Consumer complaint received 2016-03-01
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NJ
Product: Credit card
Issue: Other fee

Complaint:
When I applied for the GE Capital for Promotional Purchases at H H Gregg for {$4600.00} on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, I was told by the sales person that if I set up auto-pay for the minimum payment due, it 'll be paid off in about two years without incurring interest charges. So I set up auto-pay and e-Bill with confidence that the balance will be paid off by auto-pay in about two years. Later on GE Capital changed name to Synchrony Bank and the web site and email also changed. There were some confusion about the web site and emails during the transition. When I received " Your H H GREGG / SYNCHRONY BANK Statement Is Ready '' email from Synchrony Bank, I looked at " summary of your statement : Payment Due Date, Statement Balance and Total Minimum Payment Due ''. In XXXX XXXX it came to my attention that the Statement Balance on the email had a huge increase so I logged on the Synchrony Bank web site to check the statement and found that {$3200.00} Interest Charges was added to the Balance. The XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX Synchrony Bank emails DO NOT have the alert " Urgent! ... Promotion ( s ) expiring shortly ... " message in the email body as it was printed in red on the Statements. So I missed the Statement details and did not pay off the remaining balance of {$2300.00} on promotional expiration date of XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. Upon realizing the lapse I immediately paid off the remaining balance of {$2300.00} and called the Custom Service to explain the situation and requested a fair and reasonable way to fix the problem. I was told nothing can be done and I just have to pay the {$3200.00} interest charge. I feel very strongly that it 's outrageous that I am forced to pay the {$3200.00} interest charge on a {$4600.00} original purchase because the monthly SYNCHRONY BANK emails did not contain " Promotion Expiring '' alert messages. I always have a perfect credit score and never had a situation like this before. I wrote to SYNCHRONY BANK twice, on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, to explain the situation and request their help to resolve this issue in a fair and reasonable way. SYNCHRONY BANK responded on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX simply stated that " We have received your request to remove the Late Payment fee ( s ) assessed to your account and after reviewing your account, we are unable to fulfill your request. '' This is completely incorrect. I always paid on time via automatic monthly payment schedule. My issue was regarding the " Promotional Interest Charges '', not the " Late Payment fees '', as indicated in BOLD on the Subject line of my previous two letters to them. SYNCHRONY BANK continues to charge on top of the {$3200.00} " Promotional Interest Charges '' at 29.99 % APR. I wrote to SYNCHRONY BANK the third time on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX to tell them that they 've mishandled my request and asked them to review and reconsider my case. I also told them that I have filed a complain with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the meantime as a show of good faith I continued to pay the minimum payments of {$130.00} and {$110.00} due on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and XXXX/XXXX/XXXX respectively. 
Your help in this matter is very much appreciated. 
Thanks, XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief