Consumer complaint received 2025-12-09 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments — 
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: DE

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/year> I had applied and was approved for a small loan online with Synchrony bank in the amount of {$130.00} in order to to complete a purchase online as part of a " buy now pay later '' option, which was structured at 4.99 % interest and broken out into XXXX installments for repayment. At the time I had apparently set myself up for autopayments, where my bank debit card would be automatically run on each of the installment dates, however Synchrony failed to confirm and communicate this to me but instead proceeded to communicate with me via both text and email on several occasions in what I would consider to be an aggressive fashion reminding me of my ( first ) payment due date approaching on XX/XX/year> and to login to make a payment. I had logged in to make a payment of {$46.00} on XXXX since neither the email communications nor the online web portal indicated that I was setup for any autopay status. Upon receiving duplicate emails today confirming my payment I come to learn that Synchrony had processed my loan payment twice, which I believe to be in error given the poor communication standards from the lender prior to the due date which did not confirm that since I was setup on auto-pay that my bank card on file would be run automatically, nor did the portal warn me either when making my payment. After chatting with Synchrony bank staff online they advised that the soonest they remit my overpayment ( via paper check ) back to me is 2-3 weeks, which I believe is by design. I request a more immediate refund be issued back to my bank with the same card on file, but they refused stating that there is no process to allow for a more rapid or effective way of remedying the situation. I am reaching out because I believe that Synchrony Bank is committing wire fraud to its customers that creates an impression that manual payment is required to be made on/by the due date with no mention of a customers auto-pay status which either on the email communications or at the time time of payment on their portal. This is not clear and transparent business practice that I feel takes advantage of Synchrony banks customers who choose to do business with them that requires additional oversight to ensure such predatory business practices are kept in check. I did not budget for this overpayment which has caused me an undue financial hardship which Synchrony staff did little to acknowledge or accommodate and was relegated to requesting the paper refund check which they told me would 2-3 weeks to complete issuance of my refund. When asking them the reason for such a long delay in correcting this overpayment error, they had advised me that this was due to internal security protocols but as a banking institution I feel that since they may my bank card information they could just as easily have refunded me my overpayment electronically back to my bank. Again, their design of this line of credit lending is predatory as Synchrony miscommunicates to its customers while artificially creating prolonged delays in refunds to maximize its profits at the detriment of its customers.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief