Consumer complaint received 2019-05-30
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
On Thursday XXXX XXXX I received a notification from a credit reporting service that I use stating that one of my two accounts with Sychrony bank had been closed. The notification was in regards to my Jcpenny store card in which I had recently made a payment on. I contacted the bank for clarification as to why the account was closed and was told because a recent payment had been returned due to non sufficient funds. The reasoning on the banks part being if two payments are returned in one ( 1 ) years time then the account is automatically closed. The problem I have with that information is at that time when I was made aware on XX/XX/XXXX by one a bank I use ( 1 of 2 ) to pay on credit accounts that the payment had not cleared I investigated. I then initiated using the second account I used because that was the intended source I wanted to pay from in the beginning. That payment cleared my account XX/XX/XXXX. In the few months prior to this the payment source information for the account that the payment was made in error from had changed. My bank transitioned me to a higher tier account and with that account came a new account number and new debit card. The previous account was closed in the process of the transition. I received a letter to my PO box from JCPenny credit card on Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX it is my belief that this letter was to inform me that my account had been closed as I have not had time to retrieve it I believed it was in regards to the payment that had been made. Upon speaking with customer service I first spoke with an agent which I gathered had no interest outside of the cut dry and paste answer of finding as solution to the delima at hand I asked to be transferred to a supervisor. Upon speaking with supervisor XXXX she informed me she was sorry but that nothing could be done because of bank policy to reopen the account. This was despite a year long relationship which clearly established my ability to make regular payments when required none of those payments with me having to be perused or a collection having to be filed nor a late reporting. Supervisor XXXX was extremely willing to waive the late fee but not assist with getting the account open which made no sense and further led me to believe an underlying motive was in place. Upon calling back and speaking with customer service specialist XXXX I had been informed that a late payment fee had been refunded in XX/XX/XXXX and told that due to bank policy that only one ( 1 ) fee would be allowed to be waived in a 12 month period. She also stated that the bank will only follow one policy regarding matters of late/returned payments but I was issued a subsequent refund and told it was clearly at XXXX 's discretion to extend the courtesy. That's not one policy, and upon checking the terms and conditions I found that the returned payment policy that XXXX spoke of weren't listed in any of the language that was made available to me.

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