Consumer complaint received 2017-07-02
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: AL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
I have had a CareCredit/Synchrony account since XX/XX/XXXX. From here on, I 'll refer to them as Synchrony, as they own CareCredit. There is an anomaly in my XX/XX/XXXX statement, an error of approximately {$420.00}. I also have some questions as to how large payments are applied to promotional balances, as there is no information anywhere that I can find, neither in my statements nor on Synchrony 's website as to how such payments are applied, and said application seems erratic. <P/>I had assumed that payments, however large, are applied to promotional balances first, and then the balance on regular purchases are paid once there are no more promotional balances. This always seemed the way it was done when I made payments in the past, and since my regular purchase balance is larger, it would allow Synchrony to collect as much interest as possible. Some would say it is unethical, but I have no such opinion. I know banks are n't charities, and this appears to be common practice. I should have read the fine print and been wiser, I figured. So that is not my complaint. I had also believed that the total balance on my card was the sum of all my promotional purchases and my regular purchase balance. If I add the total of my promotional balances ( {$1600.00} ) to the regular purchase balance ( {$2100.00} ) on my XX/XX/XXXX statement, the total is {$3800.00}, which is close to the total on same statement. It 's not exact, and I 'm a little unclear as to why, even after adding my interest of {$49.00} for that month. But it is still very close after adding said interest. <P/>Now, in XX/XX/XXXX, I made three payments totaling {$1000.00} : {$300.00} on the XX/XX/XXXX, {$400.00} on the XXXX and another {$300.00} on the XXXX According to their own data, all three payments were received by Synchrony on those dates, the latest date still being before the due date of XX/XX/XXXX, and well before the expiration of any of my promotional balances, the earliest one set to expire on XX/XX/XXXX. However, when I accessed the member portal of Synchrony 's website, I still received a message saying that I had promotional blances expiring in less than 30 days, and my XX/XX/XXXX statement said that only my promotional balances that were set to expire XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, totaling {$380.00}, had been paid off ; all other promotional balances still remain on my account. I then looked at my regular purchase balance on my XX/XX/XXXX statement to see if the remaining {$610.00} of my payment had been applied there. Said balance had only decreased by {$180.00}. <P/>
Here 's where I go back to the math I was talking about in my XX/XX/XXXXstatement, how the total of my promotional purchases and my regular purchases equaled my total balance. In XX/XX/XXXX, the math changed completely. Though my XX/XX/XXXX balance of {$3300.00} seems to reflect my payment, taking into account a {$490.00} purchase I made, the total of my promotional purchases and regular purchases on my XX/XX/XXXX statement is {$3700.00}. It 's not even close to my reported balance ; it 's {$350.00} higher. Even though the total balance at the front of my statement looks correct, there is {$420.00} of my {$1000.00} total of payments in XX/XX/XXXX that has not been applied to either my promotional balance or my regular purchase balance. I would like to know why this is. Is it an error? Is there an explanation that makes sense as to why it is not an error? It seems to me either more of my promotional purchases should be paid off, or my regular purchase balance should be much lower in which case I am then being overcharged on interest on my regular purchase balance. <P/>I 'm sorry, but this seems to be bordering on fraud or theft by deception. And the difficulty in understanding Synchrony 's statements and their complete lack of transparency on what formulas they use to decide where and how payments are applied only makes their practices look more sinister. If it is an error, I hope it will be fixed and I will be credited back the interest I was overcharged if they do decide to credit their discrepancy to my regular purchase balance. However, I ca n't help but wonder how many of their other customers this has happened to. I also wonder how many of them have scoured their statements and done the math as I have in order to become aware of such discreapancies. For this reason, I will be forwarding this letter, along with copies of my XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX statements, to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If they decide an investigation is in order, I 'm sure they can get the ball rolling on that. <P/>Thank you very much. I am looking forward to a timely reply and resolution of this matter.

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