Consumer complaint received 2023-09-12
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Charged too much interest
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (NY)

Dear Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) : In 2023 year-to-date, I have been charged {$79.00} in interest charges by Synchrony Bank through the Amazon Store Card. However, it was my understanding that by paying the " Total Minimum Payment Due '' plus the sum of " non-promotional purchases '' by the " Payment Due Date '' that I would avoid interest charges. Somehow over the last 3-4 months my understanding was different from the policies and processes that Synchrony had put into practice. My primary complain is focused on : The difficulty of accessing clarity and customer support from Synchrony Bank, which further obfuscates opaque, misleading, and predatory language, policies and processes that harm consumers by surreptitiously adding interest charges to their accounts. This is in spite of some consumers intentionally trying to avoid interest charges by making the adequate payments on a monthly/regular basis. 
In the following complaint, I document my experience trying to resolve this issue, which I believe is likely faced by dozens of thousands of Americans ( if not more ). 

Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I called Synchrony Bank and specifically its Amazon Store Card division. From the very beginning, the process to get in touch with someone who could actually explain the charges was difficult. First, the " live chat '' option on the Synchrony website was a chatbot who provided no useful information other than repeating snippets of policy. When I was connected to a live agent ( called " S '', shorthand for XXXX if I recall correctly ) via chat, they too continued to repeat similar snippets of policy such as " The non promotional balance should be paid in full to avoid interest charges ''. This was even in response to my request for a line by line explanation of each interest charge that had been added to my account. This clearly was not going in any meaningful direction and thus I asked for a phone number through which I could speak with an agent. 

I was provided the number : XXXX. On this line, the automated system asked me for an account or credit card number. Recall that the Amazon Store Card provided by Synchrony Bank is by nature focused on e-commerce purchases and thus a physical card is unlikely to be needed. Moreover, on their website, even when logged in, there is no easy place to find such information ( account or credit card number ). After being unable to provide that information, they requested my Social Security Number and I provided it. However, they were unable to find a match and I thus requested to speak with an agent. Finally, after initially calling the number at XXXX XXXX  EST, I was connected with XXXX at XXXX XXXX EST. XXXX informed me that since my matter dealt with the Amazon Store Card that I had to call a different number : XXXX. I asked her to connect me and she did. 

At XXXX XXXX EST, I was connected to XXXX. I explained to her that it was my understanding that by paying the minimum payment and the sum of non-promotional purchases that I was avoiding interest. We went through a convoluted exercise of discussing account balances, non-promotional balances, promotional balances ( including deferred interest rate balances and equal monthly payment balances ). I explained to her my understanding and my process of adding the minimum payment to the sum of all non-promotional balances from a statement. I emphasized that I had a track record of regular payments that I thought were interest-avoiding and thus this was a surprise to me : to have seen not only this last statement 's interest charges but that I had accumulated more than a nominal amount in the last year. 

It is worth noting that " adding the minimum payment to the sum of all non-promotional balances from a statement '' is not a trivial task. Although the minimum payment is included at the top of billing statements, account holders are not informed of what goes into that number in their statements. Furthermore, adding all " non-promotional purchases '' requires going transaction by transaction to filter out any promotional purchases and create a running sum of each non-promotional transaction. For a regular XXXX customer, this could mean sifting through dozens of transactions, each of which is printed in similar monochromatic text, which partially describes the order/transaction and in some cases can be quite lengthy. A reasonable person could easily miss or misclassify a transaction since promotional transactions are only differentiated by a single line of all caps text that describes the promotion. This line sits below another line of all caps text that describes the transaction source. Hence, the burden is placed on consumers to sift through their billing statements section by section, line by line in order to surmise what the appropriate, minimum payment would be in order to avoid any interest charges. 

As you may already infer, this is a burdensome process imposed on consumers that can be very beneficial to Synchrony and XXXX. XXXX products increase consumer spending on XXXX. All the while, tedious manual accounting, easily prone to human error, can lead to erroneous interest charges that benefit Synchrony Bank financially. In XXXX, I find it suspicious that a partnership between Synchrony Bank and XXXX that offers these consumer credit/lending products does not provide account holders with something as clear, simple, or intuitive as an " Interest Saving Balance '' on their billing statements or account homepage. In Exhibit A, I show that XXXX XXXX, which also provides an XXXX credit card and also provides XXXX payment options, does clearly provide account holders with an " Interest Saving Balance ''. Since XXXX is most likely highly involved with these credit products and the user experience off XXXX, I find it likely that Synchrony Bank and XXXX are aware of this XXXX XXXX  feature and intentionally do not provide to consumers via Synchrony Bank. I suspect that they do this because it is financially lucrative for account holders to NOT know their interest saving balance. I suspect that it is their hope that even when consumers intend to make payments that avoid account interest, that they may inadvertently miss a transaction or line of text that will allow Synchrony to charge the consumer interest. 

