Consumer complaint received 2016-10-13
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MI
Product: Credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing

Complaint:
When getting dental work, my daughter XXXX applied for a credit card which says its description " 24 month no interest '' and in bold letters " No interest if Paid in Full Within Promotion Period. '' Since she was unable to get the credit card without a joint applicant, I was a joint applicant. The first I learned that money was owed was when I was contacted by a debt collection agency approximately a year later. Although her dental bill was only {$1500.00} and the 24 month promotional period had not elapsed, I was compelled to pay {$1700.00} because of " late fees ''. I complained ( in XXXX ) that Synchrony Bank had never notified me even once before reporting me to the credit agencies. In its reply Synchrony Bank claimed " Many attempts were made to contact you regarding the payment requested on the account. We attempted with the number provided on the application of XXXX ; however this number was invalid. '' This assertion is a lie : one can verify from XXXX that this number has never been disconnected and was receiving calls during the entire period. In addition, Synchrony Bank had my cell phone number, my home address, and my email address. Nonetheless Synchrony bank did find a reason to contact the credit agencies and have my credit record expunged : my signature was required on the application for the loan and the dentist office failed to ask for my signature. If Synchrony bank really did not consider me in any way connected to my daughter 's loan, it should have returned my {$1700.00} to me. Because Synchrony did not return my money to me, I regard myself as having standing to complain about the " late fees '' charged. 

My daugther complained about this previously ( XXXX ) and the response she received was completely unsatisfactory. The description of the loan ( attached ) says " 24 month no interest '' and the bold print under it says in bold No Interest If Paid in Full Within Promotional Period. '' The principal of the loan was {$1500.00}. The loan was " Paid in Full Within Promotional Period. '' So why the {$210.00} in interest? According to Synchrony Bank, that is not interest ; it is a late fee. Well, as an economics professor, I teach that re-payment for a loan is either principal or interest. Moreover, on the document that my daughter was given to sign ( attached ) there is reference down the page to a " requirement '' of 24 equal sized payments ( which XXXX failed to make ) but no indication of how much she would be charged for violating this requirement. 

My point is that it is blatantly DECEPTIVE to advertise in bold that there will be no interest if the loan is paid off in full within the 24 month period and then to charge a person late fees even though the loan is paid in full during the 24 month period. If Synchrony Bank wants to charge people more even though they pay the loan in full within the 24 month period, that is fine -- -but the existence of these fees should be INCLUDED in bold and in the description at the top of the page. Otherwise, it is a deception. A more straightforward description would be the following : " No Interest if Paid in Full Within Promotional Period. HOWEVER, charges IN THE AMOUNT OF XXX will be imposed if any monthly payment is not made on time and, in addition, we will report such lapses to the credit agencies, damaging your credit score. 

Granted, far fewer customers would apply for a XXXX Credit card if this proposed text replaced the one given to my daughter. Those who dropped out are precisely the ones who would no longer be victims of Synchrony Bank 's deception. 

Proposed remedy : XXXX should return the {$210.00} to me since the loan was paid in full during the promotional period and should expunge the damaging report it sent concerning XXXX XXXX.

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