Consumer complaint received 2018-04-08
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I was advised by XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) to do an eye procedure to cure my eye problem. This procedure was not covered under my insurance, so they recommended me to 'Care Credit ' and provided me with information on CareCredit scheme operated by Synchrony bank. I contacted CareCredit/ Synchrony bank and asked them about the scheme. They said if approved I will get a credit of {$4800.00}. They said this credit will be interest free for 1 year. Based on the offer recommended by the agent over the phone, I applied for and got approved. I used the card for my XXXX XXXX and have been paying {$200.00} per month to pay off the credit debts. I conducted my XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and have been paying back my loan ever since till now. But to my amazement, the bank charged me {$890.00} on my XX/XX/XXXX statement. This was done without giving me any warning or notice or my authorisation. Because this was done secretly by the bank I was not aware of this until recently I checked my statement for XXXX. So I managed to bring my credit down to {$1600.00}. But now they have charged {$890.00} to my debts for NO REASON WIHOUT WARNING ME. I have not received any alerts or warning. This charge was not discussed when I opened the account and if Bank had informed me, I would never have agreed to taking their credit product. I called Synchrony Bank and pleaded with them to remove the charges because this was EXTORTION and UNFIAR charges. I can understand and agree with paying interest on my outstanding credit. I believe it is fair to charge interest on credit given by bank. But what Synchrony bank has done is extortion. Even though my credit with the bank was only {$1600.00}. I was charged interest for the entire amount. This was not agreed in the first place and I will not have borrowed if the bank had been honest and upfront. I called the bank on XX/XX/XXXX. I was told there is nothing they could do because they has a clause like that in the small print that I signed online. I informed them that I was not informed about this condition and they said they 'unfortunately can not do anything about it '. I tried to explain them that the agent who sold me did not tell me about it and I was told they work like a normal bank credit card where you ONLY pay interest for your outstanding debts. I believe they hid this fact from customer such as me when they sold me their credit card and once I have fallen in the trap they charge ridiculous interest because they know that once I sign up there is no way out. I borrowed money from my relatives and paid off synchrony banks debt as I do not want to deal with thiefs such as Syncrony bank. I read reviews online and I came to know I am not the only one who had his fingers burned with this particular bank. I would like to bring to your attention that they charged me normal interest outside the 1 year no interest period that was initially agreed and I CAN CONFIRM I AM HAPPY TO pay this. But charge {$890.00} on top of that is unfair,

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