Consumer complaint received 2021-09-28
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
In XXXX  XX/XX/2021, I contacted my credit union, XXXX XXXX and spoke with them regarding my accounts as I wanted to take a loan to create a bathroom that would be XXXX compliant for my XXXX year old mother who was just diagnosed with XXXX XXXX. They were happy to make a loan for me. Once they had done that, I asked them about my Mastercard that I held with them. They told me that because of my stellar record of payments, they would reduce my interest rate to 10 %. I was very pleased because I had a high balance on my Synchrony CareCredit card due to XXXX XXXX not sending my reimbursements appropriately. I spoke to XXXX XXXX  about using my Mastercard and doing a balance transfer from Synchronys CareCredit to my XXXX XXXX Mastercard and that was perfectly fine with them. 

XXXX XXXX sent the payment on AugustXX/XX/2021. I called Synchrony every few days to find out it if it had posted yet as I have two dogs who are not well and I wanted to pay my upcoming vet bills with the CareCredit. Finally on Monday, XXXX  XX/XX/2021, I was told that the payment had posted, ( The account actually showed a {$390.00} credit on the account because of interest ) however I was told there was a hold on the account. At that time, no one told me why. I was told that if the XXXX XXXX folks sent a fax with the information that the money had left their bank and processed that the hold would be released. I immediately called XXXX XXXX and chatted with them. Because of the seriousness of my dogs illness, they were very kind and immediately sent a fax to Synchrony stating that the money had been sent. I called Synchrony back and told them the fax was sent and was then told it would be the next day until it was posted. I called back the next day. This time I was told that there was no transaction number on the fax and they would need to send another fax with all the information. I called my credit union back again. I explained what was requested and also asked that they send me and Synchrony Bank a copy of the check. I received that copy in my XXXX XXXX Secure Email that afternoon. 

So, what Synchrony did, was they took the copy of the check that the credit union had faxed to them, and they applied it as a payment to my account not once, but TWICE! So suddenly I had a CREDIT of {$15000.00} on the account!!! Whats worse, is when I called Synchrony to see what the heck happened, the operator who answered said, Good afternoon, I see you have a credit of {$15000.00} on your account, would you like us to send you a refund check? I was floored!!! I said, If I was to do that, I would be committing fraud!!! 

So where am I today? I have spent almost 14 hours on the phone with Synchrony bank over the past two weeks. I have spoken with three managers who could have cared less about what was happening!! I have never felt so unimportant as a customer. I have spent 5 hours on the phone with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Synchrony closed my account because suddenly now because of all of THEIR errors, I am considered a HIGH RISK customer. Theyve closed my CareCredit, Ashley Homestore, Lowes, and TJ Maxx accounts. They have RUINED my credit! I explained the situation to the second manager and told him I needed my CareCredit card because my dog was just diagnosed with XXXX, so he told me to go online and open a new account. My guess is he allowed it to be opened, however, when I went to use it, it has a hold on it and it is unusable. 

ALL I DID WAS PAY OFF MY ACCOUNT, AND NOW SYNCHRONY BANK HAS RUINED THE CREDIT I HAVE WORKED SO HARD ON. I pay my bills. I have done what I was supposed to do and now I am in XXXX because of all of this.

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