Consumer complaint received 2026-04-28 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Hi, Ive had a XXXX store credit card with Synchrony Bank for over XXXX years, and recently theyve changed the way that automatic payments are made toward promotional purchases. I have an excellent XXXX XXXX and cant recall ever getting charged interest on a credit card in my life, until Synchronys misleading tactics have led to several XXXX dollars in charges, with no way to redress the ongoing debt and fees on the consumer 's end. I have the credit card because Im a XXXX and XXXX can get extremely expensive. XXXX for years offered XXXX month, no interest promotions with the Synchrony Credit Card on the majority of their inventory, and it became a great way for me to buy expensive gear that I could pay off over time without getting charged interest. Again, for over XXXX years, I had no issue paying my bills on time with Synchronys online system. In the past, it was very easy. Each month/statement, Synchrony would calculate the monthly statement balance by adding up all of the promotional purchase installments for XXXX month purchases, the total amount divided by XXXX and the statement balance was paid each month, all of the promotional purchases would automatically be paid off before they expired and started charging interest. So I simply linked my bank account to autopay the statement balance each month and was never charged interest. Then around a year ago, they changed a few things. First, they implemented a 2 % surcharge on XXXX month, no interest promotions that was buried in fine print. I caught it, and chose not to make those types of purchases anymore. XXXX next best option with no surcharge was XXXX months, no interest if paid in full. I assumed these would be divided into installments by Synchronys online system, added to my statement balance, and paid off the same way as the " XXXX month '' promotional purchases, but for some reason this wasnt the case. Despite paying my statement balance each month, I eventually realized none of the payments were ever going towards these XXXX XXXX month '' promotional purchase balances. Please note, this is only the beginning of the predatory tactic Im writing about. It gets much worse. Yes, I was naive at that point to not check my statement every single month and confirm the promotional balances were being paid via autopay. I'd become complacent after so many years, and about XXXX statements/months went by until I noticed, in XX/XX/year> ( regarding my XXXX XXXX statement ), that Id been getting charged hundreds in interest on expired promotions. I called Synchrony, and this is where all the predatory, misleading, and lying tactics begin. I asked why my statement balance no longer included promotional purchases, despite having done so the previous XXXX years, and the Synchrony representative said that the system does not do that for Deferred interest, no interest if paid in full purchases. This surprised me, as the words Deferred interest dont appear anywhere on XXXX site or terms. And the terms of the XXXX XXXX month '' vs the previous XXXX XXXX month '' promotions don't seem any different aside from the timeframe. But fine, I was willing to take the loss and pay off what I needed to in order to stop the interest charges. In addition to my automatic payment of the statement balance on XX/XX/year>, I made an additional payment of {$550.00} on XX/XX/year>, where I simply added up all the expired promotional balances I owed. I assumed this would be the end of it, but the next ( XXXXXXXX XXXX ) statement showed more interest charges. Upon logging in, it seemed that several expired promotional balances still showed as unpaid. I called Synchrony again, and they told me I mustve added up the total incorrectly to pay the balances off fully, I needed to make an additional {$170.00} payment ( which I did on XX/XX/year> ). Before hanging up, I asked them to confirm that once I made this payment, all of my expired promotional balances would be paid in full, and I'd no longer be charged any interest, and the rep confirmed. This would turn out to be a lie, as my XXXXXXXX XXXX statement showed more interest charges and expired promotional balances. I call again ( XX/XX/year> ), and am told by this Synchrony rep, the reason the promotional balances still werent paid off is and this is the predatory part, in my opinion that I didnt call and instruct them to route the payment to those expired balances, specifically. Since I didn't call and instruct them, the additional payments went toward the oldest purchases first, by default, and not to the expired balances. I asked why the previous reps didnt mention any of this, and they didnt have an explanation. This Synchrony rep tells me they can route the payments I made so that they finally pay off the remaining balances, but that they cant refund any of the interest charges despite me being told the wrong information by the previous rep. Again Im willing to take the loss here, still obviously upset, but glad its finally over. In my payment activity on the Synchrony site, I can somewhat confirm the reps re-routing of funds, but since it's shown in the most nonsensical way, Im left to just trust that it worked ( See the attached screen shot for what that routing activity looks like. ) Unbelievably, my XXXXXXXX XXXX statement still shows more interest charges. I call again, and this Synchrony rep tells me I still have expired promotional balances. I tell them that the last rep re-routed the payments, and there should be no more promotional balances. This rep looks into it, supposedly with a XXXX, and tells me the last rep incorrectly routed the payments. They offer to correctly route them, and to refund me the interest charges ( from this statement only, not all the previous charges ). I tell them to go ahead, but to also connect me with the XXXX. I ask the XXXX for some sort of proof, in writing, that this re-routing will finally pay off my promotional balances once and for all, and that the recent interest charges would be refunded, so this doesnt keep happening. The XXXX said no, and that I was lucky that the rep was re-routing the funds at all, since theyre technically not allowed to do so. I was shocked by his attitude and candidness. I asked how customers were supposed to pay off their promotional balances correctly, then, since there is no way to do it via the online portal? He told me it was my fault for not having paid the balances off on time to begin with. The rep had said this re-routing and interest charge refund would show up on my account in XXXX business days. After waiting XXXX business days and not seeing any changes, I called again. This rep had no idea what I was talking about, and said there were no notes on my account for any adjustments, re-routing, interest charge refunds, etc. It was as if the previous call never happened. My upcoming bill was due in a few days and still showed expired promotional balances and pending interest charges. I asked to speak to a XXXX, and when told I was being transferred, was hung up on. I called back and asked again to speak to a XXXX, and again was hung up on. After this long-winded story, I hope you can see the clear predatory tactics Synchrony has decided to use on customers.

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