However, the buck does not stop there. Even if, an account holder of the Amazon Store Card through Synchrony Bank, makes a payment meeting or exceeding the " Interest Saving Balance '' ( which is not provided to them ) there is still a chance that the payment may be misapplied with respect to the intention of the account holders. That is, if it is the intention of the account holder to make a payment that allows the account to avoid accruing interest, the funds may be applied to " promotional purchases '' instead of " non-promotional purchases ''. By misallocating these funds, with respect to the intentions of the account holders, Synchrony Bank benefits financially by allowing interest to be charged on any remaining non-promotional balance. 

Apparently, in order to correctly allocate payments, Synchrony bank has created a process with little visibility that requires account holders to call in, specify, and confirm where they would like to see their payment applied. This " notice '' is hidden in a small light, blue box in the middle of the billing statement. As a light blue box in a corner, it does not demand any sense of urgency. Hence, I was not aware of this footnote until I spoke on the phone with XXXX and the supervisor/account manager I later spoke with, XXXX. Before I go into the details of my conversation with XXXX, I would like to emphasize that this is yet another manual process beyond the transfer of funds ( i.e. making payment ) that obfuscates the payment process and outcomes in a way that diverges from the intentions of consumers and benefits Synchrony Bank handsomely. 

A frustrating conversation with XXXX ensued after going through the aforementioned and learning about the hidden and opaque " gotchas '' that Synchrony Bank uses to collect interest from account holders. In order to resolve the situation, I requested that the interest charges be waived given my ( 1 ) track record of on-time payments, which I assumed were and intended to be in full ( " avoiding interest '' ), and ( 2 ) the predatory nature of Synchrony Bank 's policies, processes, and customer support procedures. I was told by XXXX that they could not waive the interest charges. I, then, asked to speak with a supervisor. 

At XXXX XXXX EST, I was connected with XXXX who identified herself as an Account Manager. I explained the situation to her and she also worked with me to understand the balances, interest charges, and reasoning behind them. We identified a misallocation for a month and that interest charge was waived. In the other two cases, XXXX notified me that the interest charges could not be waived because the payments I had made did not meet the threshold to avoid interest. I explained to her that I always made payments with the intention of covering the minimum amount needed to avoid interest. I also emphasized that it was very tedious and burdensome to expect users to call in after payment in order to validate that their payments were being allocated correctly. I informed her that I was not happy with the outcome, that my issue/complaint was not resolved, that this was a predatory practice, and that I would be filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau XXXX I get the feeling that she was not able to do much more to help because of corporate policies that promote this type of predatory consumer exploitation. 

To understand the magnitude of this practice, consider a number of statistics : - XXXX has at least XXXX XXXX Prime subscribers in the XXXX ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX ). 
- In XXXX of XXXX, XXXX attracted XXXX XXXX visitors ( XXXX, XXXX ). 
- It is estimated that the XXXX marketplace has over XXXX XXXX active users worldwide. 
- Synchrony Bank has more than XXXX XXXX customer accounts and financed {$110.00} XXXX in sales in XXXX. 
- As of XXXX, it has been reported that they " offer over XXXX store cards and credit cards, and according to its website, they service more than XXXX XXXX active customer accounts '' XXXX revolutionized e-commerce and in many ways catalyzed the adoption and growth of Buy Now, Pay Later ( BNPL ) products through its partnership with Synchrony Bank. 
E-commerce and Financial Lending Services have become inextricably tied together and marketed as " win-win partnerships ''. However, these " win-win '' partnerships can very much come at the cost of consumer purchasing power and choice as well as leave consumers reeling after being exploited through surreptitious policies that charge and collect interest and other fees. I hope that my experience can at the minimum lead to new policies and procedures at Synchrony Bank that safeguard and prioritize consumers. In the long-term, I hope that the CFPB, and/or congress, can create new regulations that require ( 1 ) a clear line-item balance that informs consumers of the payment they would need to make in order to avoid interest charges or any other additional fees, and ( 2 ) lending companies ( loans, credit cards, XXXX, etc. ) to provide clear allocation requirements, processes, and options at time of payment, especially if a misallocation could lead to interest charges. 

Thank you respectfully for your time, work, and advocacy, XXXX XXXX NY Resident References : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX