Consumer complaint received 2020-04-27
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
Background : Credit card customer since XXXX with over 65 on-time, in-full payments month over month. Current Rewards Dollars tally = {$320.00} which can be used for clothes and purchases at Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap, XXXX XXXX, or XXXX. These earned rewards were taken upon account closure. 

XX/XX/XXXX Made monthly payment online to Synchrony Bank ( Banana Visa ) XXXX Payment was rejected after my paying institution told me that there was a small portion of funds still on hold. I did not realize that the funds were on hold and would thus impede payment. This was a surprise to me. 

XX/XX/XXXX Discovered that there was a payment problem, when I saw the funds returned to my paying institution. I thought " that was odd, what happened? '' Upon discovering issue, immediately re-issued payment in full from the same account at XXXX XXXX 

XX/XX/XXXX Discovered, to my surprise, that Synchrony closed the account with no prior notice given. I reached out to customer service and was told that after a 7 day hold on the XX/XX/XXXX payment, the ACCOUNT WOULD BE REOPENED. 

The agent also reversed the late fee on my account as a courtesy, which posted on XX/XX/XXXX. 

In order to EXPEDITE account re-opening, the agent advised taking the following steps : Fax a XXXX XXXX confirmation of the new payment to XXXX. 

Include 4 digits of my Visa account number, confirm the dollar amount paid and be sure it is on XXXX XXXX letterhead, stating that the amount paid to Visa has cleared. 

If I were to do this, I can use the card starting the following Monday or Tuesday of the coming week. 

XX/XX/XXXX Since we are under a state-mandated quarantine, I decided against going somewhere to fax a notice and instead sent BR Visa a confirmation of the transaction on XXXX letterhead via their email inquiry page on the website inside my account. This confirmation was generated by XXXX as part of their normal notification process. 
In my email, I requested and reiterated that they reopen my account immediately. 

XX/XX/XXXX Received email notification of getting an additional {$100.00} in credit card rewards, bringing the total to {$320.00} in rewards dollars. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter in the mail ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ) giving notice that my account was closed due to " the number of dishonored payments on this account ''. Given the XX/XX/XXXX date on the letter, I better understood the action that I saw online. 

XX/XX/XXXX I went online to confirm my account status since 7 days are well overdue, and see that there is a RED NOTICE saying that the account is yet closed. This surprised me since I was given verbal confirmation from the agent on XX/XX/XXXX of the fact that they would re-open my account after 7 days, after a hold and also after receiving confirmation of payment. 

XX/XX/XXXX I called the 866 number on the mailed letter, and spoke with an agent about my concerns ; he put me on hold for over 16 minutes to come back and say, " my manager said we can not reopen the account '' without explanation. I then asked to speak to his manager and a 2nd agent came on to inform me that they would not open the account in spite of being verbally promised to do so on XX/XX/XXXX as stated above, AFTER a 7 day hold and/or expediting the re-open request with confirmation from my paying banking institution. This person was horrible, disregarded the length of time that I have been a customer paying on time and in-full and I was shocked at how unhelpful and callous she was, especially when so many businesses are helping customers during this time of uncertainty and pandemic. 

This call ended at XXXX The second agent said the Synchrony policy is after 2 rejections within a 24 month period, their action is to close the account. Since I also had one in XX/XX/XXXX ( due to miscommunication ), they refused to re-open the account. This is also my first time hearing from ANY Synchrony communication, the rule on " 2 payment rejections in 24 months '' = account closure. 

As a customer for over 5 years with 65+ on-time, in-full payments, I am appalled that I would be treated in this manner. Earned rewards dollars were stolen from me, and I was subjected to such misleading information and late/odd/disorienting communications on their decision to close my account. They should revamp their policies for customers with an obvious and glaringly apparent SOLID payment record. They should also hire better agents to assist their MOST LOYAL customers. This has been a wholly frustrating experience and has disrupted my households ability to pay for our necessities during this time. 

Thank you.

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