Consumer complaint received 2021-09-16
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
I would like to discuss the very legal but shady with lack of morality and empathy that this company inflicts and practice on the consumer. I will be forwarding this complaint to the consumer financial protection bureau as well as my state congressmen. Over the years I have worked really hard at trying to raise my credit score. Serving in the XXXX XXXX and being young I didn't realize just how important credit was until I became older. I open a line of credit with Rooms to GO financed by Synchrony. Not because it was my only option but because I saw it as a way to build upon my credit. It should also been known that I didn't seek out the financing. It was brought to my attention by a sales associate at the store. It was a pitch given at the sales desk that I'm sure most people can relate to. During the COVID pandemic, I as an 1099 contract worker loss a great deal of business due to the nature of my job. Needless to say I'm not making as nearly as much money as I was. Due to this I have relied on my credit which has caused my utilization on revolving credit to jump much higher than the normal 25-30 % range that I kept it at pre-pandemic. With that being said I have still been able to make payments on time and make at least the bare min payment each month. It has been a real struggle but something that I take pride in. ( Again it was hard work building my score ) Although, I was making on time payments, I noticed that Synchrony had been decreasing my credit limit over the span of three months and each month my credit score would drop a few points. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a credit alert from XXXX saying that synchrony had closed my account. I was livid! On XX/XX/XXXX I called and was told my account was closed because " federal law mandates '' Synchrony to obtain credit reports and that because of this they closed my account due to " high utilization scores '' Here 's the issue! Synchrony is basically punishing me for trying to survive! While I didn't use the card during the pandemic, I depended on the card for credit score purposes. Although, synchrony can see I have have high utilization with other accounts they cant see how the other companies are working with their consumers during this rough period of time. They should also see that the same accounts that they are trying to penalize me for HAS NEVER BEEN late either! So instead of working with the consumer this company much rather punish them by further harming FICO scores. What made the situation worse was the agents response " well if you read the terms of agreement '' you would understand it's legal '' Noted! I also read some of the company responses here on XXXX  stating ' that synchrony isn't a credit bureau and therefore isn't responsible for the credit drop. This screams predatory... I will not rest until this is federally addressed! PERIOD

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