Consumer complaint received 2023-03-31
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
I have always had auto pay enabled for this account, and the whole point of autopay is so that I don't have to pay attention to making payments, because it's AUTO pay. This has always been turned on for this account ever since it was first opened. I have made 2 purchases with this card at separate times - a very large sofa with a rug, and a king sized bed with a foundation and some other stuff. The large sofa was paid in full using auto pay without any issues. I attempted to do the same with my king sized bed. 

However, even though I had auto pay setup for my king sized bed, at some point something turned it off, and it was NOT me. I was not notified that auto pay was turned off so for 3 solid months no payment was made on my account. I happened to be looking at my email late one night and saw a statement come in for this account saying I owed over {$200.00} and that's the only reason I found out that there was something wrong. I received no other form of communication to alert me to this problem. 

Once I got the email, I looked into it and found that auto pay was disabled for whatever reason. So I tried to talk to synchrony. No one could tell me why auto pay was disabled and in fact at one point I was told that I never even had autopay turned on -- EVER. I find this highly disturbing because it sounds like there is inefficient logging around transactional logic in their system, a potential XXXX violation because audit logs are REQUIRED and this is a credit card company?! 

This company can't even tell that autopay was enabled in the first place, let alone how or why it was canceled. Furthermore, I can't even pull my entire statement history to prove payments were made consistently on the same day, so I have nothing to show for this complaint because they don't even provide sufficient documentation around MY transactions. Their website doesn't go back that far. This is just reckless and lazy. I should be able to access ALL my statements but that's a different issue. 

I told everyone I talked to -- to look at my payment history and you will see my account has been paid every month on the same day ( due to auto pay ) and I have always paid at least double the minimum payment. Eventually, synchrony negated the late fees and whatever other ill-gained charges this account had been rewarded for non payment, so I thought that would be the end of it. 

However what I find now is that during the 3 months this company had shut my auto pay down for, they had also been going behind my back and reporting to the credit agencies that I had not been making payments on this card. 

Then, this same company pulled my credit report after the wrongful reporting, and decided to drop my credit limit from roughly {$6000.00} to around {$1000.00} which is not only a joke, but it's also an insult considering this was not my doing that shut off auto pay. Why would even I do that? I have a 6 figure income, I think I can handle a $ XXXX payment -- yet I'm getting treated like some homeless bum who is living above their means and can't control their spending. One of their reps was actually talking down to me because of what this company was reporting to credit agencies which is probably what I'm most upset about. 

So, this company has basically shot themselves in the foot with the problems they have caused. I am extremely upset and basically if my credit limit is not restored and these negative remarks removed from my credit histories, I will be closing this account. I originally had around an {$800.00} balance left on this card but since this started happening it's been so upsetting that instead of waiting for this balance to be paid off naturally thru monthly payments, I've been throwing a lot more money at this balance and it will now be paid off within the next 2 weeks. Maybe even sooner if I don't stop thinking about this because all it does is get me upset to the point that I don't want anything to do with this card, this company, or rooms to go. 

If my credit limit is not restored and these negative remarks removed from my credit report, that will be the final straw for me, to the point that this card is no longer worth my interest. Once the balance is paid in full, this account will be closed and I will simply find another furniture store with a different card that I can open a new account for. There's nothing I can do in a furniture store with a {$1000.00} credit limit and even if there was, that limit is too low for me to care about, especially when you look at the credit limits for my other cards. It makes this one pathetic. And at this point, this entire experience leaves a really sour taste in my mouth so I'm not sure I even want this stupid card even if everything is resolved, it's been that frustrating.

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 non-monetary relief