Consumer complaint received 2026-01-29 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: AL

Complaint narrative:
my name is XXXX XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/year>, I placed an order with XXXX, as I have done on numerous prior occasions. At checkout, I selected PayPal Credit as my method of payment, consistent with my established and longstanding practice. I did not authorize, select, or consent to any payment being drawn from any checking or any other account associated with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX or any other financial institution. 

Due to a confirmed system error on PayPals end, the transaction was improperly diverted from PayPal Credit to my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX account without my authorization or consent. I immediately contacted PayPal and spoke with a supervisor, who acknowledged the system malfunction, confirmed that the error was internal to PayPal, and advised that the issue had been corrected. The supervisor further issued a full credit in the amount of {$170.00} as remediation for the error. XXXX system reflected this credit, and PayPal confirmed the correction at that time. 

Despite this resolution, several days later on XX/XX/year> I received a notification from my bank indicating that the same amount, {$170.00}, was being charged again, this time to a different bank account. This unauthorized charge caused that account to be placed into a non-sufficient funds ( XXXX  ) status. The transaction was falsely presented as though I had made a new purchase on that date, which is inaccurate and misleading. This resulted in two separate financial accounts being impacted for the same single transaction, neither of which I authorized.

Upon contacting PayPal again, representatives attempted to alter the narrative by asserting that I selected my bank account at checkout or that the account was not connected to PayPal. Both statements are categorically false. The entire purpose of my initial call was to report that PayPals system had improperly altered or overridden my default payment method once again.... My PayPal account has been connected for years, and I have made no changes to my payment settings. PayPal representatives themselves confirmed that PayPal remained listed as the preferred payment method and that XXXX also reflected PayPal as the selected payment source. 

On XX/XX/year>, I spoke with a PayPal representative named XXXX, who provided reference number XXXX. Despite this, subsequent representatives claimed there were no notes on my account, which is unprofessional, inaccurate, and concerning. 

On XX/XX/year>, I spoke with a PayPal representative named XXXX, who stated that PayPals system has been experiencing this issue with a large number of customers and that this was the reason for unusually high call volume. During the call, when I challenged incorrect statements asserting that I authorized payment from my bank accounts, the representative abruptly claimed he could no longer hear me and terminated the call stating someone would be calling me back... so now i have to start all over again cause they do not really add notes as he and others have stated, I explicitly requested that PayPal review its recorded calls, as the record will clearly demonstrate that I did not authorize payment from any bank account and that PayPal acknowledged its system error. 

XXXX has confirmed that the transaction was refunded and that PayPal remains listed as the payment method. PayPal representatives have acknowledged that this is a known system glitch. Nevertheless, PayPals system continues to attempt to debit my bank accounts for a transaction that was refunded and never authorized to be paid from those accounts in the first instance.

My second financial institution has advised that because the unauthorized charge is still pending, no corrective action can yet be taken. However, given that PayPal previously reversed the transaction upon acknowledgment of its error, the same corrective action should have been taken immediately upon discovery of this second unauthorized charge particularly in light of PayPals admission that this is a recurring system-wide issue affecting multiple customers. Two different banks same transactions is unheard-of These repeated unauthorized debits, misrepresentations, lack of documentation, and failure to promptly reverse known erroneous charges constitute improper handling of consumer financial transactions and have caused financial harm, distress, and disruption. First bank was XXXX XXXX now its my XXXX XXXX account

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