Consumer complaint received 2022-03-17
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: PA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
XX/XX/22 attempted to use my sams club mastercard and was declined. I have a credit line XXXX i called synchrony the account holder and was informed account closed to inactivity on XX/XX/22. 
although my card was set for renewal at end of XX/XX/22, there was no new card mailed out, no email, no notification about the updated card or closing of account. I have however received and used reward points and billing statements of payment due. Therefore this was an absolute shock. 
i contacted company XX/XX/22 after speaking with representative who stated my account was closed because i hadnt made a purchase. 
i have been paying my account and it still has an active balance. there shows excellent history with the last 17yrs. 
i was then transferred to supervisor who stated the account should not have been closed because activity of finance charges along with payment is activity shows on the account. I verified my address and she stated this was correct. I told her I have resided at this address for over 15yrs and never had an issue. I receive my bill in a timely manner so therefore, its offsetting that this has become an issue. I was informed I would be contacted within 3-5 days to reopen account. 
XX/XX/22 i had not received contact, called again and after the third attempt due to drop calls and no response, I was then transferred to supervisor. The supervisor, XXXX, account manager, stated he saw notes from previous account manager who is on same level. XXXX stated they had an incorrect address when my card was reissued, I verified my address and he stated that is the address listed on the account. XXXX stated that he was entering a work case again because when the first was entered so far nothing had been done. He said once they verified my address initially it should have automatically reopened my account. He is putting in another form of work case because it didnt reopen and it will get assigned too another manager and one of their reps. It should have opened because it was within the time frame. The turn around time can be up to 30 days. 
I told XXXX that I am concerned that as time passes it will wipe my history, my credit history, my card. he understood and they have 6 mos to reopen the account. I asked for a reference number or case number but he said one is generated but there is no reason for it. It is the risk department who has the authority, they dont take inbound calls and they dont have it set up to take the management calls. He again stated it understands how important it is t get this done as soon as possible. After asking what is the next step. He said I will be called and/or email, not a letter because it will take XXXX ( XXXX ) weeks. I will receive a card though because they got it back in the mail and so they know it isnt a fraud. risk department will send out card with an updated valid date. He explained he doesnt want me to lose credit history and the company over the next year will be raising rates. Reiterating the company, risk department may call or email saying this corrected and my card has been mailed out with my original card number and my account has been reopened to its original status. ACTIVE AND IN EXCELLENT STANDING. 
I do hope this was a legitimate response on behalf of sams mastercard in admitting the error and making whole. I do hope this was not lip service to allow time to continue to lapse while the consumer is bound to limited action. I do hope that huge companies and credit agencies show they stand by product and loyalty and trueness and not transgress on their consumers. 
This is disheartening. I am being penalized for paying bills, my credit score and history have been negatively affected. 
In a time of upheaval between pandemic, war, inflation and interest rising each moment of the day, for those who establish credit and payment history thats worth something its appalling. In addition, I feel this also is a way to keep minorities in certain credit score brackets to prevent them from approvals to loans, credit, housing, employment as well. The financial institutions, credit card companies and its entities all play a part of what has publicly become known as systemic.

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 non-monetary relief