January 2020 Complaints Against Synchrony

Compiled from Public Data by FairShake

If you have an issue with Synchrony, you’re not alone.

The US government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) collects complaints against financial companies.

In 2020, the CFPB received 4842 complaints against Synchrony. Synchrony ranked Number 9 among all financial companies for the most complaints.


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Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 3, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: GA

Product: Debt collection
Sub-Product: I do not know

Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-Issue: Impersonated attorney, law enforcement, or government official

Full Complaint:
Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) Section 803 ( 6 ) which states that ” the term ‘debt collector ‘ means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another. Notwithstanding the exclusion provided by clause ( F ) of the last sentence of this paragraph, the term includes any creditor who, in the process of collecting his own debts, uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such debts. For the purpose of section 1692f ( 6 ) of this title, such term also includes any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the enforcement of security interests. “, ” XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ” hereinafter referred to as ” XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ” is a debt collector. On behalf of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, debt collector XXXX XXXX XXXX filed a lawsuit ( Civil Action No. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) in XXXX County State Court indicating that he is an attorney which is false and misleading pursuant to FDCPA Section 807 ( 3 ) on XX/XX/2019, on behalf of ” XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX ” hereinafter referred to as ” XXXX XXXX ” who is a debt collector pursuant to FDCPA Section 803 ( 6 ). On behalf of the LLC, I was served a summons by a court process server which was unauthorized third party communication to the consumer pursuant to FDCPA Section 805 ( b ). On behalf of XXXX XXXX, the court process server violated FDCPA Section 807 ( 11 ) by not disclosing in their initial communication with the consumer ” that the debt collector is attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose ”. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX has violated my rights as a consumer by violating several sections of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Complaint Tags: Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 4, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: CO

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: Store credit card

Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-Issue: Other problem

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 4, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: OR

Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-Product: Credit reporting

Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-Issue: Information belongs to someone else

Full Complaint:
I have a credit card on my XXXX XXXX and XXXX credit reports from SYNCB/XXXX. I believe this is a paypal credit card however I do not have a PayPal credit card so this does not belong to me and it is showing a balance.

The account says it was opened in 2015 but XXXX hadnt noticed it until now, the report balance on the card is XXXX. I dont want this account open in my name or to be associated with the balance, it is not mine.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with non-monetary relief

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 3, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: NC

Product: Debt collection
Sub-Product: Credit card debt

Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-Issue: Indicated you were committing crime by not paying debt

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 3, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: VA

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Mobile or digital wallet

Issue: Managing, opening, or closing your mobile wallet account

Full Complaint:
I’m uncertain if paypal is a digital wallet or store credit. I can add value and subtract from the paypal account which is tied to my banking accounts and credit cards. I also have ” paypal credit ”. I am having issues with paypal credit. Paypal is intentionally misleading and makes it difficult to get to a feature that you can pay off any special financing/promotions. They advertise across multiple online stores and establishments words such as ” free financing ”, ” free financing for one year ” … or so on. If a customer wants to look at the balance of each financed item, they are redirected to another site which I believe has been recently taken over by Synchrony Credit. There is nowhere on the Paypal site or the Synchrony site that allows the customer to choose how they want their special financing payment applied towards those Paypal promotional purchases. You have to call, wait on the line, etc. to get to an operator and even that is difficult as we all know that companies don’t want to talk to their customers anymore. It is obvious that not allowing the customer easy access to pay off special financing is a benefit to Paypal because of the interest or share they get from Synchrony and a benefit to Synchrony from that same interest but there is no benefit to the consumer. And the ” 24hr chat ” is XXXX. It is a virtual assistant.

Complaint Tags: Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 4, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: NJ

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-Issue: Problem during payment process

Full Complaint:
I have a PayPal Credit account where my FOUR payments are missing. Multiple attempts were made to resolve with PayPal Credit but no satisfactory reply despite I have a proof of payments via checking account bank statement.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 3, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: NJ

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-Issue: Didn’t receive advertised or promotional terms

Full Complaint:
I applied for a credit card with Synchrony using an authorization code. The Authorization code was received in the mail addressed to me. I was approved using this code and once I received the first statement, the promotional APR period was different than what was advertised using the promotional code. The promotional code was for 0 % APR through XX/XX/XXXX and my statement lists the promotional code through XX/XX/XXXX.

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with non-monetary relief

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 3, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: CA

Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-Product: General-purpose credit card or charge card

Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-Issue: Can’t use card to make purchases

Full Complaint:
I have a mattress firm credit card thru SYNCHRONY bank I had my credit limit raised to XXXX from XXXX I owed about XXXX on card I used it to buy grand son a new bed costing XXXX I tried to buy sheets for beds costing XXXX they lock my account for this claiming fraud then when I called them they tell me I have to send a picture of me and a picture of my DL to them to unlock this account which I refused to do so they refuse to unlock my account so I can not use my card to buy anything else

Complaint Tags: Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 3, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: NV

Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Mobile or digital wallet

Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Full Complaint:
PayPal has PayPal Credit service which is handled by Synchrony Bank. As an option for the purchase over {0.00} they offer deferred interest option for 6 months. But when you pay more than minimum payment due they apply extra money to this deferred interest part of the account, which has 0 % interest for 6 months, while regular part has more than 25 % interest. Obviously, it is a violation of the law requiring to apply payment to bigger interest balance first. I have called them once and they immediately adjusted payments re-applying it to the standard part. However, next time they apply the payment again to the deferred interest balance. Attached is my XXXX statement demonstrating how they adjust payments I have made. I also attached XXXX statement showing how they apply my payment to the deferred balance while expiration date was XX/XX/2020.

Complaint Tags: Older American

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


Complaint Details:

Date of Complaint: January 4, 2020

Company Official Name: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL

State: FL

Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-Product: Credit reporting

Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-Issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Full Complaint:
Around two years ago Wal Mart was promoting their credit card owned by Synchrony Bank. I was to get {.00} worth of free groceries from Wal Mart for signing up for their Wal Mart credit card. I think it was Master Card. I bought {.00} worth of free food that day. They billed me {.00} for my free groceries. I challenged the bill and was told that it was for {.00} of free food so I had to pay for the {.00} charge. I was told I needed to get {.00} worth of free food at one time and not go back for the remaining amount. Nobody told me I must purchase the entire amount at one time. My challenge lasted several months and they wanted interest on the {.00}. This lasted a few more months and they dropped the interest and I paid the {.00}.

Either Wal Mart or Synchrony Bank notified the three credit companies that this matter took over 120 days. The young man I talked with did mention that I did pay off the amount they billed and I was told that it wouldnt impact my credit score which was around 700 something, and it wouldnt be put on my credit record because I paid the bill. I talked with him several people over a couple of months. Then the problem was put on my credit record as paid with over 120 days. Somebody lied to me. My credit score is around XXXX.

Wal Mart does not use Synchrony Bank any more. I can not get through the endless voicemails at Synchrony Bank. I discontinued their credit card immediately.

Wal Mart does not know where to send me.
There is no way I can resolve this matter.

Complaint Tags: Older American, Servicemember

Company response:

Response Type: Closed with explanation

Public Response:
Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response


FairShake accessed this complaint from the public archives of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). You can file your own complaint with the CFPB here.

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