Consumer complaint received 2017-07-19
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (NM)

It is my belief and experience that Synchrony Financial is intentionally delaying their payment processing of my XXXX  credit card so that a significant percentage of their account holders will incur late fees. Three times this year I have incurred late fees from Synchrony, and overdraft and return payment fees from my bank because of their payment processing procedures. On their payment site it says that it may take 2 days to process the payment, but it has frequently taken 5-7 days for payments to be processed which has led to my payments not being withdrawn from my bank account in a timely manner. I am currently undergoing a period of financial stress so I budget my money very tightly. I get paid on the XXXX of each month and the FIRST thing I do is schedule a payment with Synchrony so that my CC account will be paid before I spend any other money from my bank account. I then consistently receive a confirmation of payment received from Synchrony 2 days later. I live in a rural area and do n't have the ability to or reliable phone signal to be able to check my bank for transaction history every day or hour waiting for payments to come through so I usually wait 3-5 days before spending what small income I have in my bank account just so I can reasonably assume that my credit card payment has gone through. When they send me a payment receipt confirmation I figure that I can reasonably assume that they have received my payments. This is a very misleading practice they are doing and I have been caught out 3 times this year having to pay fees to Synchrony and my bank, fees which I can not afford. The main reason I believe they are doing this intentionally to incur fees upon their account holders is that they do not offer immediate payment processing options such as payment by debit card, they only allow payments to be made by bank transfer, which always go through for payments to other companies I pay by bank transfer within 1 or 2 days. With Synchrony there is no reason that it should take 5-7 days for a bank transfer to be processed. This is clearly a delayed payment processing scheme that this bank employs. I have seen on several internet forums that there are MANY other people that are having similar complaints with payment processing and fees being incurred by Synchrony Financial. After spending 2 hours in a chat session with their overseas customer service agents who refused to give me their real names or refer me to a supervisor contact person in the United States, this person nicknamed XXXX agreed to waive the {$35.00} late fee and credit me the {$26.00} overdraft fee that my bank charged me. At least that is some consolation, but does nothing about the other times they have charged me fees and my bank account is still charging me fees on a periodic basis for being overdrawn, because I can not make a deposit to cover the overdraft until I get paid on the XXXX of the month. These payment processing procedures of this bank is causing me a great deal of distress and financial hardship. If this is the case for me, I 'm sure it is also the case for many other of their account holders. When I notified them that I was going to make a complaint to the FTC they sent me a notice cancelling my account stating " a number of dishonored payments '' WHICH THEY CAUSED as the reason. I hope with this complaint you will recognize that for this one complaint there are probably hundreds or even thousands of people who do n't make a complaint that are also being affected and being caused hardship by Synchrony 's payment processing practices and lack of ability for their account holders to process payments immediately. I sincerely hope that you will investigate into this. It seems we live in a time where banks can do anything they like acting with impunity knowing that the US government is on the side of the banks and not the consumers. I hope you will prove me wrong. It boggles my mind to think of how many XXXX of dollars they have collected in fees from consumers because of their payment processing procedures.