Consumer complaint received 2016-09-18
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MD
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Other bank product/service
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
Synchrony Bank has sent through the mail numerous and unnecessary duplicate documents containing XXXX or more of our social security numbers to me, my wife and my mother-in-law even though we had already provided this information and it was on file at the bank prior to them sending out the duplicate requests. I have tried to resolve this issue with the bank on many occasions for well over a year, without success. 

My last attempt to resolve this issue was on XXXX XXXX, 2016. On that date, I spoke by phone to a Synchrony Bank representative and asked if the bank had received my wife 's signature card. Previously, I had already confirmed by both phone and secure email that the bank had on file a signature card for my wife. Once again the bank official told me that the bank had on file a signed signature card for my wife and told me that I could disregard the notice received in the mail requesting that my wife sign, date, and return the card to the bank. I then asked this official to have the bank stop sending a signature card request form for my wife to sign and return to the bank. I also requested that the bank send my wife a letter notifying her that the form was sent in error and to assure her that the bank would no longer request this information in the future. I was told that it would take about XXXX to 10 business days to get the letter I requested. Because of this conversation and XXXX earlier conversations with bank officials, I felt assured that the problem of making duplicate requests had been fixed. 

Please note that I did not include my mother-in-law and myself in the above request because I thought we had been successful in getting the bank to finally stop sending us duplicate signature card requests after we provided them with our signed cards. Similar to my wife, the bank sent my mother-in-law and me many signature card requests and each time we would contact the bank and the bank officials would confirm that they had our cards on file. The last contact with bank officials was many months before and we had not received a duplicate request for a long time. 

On XXXX XXXX, 2016, we received a letter from the bank responding to my request for reassurance about my wife 's signature card. While the bank 's letter acknowledged that they already have a signature card on file, they did n't reassure us that they would no longer request this information in the future. Rather than reassure us that this practice of putting our identities at risk has finally been fixed, the bank asked us to and I quote : " ( Please disregard any duplicate letter requests ) '' However, shortly before receiving the Bank 's letter on XXXX XXXX, my mother-in-law and I each received a request for my wife to sign and date a signature card. 

Furthermore, in separate letters received XXXX XXXX, 2016, Synchrony Bank requested that my mother-in-law and I each complete a signature card for ourselves. As explained above, I thought the need to have a signature card on file for us ( my mother-in-law and me ) had been resolved many months ago but now it has apparently shown up again. 

Synchrony 's seemingly cavalier business policy of repeatedly mailing duplicate documents containing our social security numbers has placed us all at increased risk of having our identities stolen. We do n't know whether we received all the duplicate requests sent by Synchrony Bank. Simply based on all the many unnecessary duplicates that we know they have sent, it is not unreasonable to believe that additional requests likely have been sent but never received because they were lost and possibly stolen in transit. Therefore, it is possible that XXXX or more of us unknowingly already have had our identities stolen because of the likelihood that some of the numerous and unnecessary duplicate documents containing our social security numbers were sent but never received.

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