Consumer complaint received 2016-04-28
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MD
Product: Credit card
Issue: Closing/Cancelling account

Complaint:
A few months before I was due to have a baby, I purchased maternity clothes on Gap.com with my Banana Republic credit card. I had a credit card credit at that time, which I believed would cover the entire purchase. It turns out that there was just a small amount that was not covered. In the meantime, due to XXXX my pregnancy, the outstanding balance did not come to my attention until after I was hospitalized. Due to the addition of late fees, my outstanding balance went from I believe below {$100.00} to above {$100.00}. ( I do not have access to the specifics at this point b/c the company that services the Banana Republic credit card has locked me out of viewing my account history online. ) Once the balance came to my attention, I paid the account -- late fees included -- in full. Just today, I attempted to make a purchase with my card and was told that the account had been closed. I had no notification of this. I called the credit card company to explain my situation and request reinstatement, and was told that they were not obligated to notify me of the account closure and that they could not reopen the account. I was told that I would have to reapply and start from the beginning ( i.e., I would lose all of the " XXXX benefits of being a very long time credit card holder and reaching a certain spending threshold. ) I find this completely unreasonable in light of the fact that I had previously been a very long time account holder with no problems whatsoever paying my account in full -- thus the " XXXX '' status in the first place. The outstanding amount -- again, which I have paid in full and which increased exponentially due to late fees ( i.e., the original outstanding balance was much much less ) -- reached only {$170.00}. I do not believe that credit card companies should simply be able to close your account, revoking all of the benefits that you have earned, with no warning or notification -- especially considering my personal circumstances. 

I filed a complaint with CFPB ( Case # XXXX ) requesting that my account be reinstated at the same benefit level I had previously reached. I.e., that I wanted to reopen at the " XXXX '' level. This was and continues to be extremely important to me as it required spending a great deal of money in XXXX calendar year to reach that level. This was the main reason I filed the complaint. Secondarily, I requested that the late fees be refunded, but the number XXXX reason for my complaint was to have my account reinstated at the XXXX level ( or, if for whatever technical reason reinstatement was not possible, I wanted to open a new account at the XXXX level, instead of having to start at the very beginning with no XXXX benefits ). The late fees were MUCH less important to me. The company responded to my complaint by refunding the late charges, but did not address the main purpose of my complaint : the closing of my account and the loss of the XXXX benefit level. Perhaps there was some misunderstanding as to the requested resolution, thus I am filing this new complaint. I absolutely do not think that it is a fair business practice to close someone 's account ( with my account history, personal circumstances, etc. ) who has reached a certain benefit level and only allow them to reopen at the base benefit level, as credit companies would have a vested interest in targeting accounts at higher benefit levels so as to no longer have to offer the greater benefits and/or to force the account holder to once again reach a certain spending level to obtain the benefits they had already earned. Also, the company 's response to my complaint indicated that it attempted to contact me, and I do not believe that this is true. I have no record whatsoever of calls, emails, or letters from the company on this issue. I called the company again to discuss, but they said I 'd have to file another complaint

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