Consumer complaint received 2019-04-10
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: TN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
In XXXX and XXXX of XXXX, we purchased several appliances for our new home from XXXX totaling {$9200.00} ( receipts attached ). The sales person offered interest-free financing for five years and 5 % off of the total purchase if we opened a GE Capital credit account and made payments directly from our checking account. We were prepared to pay for the appliances in-full, but were lured into this predatory plan. We opened the account and financed {$6600.00} of the purchase. For five years, the direct payments have been made out of our checking account, as required. This week, we looked at the online account, expecting the balance to be at or near zero. We were outraged to see that the remaining balance was {$4700.00} ( statement attached ). In addition, we saw that they were charging 29.99 % interest and that at this rate, it would take 19 years to pay off the balance. This is not what we were lead to believe nor is it any type of plan that we would have accepted. 

We have no way of knowing how much we have paid over the years in interest since the online statements only go back a year ( document attached ). We see more confusing information on the attached statement under the Transaction Summary then inside the XXXX Totals Year-to-Date section that the Total Interest Charged in XXXX is {$370.00} and below that the Total Interest Paid in XXXX is {$530.00}. In addition, the activity report ( attached ) is confusing because it shows the timing of payments and interest charges several days apart. Why is this? 

We initially set up the automatic deductions from our checking account so there would never be a missed payment or ding on our credit report. The description of the plan was not presented accurately. The information online is incomplete. The whole situation is predatory and designed to mislead customers into a financial trap. 

We immediately paid off the balance to stop the robbery and looked for a way to recover the money lost to their misleading program. The plan was misrepresented to us. The terms were not followed as represented. There have been no paper statements nor mailings to provide a status of the account or to inform us of any charges. Even if the mailings were sent to our previous address, they should have been forwarded to our new home address. 

XXXX went out of business shortly after our purchases, so we couldnt go back to them. We saw on the CFPB site that there are many other consumer complaints of the same nature against XXXX GE Capital, and Synchrony. After the way GE Capital and Cynchrony have treated us, there is no trust remaining to ask them for help. Therefore, in pursuit of quick resolution, we have chosen to bring this matter directly to CFPB.

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