Consumer complaint received 2023-01-31
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
I am a first time homeowner, having purchased a condominium in XXXX. 

In XXXX of XXXX, I opened a Synchrony Home Design credit account in order to pay for critical housing repair expenses and several concurrent renovations. The timing resulted in two separate balances on the card ( after initial payments made with funds available ) ; about {$3000.00} for a plumbing leak and replacement bathroom fixtures, and about {$9400.00} for new heating and air conditioning systems. 

The {$3000.00} rate was placed on an 18-month deferred interest plan, expiring XX/XX/XXXX. The interest rate when the promotion expires is XXXX XXXX. The {$9400.00} charge has a fixed payment reduced APR of XXXX XXXX. 

This year, after receiving my tax return, I intended to use it in order to pay down the remaining balance on the deferred interest balance first, to avoid being charged the full interest accrued when that promotional rate expired XX/XX/XXXX. After some research online, I determined that according to the CARD Act, a credit company must put any payment over the minimum monthly to the balance with the highest interest rate. 

With that information, I placed an additional, separate payment of {$400.00} onto the account during a billing cycle where I had already made a minimum monthly payment of {$190.00}. That payment was not applied to the deferred interest rate when the payment posted during the next billing cycle. Synchrony advertises a 60-day window after a payment to apply it as you request. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called their support number and requested that {$400.00} payment, filed on XX/XX/XXXX, be allocated to the deferred interest rate. On the same phone call, I provided my bank details to allocate an additional payment of {$1800.00} to be made to the deferred interest rate balance, which would pay the sum total of {$2200.00} remaining on the deferred interest rate plan. I made sure to clarify on the call that these payments should both be applied to the deferred interest rate balance. The representative told me he applied those changes. 

Once that payment posted, I checked again and determined that these payments had both been posted to the 9.99 % APR balance, rather than the deferred interest rate. I called their customer support again XX/XX/XXXX, who initially told me that these payments had been posted to the deferred interest rate balance. I informed the representative that I had my online statements open in front of me, and I could see that these payments had already posted, and they had been applied incorrectly to the 9.99 % fixed payment reduced APR balance. The representative placed me on a brief hold and then informed me that both the {$400.00} and the {$1800.00} payment had been applied correctly to the deferred interest rate balance with a promotional period ending XX/XX/XXXX. Those changes have not posted or been reflected on my balance as of yet. 

To my understanding, the CARD Act specifies two provisions for promotional/deferred interest rate plans : One, that any payments over the minimum monthly payment must be allocated to the highest interest balance. 
Two, that for the last two months prior to a promotional rate expiring, all payment over minimum must be allocated to the promotional rate balance. 

This period has not yet arrived, but given my above-stated experience I do not trust Synchrony to follow the law. It may be argued that Synchrony 's actions are currently within the law, as the current interest rate on the {$3400.00} balance is an effective 0.0 % until the deferred interest rate expires, but that is beyond my legal knowledge. It may also be argued that the option to apply payments via phone call to a specified balance is available ( if deliberately obfuscated ), they are compliant with legal requirements for providing payment to the highest interest rate first. Again, this is beyond my understanding as a lay-person. 

However, as I received verbal confirmation on recorded telephone calls that my payments had been applied to the deferred interest balance, specifying and confirming that they were to be applied to the promotional interest rate expiring XX/XX/XXXX, and I confirmed that these payments had not in fact been allocated correctly, I believe Synchrony has operated in bad faith with full intent to minimize any payments applied to the deferred interest balance, in order to maximize their revenue when that promotional rate expires. At this time they may well have corrected the issue after my second phone call ( made XX/XX/XXXX ), but I have no confidence this is the case. No changes to correct the issue are yet visible on my account, if they have even been made. Even if it is corrected, I believe their previous actions demonstrate a clear and intentional violation of CARD Act provisions for consumer protection. 

The confirmation numbers for the two payments are as follows : {$400.00} submitted XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX {$1800.00} submitted XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX Both of the aforementioned phone calls to the Synchrony customer support line should be recorded by Synchrony for validation purposes.

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