Consumer complaint received 2024-08-30
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (KY)

I opened a Synchrony CareCredit card to pay for braces. I set up autopay and made regular payments. Apparently there was a promotion going on when I applied and was approved for my carecredit card but this was VERY unclear and I had no idea there was a promotion at the time. I have had this card since, I believe, XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. 

My minimum payments were XXXX dollars a month and this is what I had set up for in Autopay. In XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX I received a notification that my minimum payment of XXXX dollars was due... I logged into my account to see what the issue was and it listed my autopay of XXXX dollars being scheduled to come out on the regular day so I thought it might be a mistake and planned on contacting Synchrony later. I got busy and forgot to contact them and then when my autopay came out I don't remember if it was the XXXX dollars or XXXX dollars... I think it was XXXX. So in XXXX when XXXX dollars came out of my account I was very surprised! I looked back through my history and in XXXX they charged me over XXXX for interest. This was more than half of the original balance on the loan. 

I contacted the support chat on the website to see what had happened on XX/XX/XXXX. I chatted with someone named XXXX or XXXX on the chat who informed me that the promotion had ended in XXXX which is why I was charged XXXX dollars. She then told me she would offer me a solution and told me to contact a manger and ask them to waive the fees. I asked if they would do that and she said " yes because it was only a short time ago ''. She also provided the customer service number. I took a screen shot of this interaction just in case and called the number. 

I spoke to a manager who told me they were unable to do anything about the interest because it had been longer than their policy allows to file for an extension or for them to waive the interest. I informed him that the lady in the chat had told me that they could do this and he said there was no documentation of that. He also told me that if I wanted to send the screen shot I could send it to him on their help line on their website. I could not find the " help '' center and he very condescendingly told me it was available on their website. I asked for him to wait for me to log in so I could make sure and get it submitted to the correct place, which he did. I still could not find it. He offered to transfer me to tech support, I eventually agreed. He came back on the phone and told me that their help line was down... there was no way to get in touch with their help line... he could not tell me how long it had been down or when it would be back up. So even if I wanted to ask for help online through their site I would not have been able to do so. He then indicated I could print the screen shot and mail it to them and then they would review it in 2 to 4 weeks ... at which point my next payment would be due. 

In conclusion i was charged more than half my original balance due to a promotion ending that I didn't know existed and told there was nothing that could be done. I was also told to ask for help using a help center that is not and will not be in operation for who knows how long. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.