Consumer complaint received 2023-09-12
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023 the due date for my Amazon store card, I attempted to pay the rest of my previous statements balance on my Amazon store card " managed '' by Synchrony, via the link on my Amazon account. Even though I had already successfully made my minimum required payment about 2 days earlier using the link at Amazon, this time the link was no longer available. I did not know how to reset it so I called Synchrony to either fix this problem or to allow me to make a payment ( about {$710.00} ) another way. 

Synchronys agent who tried to help me at first did not see that I had already paid the {$40.00} minimum ( about 2 days earlier ) and initially told me that in order to avoid interest charges I would have to pay {$750.00} ). He eventually saw that I had already paid {$40.00}, so that {$710.00} would indeed be enough to cover the last statements entire balance in its entirety. 

He then asked me for the routing and account numbers ( bank ) that I wished to use to make this payment, and I provided them to him by reading them to him off one of my checks. He accepted this form of payment. 

Several days later ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I received an a-mail from Synchrony that my payment for this {$710.00} had processed. But, then on XX/XX/XXXX I was notified that it hadnt! Synchrony charged me interest on these {$710.00} and it closed my account and stole the 5 % rebate that I had accumulated in recent weeks. 

I have used checks bearing these same numbers many times and had only a few days earlier successfully made an online payment using them elsewhere. 

All of these matters seem to be a result of Synchrony not being able to find a bank 's routing number and then taking a week to say so- so that they can try to charge customers interest and apply whatever other punishments they think that they can get away with. 

I should point out that around XX/XX/XXXX I also complained to Amazon directly about Synchronys incompetence, greed, etc., so, maybe Synchrony decided to close my account to retaliate against me for daring to complain to Amazon about them? 

Furthermore : A similarish situation arose with Synchrony and me earlier this year. I also complained then to your Bureau- but after temporarily becoming reasonable, they have forgotten their lesson ( s ).

If a bank displays such questionable behavior to a customer of a huge company like Amazon to which they are a vendor and gets away with it, what should we expect from banks who do not stand to lose such a huge account ( Amazon, in this case )?

It also seems to me that it is wrong for any financial institution to shoot first and ask questions later - i.e., to not find the right bank info numbers + then to charge the customer interest, late fees, etc. It seems that the fault in not being able to process a payment is theirs, not mine.

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