Consumer complaint received 2019-04-13
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
Synchony Bank, Care credit account promotions. Three separate accountings for promotions all with the same interest rates different balances. Two older, one more recent at 0 % that expires this month on XX/XX/XXXX {$1000.00} borrowed in XXXX was deferred interest of pd in full in 6 months, I paid them that XXXX last billing cycle. 

I requested a recast of my account yesterday, XX/XX/XXXX, because the average daily balance they used to calculate my interest during the last 5-6 months included the XXXX balance and that the allocation of funds makes a diference on the interest they charged me. The supervisor I spoke to claimed it is correct as posted and I will end up owing them a lot more money if they do that as I had interpreted the law on promotional balances. 

I asked what he meant and how much is he talking about, he said, " I don't know, you tell me. '' I was speaking to a supervisor and the call was recorded and he refused to supply me a recast of my interest savings and adjustment, since I made not only the increased monthly payments, on time each month and I also paid them the {$1000.00} in full prior to the deadline. That balance should not have any deferred interest charges on it which it does since it was used to calculate my average daily balance during the promotional period. 

He claimed something about 2 billing cycles prior to the expiration date I would have had to pay that entire balance off to avoid those charges, but since I did not, I owed the interest charges on it. 

I have very little patience for accounting ignorance and when the lender asked me to supply that information rather than doing so himself as I requested I became upset and mentioned the CFPB to the supervisor I was speaking to. I was told to contact you, the CFPB and the Attorney General 's office, if I believe they owe me an adjustment on my account. It was said to me like a threat that I was going to look stupid, because they were in compliance. I again asked them to apply the funds to the highest interest balances for the last 6 months and supply me with a recasted balance. 

Basically.what I am hearing is that they were not going to pay down any the highest interest balances with my minimum monthly payments, which also increased due to the {$1000.00} balance increase. I had the funds to pay that balance in full in my bank account and could have paid it off at any time after the XXXX month, but they are telling me I would have owed them more interest since they were applying the payments towards the 0 % interest balance first. 

The refusal to show me how they deferred 100 % of the 0 % balance seems unfair and I don't understand why I only had 4 months to pay off a 6 months deferred balance. How can I get this information, or do I have to contact a private attorney? They made money on that {$1000.00} and can not prove to me otherwise. 

Prior statement balance was {$1400.00}. I paid {$1000.00} during that billing period and was told that the promotion of {$1000.00} amount had a new balance of {$730.00} when my payment of {$1000.00} was applied. The new balances on the other older 2 previous promontions were {$400.00} and XXXX totaling XXXX. My latest statement showed a new balance due of {$480.00}. Higher than I was told on my last phone call the month before. I question then why were my funds being appied to the lowest interest balance and to make sure my {$1000.00} was applied there and the minimum monthly payments towards the prior high interest promotions at the exhorbinant rate of 26.99 % each. This is a clear case of the consumer not getting the benefit of zero percent promotions as promised. It's an unfair business practice that only benefits them. I will be contacting the Attorney General 's office about this as well.

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