Consumer complaint received 2022-08-23
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: LA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
RE : Synchrony Bank, and " nefarious enrollment practices. '' In XXXX I opened a Synchrony credit card account at my dentist office. It was explained to me, by the staff at the Dentist 's office, that I could pay my bill with a synchrony credit card, they could open the account for me. This account, they explained, would allow me to make a monthly payment on the loan which would be interest free for 18 months. 

Once I was signed up, Synchrony give me a minimum monthly payment, {$100.00}, and said - the website said - that as long as I paid it regularly without missing a payment I could maintain the interest free promotion. For 18 months I made this a payment every month and had no interest on my loan. 

In XX/XX/XXXX the balance was {$620.00}. 

That was the end of the promotion. 

I just now realized at the end of the promotion, Synchrony did not start charging me interest on the remaining balance. 

They retroactively charged me interest on the entire 18 months Ive had a balance. {$890.00} in one single charge for back dated interest.

At no point in the process of my enrolment was it explained or suggested that the promotion was a countdown -- you had 18 months to pay off the loan, after which you would have to pay interest on the loan from day 1.

I thought I would start paying interest on {$620.00} but I was charged for the entire loan ( I think it was XXXX dollars but I don't have that information right now ). 

I called the bank and spoke to a customer service representative, she then put me in touch with a manager. His name is XXXX, when he explain the situation to me I was so flustered I neglected to write down the exact word used for this retroactive charge. It was not backdated. '' But it was a similar sinister and deceptive phrase. Alarming! 

I inquired where the bank was located and XXXX said, or CLAIMED I should say, that the bank had no physical presence. When I asked where it was incorporated he said that there was no actual physical place where the bank could be contacted. This alone is clearly a falsehood. The bank is headquartered in XXXX Connecticut. 

I see from XXXX that an earlier incarnation of the bank was caught in just such shady practcies : " the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice reached a {$220.00} XXXX settlement with the company after it entered into a consent decree with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The settlement stated that while operating as GE Capital Bank, the company had engaged in deceptive and discriminatory credit card practices, primarily surrounding nefarious enrollment practices for add-on programs such as financial hardship relief. '' The entire press release from XXXX is attached. 

I am writing to complain about a " nefarious enrollment practice, '' circa 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 monetary relief