Consumer complaint received 2019-03-20
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
Ive been an XXXX store card holder since XX/XX/XXXX. Ive always been enrolled in auto-payment and have a tendency to practically pay the card off annually after receiving my tax refund at the beginning of the calendar year. In an effort to do so this year, the extra payment ended up being returned because my tax refund was unable to be direct deposited on XX/XX/XXXX as initially estimated by the IRS.gov refund status tool. I thought I had cancelled the payment, but according to Syncrony Bank, I didnt. Synchrony Bank, which offers and services the XXXX  Store Card returned the payment and I was charged the corresponding fee through my bank. No issue on that front. 

My complaint is focused around what happened as a result of that returned payment. Synchrony Bank closed my account. I did not receive any notification from the institution and attempted to order from XXXX on Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX. I received notifications from XXXX on the days that followed that my payment was rejected. That seemed odd to me considering that Id made a large, extra payment on the account over the weekend ( payment of XXXX applied XX/XX/XXXX ), and I was no where close to my limit of {$3000.00}. I attempted to rectify the issue on XXXX the evening of XX/XX/XXXX by reselecting the same card. A few minutes later I received another e-mail notification from XXXX that there was a problem. So I contacted Synchrony. They informed that they have a policy of auto-closing accounts that have 2 returned payments. I inquired about when the 1st returned payment occurred. The customer service rep  indicated it was in XXXX. I asked if there was any possible way to re-open the account. I was told no, but that I could open a new account. I indicated that I did not want to do that considering that a new account would result in a hard pull on my credit and reduce the average age of my credit accounts. Both of which would have a negative impact on my credit score. I also asked if it mattered that the recent payment that was rejected was an extra payment, and wasnt a normal minimum payment that would result in my account being overdue. I was told it didnt matter. The associate offered to escalate to a supervisor upon my mention of the negative impact to my credit score if I opened a new account. While I was on hold I began researching the validity of the returned payment in XXXX which had been indicated as the first qualifying returned payment. I couldnt remember a late and/or returned payment in recent memory. Sure enough, there was no returned payment fee corresponding to my XXXX XXXX Store Card payment that appeared on my bank statement or my store card statement. 

When the next individual greeted me, she indicated that the 2nd payment had been in XXXX. I noted the discrepancy in comparison to the first representative. The supervisor responded that she mightve been confusing the dates, and that she was going to look into it further. Upon doing so I asked her similar questions about my account being up to date and that the return was a failed attempt at an extra payment due to the timing issue of my tax refund. Additionally, I indicated that I had never received notification in XXXX or XXXX pertaining to the 1st alleged returned payment nor for the account closure which apparently occurred on XX/XX/XXXX ( more than a week ago from today, XX/XX/XXXX ). 

The supervisor then indicated that the first returned payment was actually from XX/XX/XXXX. Almost 2 years ago. My account has been in good standing that entire time and I never received a notice even then that a 2nd returned payment would result in my account being closed. I asked the representative if there was a time limit on when the 2 returned  payment account closure policy applied to. She then indicated that it was a 2 year window. Im not even able to access my account statements back that far on my XXXX Store Card account. It doesnt seem fair that they can dig back that far to close my account limiting my average account age without allowing me to see the documentation to support their claim. 

Overall, this practice seems unfair, deceptive, and manipulative as a sales tactic to get customers to open new accounts when their prior accounts may continue to accrue interest despite being closed against their will. It negatively impacts uneducated consumers that may be unaware of the impacts that newly opened accounts can have on their credit history, and completely disregards hard working individuals who keep their credit accounts current.

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