Consumer complaint received 2024-07-10
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (MA)

Due to issues Ill explain, they have made it next to impossible to find exact dates on everything. 

In XXXX, I opened an account with PayPal Credit ( formerly XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX ). Of course, being a XXXX college student at the time I ran the bill up and began to struggle to make the payments each month but I did manage to make them until XX/XX/XXXX when, according to my credit report, I became 30 days late ( the reason I say according to my credit report is that I am unable to go back before XXXX in my bank history and, for a bit, was forced to pay via XXXX XXXX. So I am unsure if that is entirely accurate ). 

Around the same time, PayPal Credit was purchased by Synchrony Bank which at least in my perspective did not go smoothly. The PayPal credit tab would frequently not appear on the site and, when it actually did, it would experience downtime that would last between 48 hours to, at one point, 2 weeks. During the two weeks period they reminded people the day before that the site would be down and that if you had a payment due during that period you should make the payment prior to the downtime which was absolutely impossible for me with the payment schedule I had. 

Prior to the switch to Synchrony, I had called ( they wouldnt let me do it through the site or email ) requesting my address change from Florida back to MA. During this switch, it either seemed to revert or just be ignored, because I never received any physical mail stating that my account was to be closed or charged off. My guess is that it was all sent to my former Florida address. I learned of my account closure by logging onto the site and being unable to XXXX tab ( I initially assumed it was just downtime, but after a month realized it was probably gone ). I assume it closed in XXXX XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX. So I began paying what I could every month via my banks XXXX XXXX. This went on for a few months until I received a request via email to stop submitting via XXXX XXXX as it was with a debt collector. I was baffled, as I had not been informed, and I learned that it had been officially charged off by a steep incline in my credit score and a little C/O symbol on the account. 

I called as soon as I found out. I asked if I could pay the debt and they said no, I would have to pay the debt collector. When I inquired what agency it was with, they initially wouldnt tell me. I finally got someone who said that it was likely with a certain company because that was like one or two of the ones they sold to. So I sent an email to the debt collection agency and they happily confirmed that it was them who the debt was with and requested that I call. So I did. I told them about the situation I had been through and they were sympathetic, and I scheduled a date to pay. I officially paid off the entire amount about a month or two later. 

Here is why I am submitting to the CFPB : While it is my fault that the debt became late and that I was struggling financially. I do believe that I was stuck in a wrong place at the wrong time scenario. I believe that I shouldnt have to suffer due to a messy takeover of a company. The amount of opportunities that I have lost credit wise over the years due to this is insane and its kept my credit score extremely low. It also made it so Synchrony really wont consider me for anything Ive tried writing to the Synchrony & PayPal regarding this and theyve said multiple times that they wont do anything about it ( I also reached out to the Debt Collector, who essentially told me to talk to Synchrony, but then informed me that paying it would essentially remove the charge off from my account and that obviously didnt happen ).