Consumer complaint received 2020-02-27
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: TN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
I would like to preface this information by stating that the problems I will describe below have been ongoing for approximately the past year. 

I currently have two types of transactions on my synchrony care credit account - 2 promotional transactions that do not accrue interest if paid in full by a given date ( for both this date is XX/XX/XXXX ) and 3 transactions that are reduced APR/fixed payments ( for transactions dated XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX ). 

1. The first issue is that it is not conveyed to the customer how payments are applied 'automatically ' when both promotional and fixed rate transactions exist on an account at the same time. My assumption was that my payment would go towards the first 'expiration ' date first - the promotional transactions. This is NOT the case, and I only found this out after my first payment after adding the fixed APR transactions to my balance. When I contacted synchrony to ask why none of my payment was applied to my promotional balances, I was informed that the system applies payments to the highest interest transactions first. Now, it should be noted that the promotional purchases have an APR of 24.99 % for EACH transaction. For the fixed transactions the APR is 14.9 or 16.9 %. To me, and I imagine other customers as well, the highest interest rates are on the promotional transactions. Synchrony does not see it this way - they see the promotional rates as 0 because the interest rate doesn't kick in until AFTER the promotional period has ended. Very sneaky. If you don't pay attention closely, despite making calculated payments to pay off your balance by the expiration date, the consumer will be surprised by being hit with the crazy high rate of 24.99 % because potentially NONE of their payments were applied to these transactions. 

2. However, a consumer CAN request for their payment to be allocated to specific transactions. At this time, this can only be accomplished by phone with a customer service rep. Once I was informed of this and made my first payment with a customer service person by phone, where I defined the specific payment allocations - the payment was actually never recorded AT ALL. It took multiple calls spanned hours on the phone to ultimately have them pull their call record ( which they thankfully have XXXX to determine that I had, in fact, submitted a request for payment with specific allocations, I actually requested a confirmation number and was informed they could not provide one. Since this was my first attempt at this type of payment, I didn't know any better and assumed this was accurate information. It was not. Again, many more phone calls and several hours - this issue was ultimately resolved.

3. As a result, I now keep extremely detailed records of my balances and allocated payments. Yet, my monthly statement never reflects this information. While I am happy to provide these detailed records for each month since XX/XX/XXXX when this all started, I will focus this complaint on the most recent discrepancies highlighting the discrepancies between statements with closing dates of XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. 
The XX/XX/XXXX statement indicates the following : Balance = {$1100.00} Promotional balances ( 2 with the same expiration date of XX/XX/XXXX ) = {$5500.00} ( total ) XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX I made a payment for the total amount of {$1300.00} on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX. I have the confirmation # if needed. The following allocations were requested : - Apply {$1100.00} towards the two promotional balances ( either split equally or applied all to one - it didn't matter since they have the same expiration date ) - Apply {$100.00} to the XX/XX/XXXX transaction - Apply {$40.00} to the XX/XX/XXXX transaction - Apply {$130.00} to the XX/XX/XXXX transaction The next statement ( with closing date of XX/XX/XXXX ) that I received reflected the following : Balance = {$10000.00} ( which is over {$500.00} more than expected given the previous payment made ). Additionally, the statement reflects 'New Purchases ' in the amount of {$1500.00}, although the card has NOT been used at ALL. There is also a general line item of 'Credits, Fees, Adjustments ( net ) that = {$1100.00}. I am unable to determine what this reflect at all. 
This statement shows the transaction balances as follows : - Promotional balances ( 2 with the same expiration date of XX/XX/XXXX ) = {$4900.00} ( total ). This is {$490.00} MORE than it should be based on the payment allocation submitted on XX/XX/XXXX for {$1100.00} - XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX ( {$100.00} prior pmt +XXXX - this seems to be interest, and would be accurate ) - XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX ( {$40.00} prior pmt + XXXX - this seems to be interest, and would be accurate ) - XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX ( {$130.00} prior pmt + XXXX - this does NOT appear to be accurate interest applied ) As usual, I called to TRY to understand why my promotional payment had not been applied as requested. For the first time, after having to contact them EVERY SINGLE MONTH for nearly a year, I was informed by 'XXXX ' that 'sometimes ' it takes an average of 1-2 billing CYCLES for allocations to be applied. I had previously been informed that it may take 1-2 WEEKS. Personally, I don't understand why it should even take 1-2 weeks, however, this explains a LOT of the issues. Essentially, the statement that they send out aren't accurate. Presumably,  they would 'correct ' in 1-2 billing CYCLES, but by that time, additional payments, allocations and interest charges have been applied and nobody can figure ANY of this out to either explain or correct.

To FURTHER complicate the issue, today, I reviewed these transactions online. The following is what is reflected when reviewing these same transactions online today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : - Promotional balances ( 2 with the same expiration date of XX/XX/XXXX ) = {$4000.00} ( total ). This is {$430.00} LESS than I expected based on the payment allocation submitted on XX/XX/XXXX for {$1100.00}, which would have brought this balance to {$4400.00} - XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX - This matches the XX/XX/XXXX statement balance ( {$100.00} prior pmt +XXXX - this seems to be interest, and would be accurate ) - XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX - This matches the XX/XX/XXXX statement balance ( {$40.00} prior pmt + XXXX - this seems to be interest, and would be accurate ) - XX/XX/XXXX Fixed Balance Transaction Balance = XXXX This is {$930.00} MORE than the XX/XX/XXXX statement balance ( {$130.00} prior pmt + XXXX - this does NOT appear to be accurate interest applied ) Somehow, using some sort of fuzzy math, the online account balance still matches the statement account balance. 

The problem is - not only is it not apparent or clear that my payment allocations have been applied from my payment made on XX/XX/XXXX, I also now have a moving target for my promotional payoff amounts. At the very least, I would have expected those to be simple to maintain on the billing side, as there is no interest applied. It's a simple mathmatical equation - prior balance minus payment allocation = new balance. And yet, that does not appear to be the case. 

What I have described with this point # 3 in an every month occurrence. I am a long-time customer of Synchrony and have a history of always paying on time and MORE than required minimum payments. I am not what might be considered a 'risky ' customer.

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