Consumer complaint received 2025-06-21 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: TN

Complaint narrative:
I've had a XXXX 's account with Synchrony with a credit line of {$9000.00} for at least 7 years, when I bought a house and did a big remodel. I've always paid my bill online and never had any issues. 

On Saturday, XX/XX/year>, I paid my {$62.00} balance using Synchrony 's online site but I didn't get an email notification that payment had been received. My payment was due the next day, Sunday, XX/XX/XXXX. Anxious about my payment not being received before the due date and worried that I had forgotten to hit the " authorize payment '' button, I made a second payment. However, I didn't notice that I had chosen the wrong bank from the drop-down menu. I don't have funds in that account since I haven't been using it recently. 

I later received email confirmation that I had made XXXX payments and my account showed a credit of {$62.00} for the overpayment. I knew I would use that credit at XXXX because I spend a lot of money at XXXX 's during the summer on my landscaping and let it go. At the time, I didn't realize I had chosen the wrong bank for the second payment. 

On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from my bank about an overdraft. Though I was at work, I called my bank immediately and discovered what had happened. I called Synchrony immediately afterwards, and asked if I should transfer money to that account in order not to incur a fee for insufficient funds. ( My bank does not charge me overdraft fees. ) The representative told me no -- they hadn't received notice that the payment had been rejected yet and that I would just have to allow the automatic system to try to process the payment but, since I had already paid the balance on my bill and the XXXX payment created a credit on my account, I had nothing to worry about. 

Yesterday I received an email about payment due on XX/XX/year> for my Synchrony account. Checking my statement online, I saw that I have been assessed a {$30.00} " returned payment '' fee. Again -- I offered to transfer money to that account when I spoke when a Synchrony representative on XX/XX/XXXX, two days after I had made the payment ( s ) and 8 ( eight ) days before Synchony tells me the payment was rejected on XX/XX/XXXX. Again, I was advised that I did NOT need to do so. 

I was on the phone yesterday ( my day off ) for 2 hours with Synchrony, with three representatives up to the supervisory level, who have told me there's no way to reverse that " returned payment '' fee. EVEN THOUGH I HAD OFFERED TO TRANSFER MONEY TO MY BANK ACCOUNT 8 ( eight ) days BEFORE SYNCHRONY ATTEMPTED TO COLLECT THE MONEY, TRIGGERING the " returned payment '' fee. 

I told the last supervisor that I would be cancelling my XXXX 's card and I would NOT be paying that fee. I acted in good faith to try to remedy my error on the second online payment two days earlier, as soon as I was alerted to what had happened, but the Synchrony rep assured me it wasn't necessary. After all, he said, I had already made a payment that took my balance to {$0.00} and the second, erroneous payment, gave my account a {$62.00} credit. 

The Synchrony supervisor said they could pull up the XX/XX/XXXX call with the agent who assured me I had nothing to worry about. However, that supervisor made no effort to do so. She let me know they didn't care about losing a customer for XXXX 's and would be happy to close my account. Not even a nanosecond of effort was made to try to change my mind. The supervisor told me she had to read a disclosure before closing my account ; however, I was extremely angry and disconnected the call before she began to read it. 

Disclosure or not, Synchrony has cancelled my card and my {$9000.00} line of credit. 

Still angry, I called the local store and spoke with a manager named XXXX XXXX, explaining what had happened with Synchrony. XXXX told me that he has had late fees reversed on his Synchrony account and didn't understand why they told me they couldn't remove that fee. He suggested I call again and speak to another customer service agent to see if I could get a better resolution. 

I called Synchrony, explaining to the new customer service agent what had happened previously. She robotically repeated the same line -- '' returned payment '' fees can not be reversed -- and when I followed up with another question, she hung up on me. 

I don't know if I can request a transcript of that first phone call, or if it will even make a difference. But that {$30.00} fee is extortionate and unfair and I don't intend to pay it. 

I have had bad experiences in the past with Synchrony leveraging unexpected " late fees '' on a different store account because I paid my bill after XXXX XXXX  ( though there was no warning on the site ). Synchrony used that " late fee '' -- the same kind of late fee the XXXX 's store managed told he has had reversed -- and used it as an excuse to force me to pay full interest on a purchase I had made under an agreement that I would pay no interest if the full amount was paid in full within a certain number of months. 

In that case, my protests fell on deaf ears -- the same as yesterday -- and despite many efforts to resolve the issue, Synchrony gave me a bad credit report which destroyed my XXXX credit score, from which my credit is still suffering.

I'm a senior citizen, and this feels like financial exploitation. I have had a perfect record of payment with this account but, a quick scan online suggests that many consumers have had the same kind of experiences with this bank.

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