Consumer complaint received 2022-12-19
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
On or about XX/XX/2022, I was on vacation and received a call from the Venmo Credit Card Fraud Department notifying me of several fraudulent transactions on my account. I do not have the specific details, but I recall there being some charges for XXXX  and gas ( I dont have a car that needs gas ) and some others which I did not make. I was advised that my Venmo credit card would be cancelled and that they would send a new one to my home address. From that call, I understood that the fraud was caught, that any fraudulent charges would be removed from my account. 

As I travel often for work, and am not always able to review my statements every month before they are due, I have my accounts set on autopay to pay the full balance every month. I do this so I dont miss a payment when I am travelling. Also, credit card fees and interest are charged on a monthly basis, while fraud claims are normally subject to a statute of limitations of several years making payment a more urgent requirement than claiming fraud. Additionally, my experience with major credit cards and banks is that fraudulent charges are normally caught as they are being made. 

When I did review my statements, I noticed that there had been fraud on my account starting with relatively small amounts in XXXX and growing larger until my XX/XX/2022 statement swelled to {$8800.00}. I made a claim for these charges with Venmo/Synchrony Bank XXXX XXXX. 

After a few weeks, on approximately XX/XX/XXXX, I called the Synchrony Bank Fraud department to check on the status of my claim and was advised that my claim had been denied and that I should have received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX notifying me of this. I never received that letter. On that call, I asked for the claim to be reopened. The case was reopened and I received by mail a list of the transactions and was asked to state whether or not I had authorized them. I went through my records to verify the charges and sent the list back to Synchrony Bank with the vast majority of transactions marked as fraud. On Friday XX/XX/XXXX, I received a one page form letter advising me that the Synchrony Fraud Team related to my Venmo Credit card account was unable to approve my fraud claim because I " authorized, participated in, or benefited from the purchase. '' This is not true ; the only way I participated in the purchase was by paying the full statement on autopay. 

I have a very good credit score, and pay my credit card statements in full and on time every month. Further, the fraudulent charges are clearly not mine as they are inconsistent with my 30+ years of credit card use. These should have been caught by the credit card company as they were happening. 

Of particular note : I go to XXXX once in a while. The number of charges to XXXX alone should have triggered a fraud call to me ; I dont have a car that operates on gas and have no need to go to XXXX XXXX. These charges also should have triggered a fraud call to me ; I have never bought an XXXX XXXX XXXX prepaid card for anything. I have always had subscription phone contracts ; I do not use XXXX. I have a contract with XXXX  ; I dont have an XXXXXXXX XXXX account ; I have never used XXXX XXXX XXXX ; I have never been to or used a XXXX XXXX ; I should not be penalized for making full payments on my statements. Credit card fees and interest are immediate and charged monthly ; The charges that were eventually identified by Venmo in XXXX were charges for XXXX and XXXXXXXX XXXX. These charges were removed from my account so they knew these were fraudulent but are now not acknowledging that the others were.

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 non-monetary relief