Consumer complaint received 2023-10-10
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MI
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Credit card company forcing arbitration

Complaint:
I applied for this card ( the Amazon Secured Card Managed by Synchrony Bank XXXX XXXX ) with the expectation and understanding that I would receive a card with a Visa or MasterCard logo and even while secured ( with my own money ) the understanding that I would be able to use this card anywhere. I just came out of a long rehabilitative process and I'm trying to do right by the laws and by being responsible credit-wise. I make and enjoy purchases from amazon.com and because of the breadth of AMAZON I had no reason to question that anything its name is on has a reputation as good as it ( amazon.com ) After they got my money ( the security deposit ) I was then told that it was only a card to be used strictly for Amazon.com purchases and then that it had no logo. Even coming to grips with this I still asked for the card and I was told that it will come in the mail ( which I waited and it never did ). Somewhere in the process I was able to review my credit report and saw that Synchrony reported ( somewhat favorably ) so within that I looked forward despite my initial plan to close out the account for misrepresentation. 

I didn't know much about the card or even how it worked but I knew that I should be able to make purchases from Amazon on it, my security deposit 's worth. 

Everything dealing with that card and dealing with Synchrony Bank is especially difficult, and the kicker is they don't let you know the account number which is on that card and anything pertaining to having access to your money is super slow especially when you make a lot of purchases from Amazon like I do.

Recently I needed to change the phone number on the account. The number I used to set the account up, I'm not using that number much anymore so I went to the usual channels I'm talking to customer support and even trying to change the number with only access they have at their website. It was weird because it was so difficult and pretty much everything dealing with them they offer to paper mail things to you which will take 7 to 10 business days even to gain access.

The culmination of the whole thing is that when they did end up coming with a solution to change the number they offered to send the OTP to a number with the last four digits I didn't recognize or to send it to a number of my choosing ( the number of my choosing mysteriously didn't work and mysteriously, customer service 's attempts to send the OTP to the number on the account didn't work either ) Upon humbling myself and many calls and talking sweetly to customer service I found out that the number they presented me with was an old number ( possibly with an old bill - more than 20 years ago ) that the data collection company " XXXX '' has on their records and Synchrony is " leveraging '' by squeezing my money and making me succumb to being victimized by XXXX tactics because they feel they have no other options much like many people who apply for this card do. 

I just think it's low down dirty and underhanded for them to introduce ( ever so casually ) some other left field factor to propagate XXXX 's data collection aggregation, without which I am denied XXXX century convenience of access to what's mine.

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