Consumer complaint received 2020-05-13
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit / Paypal After a solicitation from Paypal I opened a credit account with Paypal Credit in XX/XX/XXXX The credit account is managed for Paypal by Synchrony Bank Among other special offers, the account offers 6 months free interest for purchases of {$99.00} or more Occasionally, Paypal ( and not specifically Paypal Credit ) emails offers for 12 or 24 months of easy payments allowing for 12 or 24 months of payments for purchases on XXXX or elsewhere. 
In XXXX of XXXX I made three large purchases on eBay in response to the easy-pay promotion totaling approximately {$950.00} with 12 monthly installments totaling approximately {$79.00}, and expiring on XX/XX/XXXX. 
After several statement cycles I noticed that my payments were not going to pay down regular balances or 6 month interest free balances, but were paying down the installments all at once, so that by XX/XX/XXXX there were only 3-4 payments left on the 12 month installment plan when there should have been 8 left thorough XXXX. 
By XX/XX/XXXX there were 0 installments left, the balances were XXXX, and all my payments had been incorrectly allocated to the installments. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I used the easy payment program again, to purchase an auto part on XXXX for {$880.00} with 24 easy-payments of {$36.00} ending in XX/XX/XXXX. 
Thus began a series of 30+ minute calls to customer service at Synchrony Bank/Paypal Credit. 
I called once or twice a month to try and correct the continuous cycle of misapplied payments, often spending 30 minutes or more on the phone. 
They stated that to have the payments allocated correctly I needed to call in each time I made a payment and that it would take 1-2 payment cycles to correct their errors and that their system was not capable of handling the easy pay installment payments automatically. 
I looked into Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit thinking perhaps they were a small bank that didnt have an sophisticated IT infrastructure. What I found was that they were one of the larger credit card lenders in the US, with billions of dollars of issued credit cards. 
They recommend that when I call I request US-based customer service which added significantly to the already lengthy time on the phone. 
Each time I waited a month or more to see the corrections, and the installments were never properly reinstated. 
I have logged many of the calls, and have statements and screen shots showing the dwindling installments. 
At XX/XX/XXXX, there were only 9 installments left to be paid of the XX/XX/XXXX 24 month plan, when only 3 installments should have been paid. The original 12 month installment plan was paid off in full, when there should have been 4 payments left. 
Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit had misapplied approximately several hundred dollars in payments to the installment balances. 
I called again on XX/XX/XXXX and spent 1 hour and 5 minutes on the phone attempting to get the payments correctly reallocated. 
After escalating the call to a manager, I was told that the 12 month installments left ( approximately {$75.00} x 4 installments or {$300.00} ) could not be corrected since it was already paid off. 
They stated that they had put in the request to correct the 24 month installment plan for over {$400.00} worth of payments ( or 11 misapplied payments ). 
On XX/XX/XXXX, after the the statement cycle ended, I logged in to find that the 24 month installment easy-pay ( ending XX/XX/XXXX ) had been paid in full. 
I can not spend hours more on the phone with Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit getting absolutely nowhere. 
Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit ( fraudulently ) induced me to make purchases using their credit platform with an offer ( essentially a contract ) promising installments, knowing their systems could not properly apply the payments, and despite repeated requests and communications did not honor the installment contract. 
I have had to make large payments against the account to satisfy early expiring obligations, because payments were mis-allocated to pay off installments. 
I feel defrauded by Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit . 
Synchrony Bank/ Paypal Credit should be responsible for maintaining an infrastructure that allows for the fair application of payments made and this should not require multiple unsuccessful phone calls and corrections after the fact. Certainly when the corrections do not get applied. 
I appreciate any assistance and attention to help resolve this matter. 

-- the statements and screen shots have personal information, but will be provided upon request

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