Consumer complaint received 2023-11-01
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: TX
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX I made a promotional purchase with deferred interest. 

Since opening my account, any new non-promotional purchases have been paid-in-full ( or overpaid ) every month. Meaning, I have paid the minimum balance due ( or more ) AND any new purchase balances. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed an interest charge and sent a message in the customer portal requesting an explanation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX stated, " You may avoid interest on any non-deferred purchases by adding the amount of New/ Non-promotional Purchases to the Minimum Required Payment from your statement and sending that amount as payment. '' Since I had overpaid the minimum balance due and all new purchases were paid-in-full, I called customer service and was told that I had paid my new purchase balance too quickly and the system misallocated my payment towards the promotional balance ( instead of new purchases ) because the system had not processed the charges. I was instructed to wait until the purchases reflected in my account before paying the balance. The interest charge was waived. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I made {$1000.00} in new purchases and had a minimum balance of {$94.00} due. ( I followed the instructions I was given in XXXX. I made a transaction on XX/XX/XXXX that I paid-in-full on XX/XX/XXXX. Another transaction on XX/XX/XXXX that I paid-in-full on XX/XX/XXXX ). In total, I paid {$2000.00} on my XXXX statement - an overpayment of {$940.00}. 

My XX/XX/XXXX statement reflected another interest charge. On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent another message in the portal and received a response from XXXX XXXX stating the same thing XXXX XXXX shared in XXXX, " You may avoid interest on any non-deferred purchases by adding the amount of New/ Non-promotional Purchases to the Minimum Required Payment from your statement and sending that amount as payment. '' I called customer service again and my interest fee was waived. I was told it was obviously an error ; however, my previous payments were not reallocated towards my non-promotional balance. 

My XX/XX/XXXX statement reflected another interest charge. I called customer service again and was told : - It does not matter if I pay off the new purchase balance, I will be charged interest on all non-promotional purchases no matter what. I asked where this was in the policy agreement and was put on hold. ( I never received a response. ) - It does not matter if I overpay my minimum balance due and new purchases, I will be charged interest - I requested a copy of the policy supporting that interest would be charged regardless of payment status. ( It was not provided )- I was told I have to call customer service every time I make a payment if I need to allocate funds towards new purchases- I requested an incident number so I could follow-up on the status of my request for an account review. ( It was not provided. ) I was told I would receive a letter in the mail in 60 days. 

- I was told the interest could not be waived because " it is a valid charge. '' ( Even though I have it in writing from 2 separate customer service representatives that the policy is, " You may avoid interest on any non-deferred purchases by adding the amount of New/ Non-promotional Purchases to the Minimum Required Payment from your statement and sending that amount as payment. '' )

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