Consumer complaint received 2022-12-15
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
I have done business with Synchrony Bank for several years. I have never had a returned or late payment. This month, for some reason, my payment was posted on XXXX XXXX for XXXX dollars and it did not reflect on my available credit, so I could no longer use the card. This is very problematic, because I have some automatic payments that use this card to take payments from. This may cause me extra work and possible late fees from these companies. 

I called Synchrony on Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX, to find out why. The automated system told me that I could just make a payment to free up credit. I issued a payment of {$1000.00}. In the past, that would credit right away. It didn't this time, so I called a representative. I asked her why all of the sudden why my payments weren't freeing up my credit. She said that there was an algorithm that decided that and there was nothing anyone could do. She said the payment would be held until XX/XX/XXXX. I asked about the new payment that I made. She said the XXXX on that one, so I cancelled the XXXX payment. It no longer did me any good. 

When the XXXX came, I needed to pay my travel agent for a purchase. I checked my account and was horrified to find that the payment was still being held. I called customer service again. This person gave me a different answer as to why this was happening. I asked him when my payment hold would end. He said it would at the time I made my payment a week ago. I told him that I didn't know because it was a credit card transfer. He kept asking my what time I made the payment. I don't think he understood that there is no way I can tell what time a balance transfer comes into their office. I asked him why this was happening in the first place. He claimed that the payment I made was too big ( XXXX ). That made no sense at all because I had made large payments before and never had a hold. He told me that he guaranteed that my {$6000.00} payment from the last month was held too. I informed him that it wasn't and that my {$1000.00} dollar payment was going to be also held. He claimed that the previous representative that told me that on the XXXX was wrong. I informed his that she wasn't wrong about that because I wasn't getting credit for that payment either when I checked the account. He clearly had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked for a manager. 

The manager told me that the reason for the hold was that I made multiple payments in a month. That also didn't make sense for two reasons. The first reason is that I have made multiple payments in a month before and this has never happened. The second reason that that doesn't make sense is that when you call the customer service number, they actually tell you that you can make a payment to free up your credit ( which would cause a multiple payment ). He informed me that I would have my money freed up by midnight. I then informed him that I would be filing complaints against his company for causing all these problems for no reason on a custom that has been perfect with payments for several years. 

This is extremely frustrating because had they warned my that they would start messing with my money for no reason, at least I could have made other arrangement. It just happened out of the clear blue. It also causes problems with people and companies expecting to get paid and may cause me late fees. The fact that I got 3 nonsensical answers from 3 different representatives is also unbelievable. All this information can be verified. 1 ) I have a perfect payment record with the company 2 ) I have made large payments and more that one during a billing period in the past with no nonsensical holds on my money. 3 ) All phone conversations were recorded so it can be verified that I am telling the truth about what I was told. Credit card companies should not be allowed to play these games with customers money!

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