Consumer complaint received 2022-08-15
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
In XXXX of XXXX I got XXXX XXXXXXXX with the XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ). Prior to the XXXX I attempted to place the {$4000.00} charge on my XXXX. The finance manager insisted that I use Care Credit instead, as there would be no interest charged. He claimed that the automatic payments would be for two years and then I would be done, no interest.

Fast forward two years, and I have not missed a single payment, and in fact, I have occasionally paid a larger than required monthly payment in hopes of paying off the balance prior to the 2 year period. I still see charges to my bank balance after 2 years and so I check my Care credit account and see that I owe a whopping {$3400.00}. 

I call Care Credit customer service and the agent explained to me that the account should have been set up for " equal payments '' not " no interest/deferred interest '' by XXXX XXXX XXXX 
My question to her then is, how should I know that? I did not set up the promotion account, the finance manager at XXXX XXXX set up the account, and he was actually acting on behalf of Care Credit/ Synchrony Bank when he set up the account promotion for automatic payments. 
I reasonably assumed that he knew what he was doing. He was the one who pushed Care Credit as payment option onto me, with the lure of no interest, I wanted to do XXXX. 
The agent at Care Credit, reiterated that she could not do anything about this and essentially I am stuck with the bill, even after inadvertently admitting that this was not my fault. 

Apart from the misrepresentations made to me to use Care Credit, here is what is even more troubling about their business practice ; When I made bigger monthly payments of {$500.00} to " chunk down '' my bill, in hopes of paying it off sooner than the 2 years, their payment system automatically recalculated my remaining monthly automatic payment to a lower amount, to ensure that there would be an outstanding balance at the end of the 2 year " no interest period '' as long as my account remained on auto pay. This I find misleading and fraudulent, because the account was supposedly set up to pay off automatically in 2 years, with no interest. 
I spoke to several account managers at Care Credit who claim that they could do nothing to help, except refer my case to customer relations. Account manager " XXXX '' was extremely callus, insensitive and abrasive to my situation. 

Do note that the cost of the XXXX XXXXXXXX was {$4000.00}. Care Credit has tacked on additional {$2300.00} in interest. which is over 58 % How is this even legal? How is this not XXXX? 

I would like for Care Credit/Synchrony Bank to remove this interest penalty from my account and revise their payment system and also train the people that market their products to unsuspecting customers on how to set up the accounts properly. 
While I strongly suspect that the system is set up this way to intentionally take advantage of the American consumer, I am patiently waiting to see the outcome of this. Something must be done on a governmental level to penalize this predatory organizational practice.

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 monetary relief