Consumer complaint received 2023-12-19
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Charged too much interest
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (MA)

I opened a Care Credit account from Synchrony Bank to pay for a medical procedure which had a 12 month interest free promotional period. When I enrolled in the account, I was prompted to set up e-billing and automatic payments, which I did. Despite making all automatic payments on time and in full, I was charged a large deferred interest fee at the end of the promotional period, and I was not proactively notified that this fee was about to be charged. This is because the automatic payment amounts did not cover the full balance by the end of the promotional period, and because with e-billing I was not sent any notification ( e.g., by email ) stating that the promotional period was ending and I needed to pay off the balance to avoid deferred interest payments. In order to find this information, I would have had to log into their account portal ( consumercenter.mysynchrony.com ) and download my statement. I did not visit the portal because I had enrolled in autopayments and believed that making them would be sufficient to avoid penalties. I also thought that I would have 12 payments in the promotional period, but this was not the case, because I did not receive my first statement until 60 days into the promotional period. Instead, my promotional period expired after only 10 payments ( 10 months ).

Had I known I was about to be charged a deferred interest fee, I would have paid the balance in full at that time. I called Synchrony Bank as soon as I notic
ed that the amount of my automatic payment had increased ( because of the large deferred interest charge being added to my balance ), and not only did they refuse to allow me to pay down the original balance and remove the interest charge, but they repeatedly lied to me, and when I asked to be " escalated '' ( their term ) I was just passed to another person with the same title ( Account Manager ) - I spoke to four of them over more than 1h 30min. When I asked for other options, I was told I could send a fax to " General Inquiries and Correspondence '', and I should receive a response in 1-2 billing cycles ( 30-60 days ). When I asked an Account Manager if I could speak with someone other than an Account Manager who is more senior, they initially said " no '', and after I pushed, they said I could request a call-back from an " Admin '', which should happen within 3-5 business days. When asked if I could call an Admin directly at a different time of day, I was informed that Admins have no set hours of availability, but there should be one available at XXXXXXXX XXXX EST the next day. However, they could not say until what time that person would be available. In short, Synchrony Bank made it extremely difficult to try to get a resolution to this problem. 

I believe this system is set up deliberately to make it highly likely that consumers will not realize their promotional period is about to end and they will be charged a large deferred interest fee, for at least XXXX reasons : 1. When opening an account, consumers are encouraged to enroll in e-billing and set up autopayments.

2. Autopayments default to an amount that does not pay off the full balance within the promotional period, and this is not explicitly disclosed to the customer.

3. Electronic billing does not provide any proactive notifications, but rather requires that the customer log in to their account and accesses a statement. No specific communication is sent notifying customers of the end of a promotional fee or of the deferred interest fee being charged.

4. Notifications of fees or promotional periods ending can only be set up proactively by customers at a different time than when the open the account and/or set up e-billing and automatic payments ( and their customer service people reached by phone can not guide you on how to set them up ).

5. They have a " no exceptions '' ( terms and conditions of all agreements must be followed and no changes to fees can be made ) customer service policy, while many other banks will work with customers to resolve credit card fee disputes if they are raised promptly and in good faith by the customer.

6. Their customer service people use deceptive language and have prepared, evasive answers to deal with complaints about their system guiding customers to end up with large interest fees even when they make all automatic payments on time, about proactive notifications of promotional balances ending not being provided, etc. Further they have an opaque, frustrating escalation process to make it extremely difficult to reach a person who can actually resolve a problem ( likely with the hope you will just give up ). Further, detailed terms and conditions ( which I requested from customer service ) for the credit account, enrolling in autopayments, and enrolling in e-billing are not available on the customer portal website ( XXXXsynchrony.com ) with statements and account balances. Rather they are only available on a separate site ( synchronyXXXX XXXX. When I asked to be emailed, I was told they can only send them by mail, and it will take around 60 days to receive them.