Consumer complaint received 2021-03-18
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Unexpected increase in interest rate

Complaint:
I am extremely concerned about the fraudulent billing practices of Synchrony Bank. Actually, The practice of this bank to the bona fide consumer is 100 % FRAUDULENT, which need to be scrutinized and CORRECTIVE ACTION need to be taken immediately before causing further damages to the consumers!!! They offered so called " DEFERRED INTEREST CREDIT CARDS '' and charged tremendous amount of excessive interest fees ( 29.99 % on top of balance ) during the past several years ... I purchased furniture & flooring from two vendors LUMBER LIQUIDATORS & XXXX back in XX/XX/XXXX. They offered interest free purchase for 26month if we setup account with this Bank. So we setup 2 accounts for {$8000.00} & {$4600.00} respectively with the Synchrony Bank. When webfirst setup the account, we divided monthly payment into 26 even payments, and request to setup monthly auto pay with the bank, so we thought the balance will unwind after 26mo. But more than 4 years past, we never received any statements from this bank, it wasn't until today XX/XX/XXXX, we found out each account still owed XXXX & XXXX from this bank. And we already made more than {$5500.00} & {$3900.00} towards the interest payment from XXXX till XXXX. And every month, we paid more than {$180.00} & $ XXXXpayments they charged about {$120.00} & {$86.00} were into their interest fees and only remaining small fractions were into principal payments. If they keep charging like this and we did not find out this FRAUDULENT practice today, the principal would NEVER be cleared and they would have charged 29.99 % interest forever!! I never received any statements since the account inception. When I called customer service today XX/XX/XXXX, I expressed our deep concern and we believe there are FRAUDULENT activities they did to our accounts, and demanded them to credit back the excessive interest they charged. However, they refused to credit back any interest fee they already charged, and threatened if we don't pay the remaining balances, they would charge 29.99 % interest for every single payments we made. I made full payment for the remaining balance today, but however, I do not feel confident that this will be the end of this. I am concerned that their poor communication and handling of my account is affecting my credit history. I AM VERY CONCERNED ABOUT THE COMPANY 'S DEFFERED INTEREST CREDIT PRACTICE, because without the monthly statement, the consumer would have no idea, how much they would have charged from your monthly bank account throughout the life span of the purchase, they lure consumers with promises of no interest or 0 % interest for a promotional time period, but there is a debt time bomb at the end, Consumer like me who setup auto pay didn't get any statement from this bank, and they deceive the customers made them thought they are making monthly payments to pay off the balances, however, the payments we made was not to pay off the balance, rather into their monthly interest and once the promotional period ends, consumers will be charged interest retroactively back to the date that they bought the item, even on amounts have been paid off. THIS IS CLEARLY ADECEPTIVE & FRAUDULENT PRACTICE in modern society!!! I am a mom with XXXX kids whose financial has been adversely impacted by COVID! I'm now referring the matter to FTC in the hope the commission would be able to look into the details of this company 's practice and correct the issues & damages caused by this company!

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 monetary relief