Consumer complaint received 2023-12-04
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MD
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone

Complaint:
Somehow Automatic payments were turned off by Paypal Credit in XXXX. I do not recall turning them off despite company 's claims. XXXXXXXX XXXX totally could have done it though. 

Received statements via email with details about amounts due with links to full statements but included all " details '' within the email itself. I think this is purposefully to keep people from clicking through. 

Because manual payments were made for full balance amounts between XXXX and XXXX, didn't think about AutoPay/was under the impression AutoPay remained on, but had a balance to pay of " XXXX ''. These emails also did not indicate AutoPay was off, instead specified only " Manage AutoPay. '' Since I was under the impression AutoPay was on, when I received a statement email of XXXX, and did not make any purchases using the Line of Credit that month, did not think a manual payment was necessary. I assumed AutoPay would handle it. AutoPay did not handle it. 

Between payment due date ( XXXX ) and following statement date ( XX/XX/17 ), I did not receive any notification of missed/late payment. 

Received following month 's emailed statement, and details included within email did not indicate ANY past due balance, despite covering total balance, minimum due, minimum to pay to avoid interest charged and due date. 

Still under the impression that AutoPay was on, I logged on today ( XXXX ) to check my balance for budgeting purposes and was horrified to find that I had a PAST DUE balance that I was completely unaware of. I immediately paid the balance in full, including two " minimum interest charges '' that would not have been otherwise applicable. 

This has also now impacted my credit report, despite not being made aware of this balance until today. 

Reached out to PayPal via chat, and they could not help me. Called once and was told to speak about credit reporting, I had to talk to customer service ( who I was speaking to? ) Transferred and hung up on. 
Called again, first person said I was within 30 day window and late payment wouldn't reflect on my credit report. 
Transferred me for more information about notifications and Second person said it would reflect on my credit report. No one had any good response for why I wasn't notified of the past-due amount. They simply stated the XXXX statement indicated a past due balance but had no reasoning why the fact there was a past due balance was not included in the " DETAILS '' section of those emails. 

It seems to be a purposeful way to increase their interest charges. ( One XXXX charge has now received 4 dollars in " minimum interest charges '' in two months ) and I'm sure they would have put in a late fee if not for the small amount past due.

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