Consumer complaint received 2024-08-10
Product: Checking or savings account — CD (Certificate of Deposit)
Issue: Managing an account — Problem with renewal
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL ()

I opened a XXXX CD for {$XXXX} with Synchrony Bank XXXX XX/XX/year>, knowing that I would need the money at the end of the term. I did not realize and do not recall being informed that the XXXX  would be automatically renewed at the end of the term. Synchrony Bank automatically renewed the XXXX  at the end of the XXXX  months without my permission, and when I learned this after the fact and contacted them, they refused to end the new term and let me withdraw the money ( not including interest earned from the new term -- I am totally fine to forfeit that ). After finding that I couldn't do anything about it on their website, an online chat with customer service, and two phone calls with customer service in which I was given the runaround about unrelated issues, a manager told me on the phone that there was no way they could close the XXXX  without a mandatory penalty of 6 months interest -- or more than XXXX of the money I had earned from the first 14 month term. So my money is stuck with them for another 14 months or I have to pay $ XXXX in penalty. 

It is important to note that I live in XXXX on a XXXX XXXX XXXX as a civil servant ( I have been here XXXX years now ), which is one reason I received the notice that the XXXX  had been renewed so late and may have also contributed to problems I experienced when trying to use their website, though I have generally been able to use all other financial institutions ' websites with no problem here. 

Here are the other problems I experienced with Synchrony Bank : 1 ) I couldn't access their website to check on the account several months before it matured, even after calling technical support for help and spending a long time on the phone trying different things. 2 ) It wasn't clear to me when I established the XXXX  that it would automatically renew if I didn't take action. 3 ) Synchrony Bank sent me emails saying I had a message from them and wanted me to log on to their site to see what the message was instead of clearly informing me what was about to happen. This was after I had had problems with their website, and I didn't log on. 4 ) The only paper notice that I know I received arrived weeks after the XXXX  had already renewed and the 7 (? ) day " grace period '' had already expired. I called within 24-48 hours of receiving the letter, and they would not let me close the account without a large penalty. As far as I can tell, I never received a paper notification beforehand saying the XXXX  would automatically renew. 5 ) Synchony still won't let me provide instructions now to automatically withdraw the money at the end of the new XXXX  term. They told me it is impossible to do that now and said I must call them within 45 days of the end of the new term to give them my instructions.

Taken together, this is absolutely unacceptable treatment. And when I called and offered a very reasonable solution ( offering them several more weeks to get the money back to me and letting them keep two months interest from the new term ), they did nothing to help resolve the problem and instead made me jump through hoops to even discuss the problems I was experiencing. I believe Synchrony is also using deceptive business practices.