Consumer complaint received 2020-07-15
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Application denied

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2020, I applied for a joint credit card with my partner for Care Credit. We submitted the online application, and were then told to call a 800 number to complete the process. We called the number, and they asked my partner only to verify his identity online using his phone. He was told to take a video of himself and submit a picture of his identification card ( driver 's license ). 

On XX/XX/2020, he attempted to complete the identity verification on his XXXX, but was unable to access the websits using his XXXX browser. We again contacted the phone number, and they told us repeatedly that we had visited the wrong website. We had visited the correct website. The call was disconnected as the representative tried to transfer us to an alternative agent. We attempted to use the XXXX to verify his identity again, using XXXX XXXX as the browser. The website worked on XXXX XXXX. 

While using the website to verify his identity through pictures, he was able to successfully complete the video of his face and the picture of the front of his ID. The system would not accept the multiple pictures he attempted to take of the back of his ID, and he was locked out of the verification process. 

We called again to speak to a representative to settle the matter. The first representative told us that our application had been declined. Once connected to another representative upon request, she opened the online system back up for him to verify his identity, and suggested he take the video of his face against a plain wall. 

My partner again then tried to complete the online verification, but was met with the same problem. He had 1 attempt left to verify the back of his ID, and so rather than use the attempt we decided to call again to see if a representative could explain what we were doing wrong or to provide us with another opportunity to verify his identity. 

Upon connection with XXXX, XXXX left us on a silent hold for approximately 4 minutes while he looked into our account after verifying our identities on the phone. He then told us our application was declined, and that the previous representative should not have allowed my partner another chance to verify his identity. We inquired about an alternative method to verify his identity, and the representative disclosed that there as an alternative method but he could not provide more information as we must have a processing application to do so. We were never informed of any type of alternative identity verification process at any of the 3 times we had called previously, two of which  were to notify representatives that we were struggling with the identification system. 

In conclusion, the application process was never completed because my partner never had the opportunity to verify his identity. Nevertheless, we were declined anyways.

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