Consumer complaint received 2017-09-25
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan — Personal line of credit
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect — 
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (CA)

I bought a mattress with a 0 % APR over 3 years with GE/Synchrony. I had the account set on auto-pay, believing that the amount determined would pay off the loan within the three allotted years. Then, one month prior to when this time period ended, I received this letter : " Thank you for using recurring payments to make payments on your XXXX XXXX/SYNCHRONY BANK account. The amount of your upcoming payment for the account stated above, has changed from what was previously disclosed in the Cardholder News and Information section of your last billing statement. This decrease is due to recent activity on your account since your last billing statement.
Your new payment amount is {$0.00} and will be posted on XX/XX/XXXX.
If the new payment amount above is greater than XX/XX/XXXX, the payment will be deducted from your bank account on the scheduled date which you previously specified. If the new payment amount noted above is {$0.00}, it may be because recent activity or additional payments have reduced the payment amount due. It may also be because you have discontinued your automatic payments. If you have discontinued your automatic payments, please refer to the Payment Information section on your billing statement to determine the required payment due. '' Please note that I had not logged onto my account since I created it and set up the autopay. I was led to believe that my loan had been paid of and no longer looked at the account after I received this letter. However, I found out yesterday that the entire balance was not paid off on my account had jumped from {$1000.00} to {$4000.00} from one statement to the next, and that I have been charged $ 150+ since XX/XX/XXXX and that I still have a balance of over {$4000.00}.
I called the credit card company, and they were insistent that my invoice for the following month would have mentioned that my notice saying that the 0 % APR promotional period was ending, but they were unable to procure the statement that purportedly said this and there are no online records that are accessible from XX/XX/XXXX. Moreover, no explanations could be provided for why I received the aforementioned letter above which said that my new account payment was reduced to {$0.00} ( not by my own doing since I had not logged onto the account since I was required to create one ).
I believe that this is a scam and the bank has knowingly misled consumers. All I want to do is pay off my original principal and not an extra {$6000.00} in interest that I was not even aware of! I had been abroad and traveling since XX/XX/XXXX and was unaware of what was happening until now. Again, I RECEIVED NO NOTICE AT ALL THAT THE 0 % APR promotional period was about to end, and now I have already paid {$2000.00} in interest and owe more than {$4000.00} more in interest on a mattress that originally cost {$4000.00}. If I had known this were the case, I could have easily paid off any remaining principal if I had any notification at all.
I believe the credit card company did this on purpose to mislead consumers.