Consumer complaint received 2018-04-30
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing

Complaint:
I got a CareCredit card from a previous dentist office ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) that made it seem like I needed so much work done. I'm a college student and I had XXXX paying almost $ 300 monthly. The dentist office advised of using care credit to pay for services. I had never heard of it and ASKED how does it work. The dentist front desk person is the one that did my application and told me I just pay the balance due every month like a regular credit card and so I asked what the interest rate was and she said 0 % She didn't tell me how the interest would work she said after certain date it will start putting on interest and under that impression I thought I could pay it down by that point and have a low interest. But I was actually signed up for a promotional " deferred '' interest at 26.99 % for a {$3200.00} bill! Meaning it had all along been accruing interest. Had I known that I would have definitely not agreed especially because the work was done poorly. I just got charged {$1400.00}. I had got my bill down to {$2000.00} the numbers don't match up and now my NEW balance is more than my original charge at {$3400.00}. Now it's like I didn't pay anything! I had a few cavities fill ( after which one of my teeth on the right side became EXTREMELY sensitive I still can not eat on that side I told the dentist on multiple occasions about it and kept getting the same answer just give it a few months to go back to normal ( I have NEVER had this problem before ) ) and root canal/crown. I'm now at a new dentist who agreed with my suspicion that that dentist didn't do good work because my mouth was worse off after going to them and my new dentist now has to fix their errors. I didn't speak to a CareCredit person in any form before or after being signed up to pay for my services of $ XXXXXXXX and never received a physical card ( the front desk person said they don't give cards to just make an online account ) and I just noticed that my full name on my account isn't even spelled correctly. The same front desk person that did my application spelled my name the exact way she pronounces it even though I provided my name spelling, pronunciation, and everything. I was able to speak to a SYNCHRONY BANK rep ( not a CareCredit rep ) would couldn't even find my account information because of the misspelling of my full name on it ( which he had to change ) and he advised I was supposed to get a physical card! He advised I had to make a payment of {$2000.00} by XX/XX/XXXX before he's able to take off the interest that was already placed on my account on XX/XX/XXXX and that same reduced my credit score by 10 points! He also advised me that the dentist office charged another amount of {$350.00} separately ( don't know how ) and that was accruing interest separately. I did get hit with a late fee at the beginning because I hadn't put my card on autopay which I thought I did. And since I was told and under the same impression that this CareCredit worked as a credit card, I paid off the late fee and the amount due. Apparently, that is not how it works and the SYNCHRONY BANK rep advised I was supposed to call them and get it allocated to that directly or it was just going to go towards the total amount of the credit due not the late fee so the late fee was instead accruing interest! I advised him none of this was explained to me and I never spoke to a CareCredit rep before or after being set up for CareCredit by the dentist front desk person. He advised he doesn't know why I didn't and why I wasn't properly told everything.

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