Consumer complaint received 2021-11-03
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NV
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX XXXX : self deposition In XXXX while employed on the XXXX XXXX in XXXX I received a non-solicited credit card from J.C. Penney corporation. Accompanying the credit card was an inducement to apply for an accidental death and dismemberment policy from XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX. At a cost of {$11.00} per month ad XXXX in cost and benefits, unless canceled by myself I applied for and received the insurance attached to the credit card. I would pay on this card for the next forty years with the benefit that the cost could not be increased. During this forty-year period, I never once made a purchase on the J.C. Penney card other than the insurance policy to the best of my memory. The policy amount was paid on time and kept up to date as far as beneficiaries. 
The account statement for XX/XX/XXXX listed that a payment of {$36.00} had been applied to the card and that there was an outstanding balance due of the {$11.00} for the previous month, which had been paid that month, and a new balance of an additional {$11.00} for the month of XXXX. Both charges were deducted from the {$36.00} credit leaving a balance of {$13.00}. I never made a payment of {$36.00} in the forty-year history of using the card. I called J.C. Penney customer support and reported that my account had been cross-referenced with someone else 's account and that person now was going to be short {$36.00} paid into their account. Customer support said they would review and correct the billing issue. The name of the agent at that time was " XXXX ''. They will not supply last names for security reasons. This call was made on XX/XX/XXXX, as the XXXX billing comes in the following month. 
A few days later I received correspondence in the mail that the issue had been corrected. I had been postmarked on XX/XX/XXXX, the day after I had called customer support. Unfortunately, instead of debiting the unknown {$36.00} from the account, they added another {$36.00} to the account so now I was up {$72.00} in error. I called customer support a second time the following day after receiving the notification. The upcoming payment for the policy was taken out of this amount so now I had a plus balance of {$60.00}. 
In early XXXX I received a second notice that they had discovered the error and had now charged my credit card payment {$36.00} to take it back. A second letter received on the same day stated that a payment of {$11.00} was applied to the account and that my balance owed was now {$72.00}. The monthly summary statement shows that they erroneously billed the XXXX XXXX policy as {$49.00} instead of {$11.00}, An amount of {$47.00} had been combined with the {$36.00} left from the original mistake. The next month 's billing showed a balance left to pay of {$26.00}. I continued to pay the {$11.00} due for the insurance policy and nothing more. 
When the XXXX statement arrived it stated that another error of {$36.00} was discovered and would be applied back to the card as money owed. This was the original mistake made to the account two months back. The next day I received a letter saying that {$11.00} had been applied to the account but that I now owed {$72.00}. ( If you are following this you are better at accounting than I am ) I placed another call to customer support and was assured that the billing would be corrected. I stopped asking for the operator 's names as it doesn't appear to matter one way or the other. A few days later I received a paper check from XXXX bank for {$49.00}. My guess is that it was to rectify the charge of {$49.00} charged for the insurance policy but I would have to cash the check when all they had to do was debit back the account. I would not cash this check as it is implied that I accept their method of accounting which I now compare to a game of three-card monte. 
When the statement arrived going in XXXX it showed that I now owed {$85.00}, I believe due to late fees. On XX/XX/XXXX, I waited on the telephone line for almost an hour to talk directly to fraud control. J.C.Penney fraud control is in the XXXX and while the operator did not clearly understand the issue at hand he did apologize eight times to me during the course of the conversation. I told him that I would not a check from XXXX Bank for {$49.00} as received and he asked me if I wanted a stop payment applied to it which I told him he could do if he felt it necessary. Before I could send the non-cashed check back I received a second check for {$49.00} to make up for the first that may or may not have been canceled out. In my mailing to XXXX Bank, both original checks have been returned. From this point on I am now being assessed late fees for refusing to pay nonexistent billing for products and services not solicited or received. I continued to pay the {$11.00} for the insurance policy as agreed to them. 
In XXXX XXXX sent me a letter that I was now two months in arrears as the money I had been sending to pay for the insurance policy was being applied to the late fees accumulated. XXXX offered to set me up for direct pay with them and I paid the two months in arrears. I called J.C.Penney customer support and canceled the credit card. The following week I made one last call to J.C.Penney support and talked with an agent named " XXXX '' or " XXXX '' who reviewed all the records and arrived at the same conclusion I had. He put me on hold so that he could contact fraud control and inform them of his findings. Twenty minutes or so later he came back and told me that unfortunately there was a language barrier and the fraud control agent could not understand the findings. He said that he would type up his findings and submit them to the fraud control department and asked that the credit card account remain close and all charges dropped but warned me that XXXXXXXX XXXX  did not have to agree with his findings. I told him I would give it a couple of months for them to work on it and straighten it out. 
Two months went by and the XX/XX/XXXX statement shows that I now owe {$270.00} in accumulated late fees for refusing to pay imaginary charges to the card. There was a veiled threat of legal action, which I intend to meet. as required. 
All pertinent documents are included for review. If you can read through them you are better that I was.

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