Consumer complaint received 2025-06-24 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Unexpected increase in interest rate
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
XX/XX/XXXX -- I had to have a XXXX XXXX at at my dentist and I received pain management medication for this procedure. At the end of the procedure, I remember being asked if I'd like to pay today in full or with a 0 % APR option. The total amount was just under XXXX XXXXXXXX and I was more than able to pay in full, but given the 0 % APR mention I figured why not and signed up for that. I wouldn't say I was in the " best '' mental state to be making financial decisions given the meds and the procedure. 

XX/XX/XXXX -- I realized I was still getting statement emails about my upcoming reoccurring payments, and that that meant I was still somehow paying off this root canal from a few years ago. I thought this was weird ( I figured it would have been paid off by now ), so I went through the emails and then noticed that the statement balance seemingly had been going up. 
-- I then decided to log in online to learn more, I even had to request to figure out my account name and reset the password ( I don't know if I've ever logged in before, and if I had it must've been years ago ). Once logged in, I noticed a large jump up in the my account balance from XXXX XXXX statement to XXXX XXXX statement. It shows the link to open the Statement a link to open an " Insert '' document which I could not view or download ( when clicked it says " currently unavailable '' ) however I was told on the phone that in XXXX XXXX I had an interest charge of {$980.00}. They said on the phone you can only view the last 6 months of statements, however I'm unable to even view my most recent statement. On the other more recent statements I see interest charges around {$40.00} each month since. I've attached screenshots showing the charges over time. 
-- I then call them to learn more. I'm immediately transferred to the " Promotions '' department, I can be quoted on the call asking what is the Promotion Department? How and when was I signed up for a Promotion, I don't even know what that means in the context of my root canal 's pay monthly option. 
-- I'm then transferred to the Promotions department that tells me I was signed up for a Promotion when I signed up for this payment type, and it expired in XXXX XXXX, and because I hadn't paid off the amount I was hit with all the accumulated Interest from the past 24 months, and continue to be hit with interest each month since. 
-- I spoke to a number of people who all told me I could not get the Interest back. They said the promotion expired and there's nothing they can do to give me back any of the Interest. 

I personally can take some fault in never having logged in to look at the statements to see that there was an expiration date, but I checked every email they've ever sent me and no where in the email does it say that 1 ) I signed up for a " promotion '', 2 ) that there was any sort of " expiration date '', 3 ) that I would have additional interest charges coming in the next month.

On the phone, they just leaned into it being solely my responsibility to open the statements to learn this information and thus they would take no responsibility. 

No one told me when I signed up that the payment amount would not meet the full payment in 24 months ( as a normal pay over time program would default to!!! ). So I had no idea I had to go in there and manually modify it to pay additional installments to get the full payment paid in 24 months. When signing up for a 0 % APR program my expectation is that the default amount I'm paying each month gets me to a closed account within whatever timeframe they have selected and that IF someone can not afford those monthly amounts ( which is not me, I very much could have ) they can go in and lower the amount and put Interest at risk. But to unknowingly be signed up for a program that would put you at risk of paying a MASSIVE amount of interest feels unjust and cruel. I'm now paying almost double for a root canal I could have ( and should have ) just paid off in full. I will be calling my dentist tomorrow and advising them to either stop offering these types of programs or do a better job preparing a customer BEFORE the appointment so they're in the right head space to consciously make these decisions, and doing a MUCH better job walking the client through how this works and how to avoid any unnecessary Interest. 

I'm so disappointed in CareCredit for this, I feel taken advantage of, and I feel it's a business ' responsibility to communicate clearly with their customers. Asking them to click a link each month does not suffice in modern days. There are ways to send simple notifications and a simple email saying " Your promotional period is expiring soon, please log into your account to understand what this means '' would have sufficed. I don't think that's too much to ask to save someone nearly XXXX XXXXXXXX in unnecessary Interest.

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