Consumer complaint received 2024-10-02
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (CA)

Debt holder - Synchrony Bank Credit Type - PayPal Credit The last few statements I noticed my " Amount to avoid Standard and Deferred Interest on your next statement '' kept getting higher and higher. I knew I had some promotional purchase periods expiring, so I figured it would be high for a couple statements and then go back down to normal, but the XXXX  statement in a row was very high. I went through my statement thoroughly and discovered that the expiring promotional purchases, plus my purchases for the statement period did not amount to the amount due to avoid interest. How can that be? Those are the only amounts that I should have to pay to avoid interest?? When I called Synchrony Bank for them to explain the amount to me, I was informed that I needed to call in to tell them how I want my payments allocated each time I make a payment. I was confused- did they not apply the payment to the expiring promotional purchases and the regular purchases for the statement period? Apparently no. They can apply the payment to future expiring promotional balances instead of toward the regular purchases and create a " protected balance '' for non-deferred interest purchases therefore accruing that balance as due to setup a position for the card holder to be unable to pay the " protected balance '' because of it's size and therefore then charge me interest for all those prior purchases. When I finally got through to a XXXX, I was informed that the " protected balance '' was related to a rate change to the interest rate on the credit line and because the rate increased, the previous balance is " protected '' from the new interest rate. And their default payment application goes to the highest interest rate balance, which could include purchases under promotional financing that are not yet due but will have a higher rate if not paid in time. This is predatory, not protective. It is not listed in their terms and conditions specifically - meaning they don't tell you that prior purchases will be put into a " protected balance '' category and not included in the " Amount due to avoid standard and deferred interest on your next statement ''. 
Statement Date : XX/XX/XXXX. 
Purchases ( non deferred interest ) - {$330.00}. 
Expiring XXXX XXXX- {$0.00}. 
Amount Due to Avoid Standard and Deferred Interest ( per statement ) - {$330.00} Payment made- {$350.00} *Standard Purchases balance on statement - {$330.00} Statement Date : XX/XX/XXXX Purchases ( non deferred interest ) - {$45.00} Expiring Promotional Financing - {$550.00} ( full balance was {$900.00}, but {$350.00} payment above was applied ) Amount Due to Avoid Standard and Deferred Interest ( per statement ) - {$930.00} Payment made- {$930.00} *Standard Purchases balance on statement - {$370.00} ( which is purchases from last statement and current statement together, because my payment was not applied to those balances but instead to future expiring promotions ) XX/XX/XXXX Statement Date : Purchases ( non deferred interest ) - {$100.00} Expiring Promotional Financing - {$390.00} ( full balance was {$770.00} but remainder of {$930.00} payment above was applied to this balance ) Amount Due to Avoid Standard and Deferred Interest ( per statement ) - {$870.00} Payment made- {$870.00} *Standard Purchases balance on statement - {$470.00} ( which is purchases from last XXXX statements and current statement together, because my payment was not applied to those balances but instead to future expiring promotions ) My XXXX statement shows that I owe for protected balances, plus expiring purchases and current charges. Are the dollars in total for what I owe correct? Yes. Is how they are allocating payments based on due dates and deferred interest periods correct? No. 
Again, this is deceptive and needs to be brought to the attention of potentially millions of customers.