340.00} was still present in the account ). I disputed the charge with the credit bureaus as I had paid the account in full, had a confirmation for the payment, and in addition, First Progress had added a finance charge to the balance of {$340.00}, increasing my balance to {$350.00}. 

First Progress does not have any language that I was able to locate on their website about the timing of payments submitted through the " Make a payment '' feature of their website, therefore it would be impossible to know that a payment submitted on XX/XX/XXXX would not be processed by the due date ( the XXXX of each month ). 

I have continued to monitor my First Progress account and personal checking account and upon logging in today, noticed that the payment I submitted has disappeared completely from their website. There is no longer a confirmation message/number at the top of the screen, the payment was never drafted from my account, and there is no evidence that a payment was ever submitted on my part. I do understand that it's possible the payment was not successful ( perhaps a computational error of some sort ) but I was not notified in any way of a failed payment. I do have a screenshot from XX/XX/XXXX showing the messaging on their website confirming this payment was " received '' Obviously my first course of action would be to contact First Progress to remedy this. Upon trying to contact First Progress today to rectify this issue ( determine why the payment was never processed, how to pay off the balance of the account, ensure I am not charged a late fee, and close it completely ) the phone number fails to connect. I am hesitant to submit an additional payment and also fear that my credit will be further impacted by this gross error.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation