Consumer complaint received 2019-03-01 00:00:00
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/, 2019 I had received a notification my credit score had gone down which I am in the process of purchasing a home and can not have it go down, so I logged online to see the reason it had gone down and the notification stated I had one of my credit cards maxed out to be specific my JCPenny Store Credit Card maxed out. I was confused and thought to myself this is clearly fraud because I dont have my JCPenny Credit Card maxed out and the notification continued to say make a payment and bring the balance down to bring your credit score back up. I immediately called JCPenny customer service XXXX at XXXX central standard time on XX/XX/, 2019. I explain to the customer service representative that it shows me maxed out on my credit card and this is wrong and clearly fraud and she stated it was correct that they changed my credit limit to {$280.00}. I asked her on what grounds did they change it and this is deceptive business practices because they did not inform me that they had changed it or why, that I received not notification whatsoever. I told her that as a consumer who agreed to a certain amount when I initially applied for the card a year ago and allowed them to run my credit a year ago and was approved for {$500.00} that this has been my a credit amount this entire time. I told her I have never paid late or gone over my credit limit. The representative said that is correct you were approved for {$500.00} about a year ago and never paid late and said however we have a system that monitors your spending habits and will match your credit line to your spending habits, so I tell the representative okay let me make sense of what you are saying and said since I dont max out my card or use the {$500.00} every month your system is monitoring my spending habits and your system changed my credit limit to match my actual spending amount and she said yes. I tell the representative again this is deceptive business practices to monitor my spending or any consumers spending and based on those grounds they changed my credit limit and thats where I have an issue because it was changed without my knowledge and this hurt my credit score. I told her because you monitored my spending and changed my limit to what I actually spend which is roughly {$280.00} a month and me having a balance of {$270.00} has a negative impact on me and this information reports to credit bureau as a card maxed out and to make a payment to bring balance down and this would then raise your credit score and thats where I have a problem and issue with these deceptive business practices. This company completed deceptive business practices by monitoring my spending but to change my credit limit based on spending habits and not inform the consumer is deceptive and wrong. The representative apologizes and says we can raise it again but to raise a credit limit we have to run your credit report again which I declined and told her why would I run my credit report again to have the same limit I initially started with. I told her I gave you permission to run it a year ago and agreed to a certain amount and for what for you to monitor my spending and just change it. I informed her I was gon na file a complaint because they did not notify me in any way, shape or form and if it was not because of my alert from credit bureaus that there had been a change to credit score I would never have known the amount changed. I told her I could have decided to purchase something for someone as a gift and my card would have been declined and again she apologizes and says lets run your credit score again to raise it back up for you. This has been the most deceptive act I have ever come across, for your spending habits to be monitored and your credit line changed based on those grounds.

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 explanation