Consumer complaint received 2026-01-22 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was approached by two individuals who claimed they were collecting donations for their daughters funeral after she was allegedly shot in the neighborhood the week prior. Believing this was legitimate, I agreed to let them charge my card for {$5.00}. The charge was made using my Sams Club credit card issued through Synchrony Bank. 

When I later reviewed my account, I discovered that instead of {$5.00}, I had been charged twice for {$3000.00}, totaling {$6000.00}. I immediately filed a dispute with Synchrony Bank. They initially issued two temporary credits of {$3000.00} each while the investigation was pending. 

After approximately 90 days, Synchrony informed me that the dispute was resolved in my favor. However, they only permanently credited {$3000.00} back to my account. When I called to ask why the remaining {$3000.00} was not returned, I was told they made an error and believed I was disputing only one chargedespite my clearly explaining that there were two fraudulent charges from the same incident. They then removed the second {$3000.00} temporary credit, leaving me with a {$3000.00} balance. 

Because Synchrony refused to issue any additional temporary credit, I was forced to call every month to manually adjust my autopay while the issue remained unresolved. To make matters worse, they mishandled the second dispute by incorrectly assuming the removed temporary credit resolved the issue. As a result, I had to open a third dispute due to their repeated errors. 

For the past three months, I have called regularly for updates and was consistently told the dispute was still under investigation, requiring me to continue manually adjusting my autopay. Two days ago, when I called again, the agent informed me that the dispute had actually been resolved back in XXXX, which directly contradicted what I had been told for the previous two months. 

I also discovered that Synchrony began charging interest on the {$3000.00} balance, claiming it was no longer under review. This forced me to open yet another dispute just days ago to correct the issue. I requested escalation to upper management but was told my only option was to file another dispute. 

Despite Synchrony stating that they ruled in my favor three separate times, I am still left with a {$3000.00} balance that should have been removed long ago. This experience reflects extremely poor customer service, weak internal controls, and significant incompetence in their dispute resolution process. They also have all my calls over the past 6 months recorded and if they would go back and listen to these calls they would hear about how the service agents failed time and time again to get this issue resolved This is easily the worst customer service experience I have ever had. I strongly recommend that others avoid getting a credit card with Synchrony Bank, as their handling of fraud disputes is deeply flawed and unnecessarily burdensome for customers. 

Another issue I had with Synchrony bank was I was planning on taking a vacation to XXXX in mid XXXX so I made sure to call the bank ahead of time and let them know the dates I would be abroad and tell them that if they see charge sin XXXX that it would be me because I will not have access to my phone number to call them. However, on my 2nd to last day which was still in the data range I told them I would be there they flagged a purchase as suspicious and closed my card out. This left me with no money as that was my only card and was forced to rely on my friend in order to buy everything for me. Clearly Synchrony bank has an issue with proper documentation and handling of customer services.

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