After having been a customer for over a year and having made several very large purchases and payments on my ongoing card, I have found that you cannot trust the customer service reps to know what they are saying or care that it is accurate.

I recently called in to ask about a purchase of a new machine that I was getting ready to buy while it was $1000 off the regular price. I also had an existing past promotional purchase with a remaining balance due later in the year that I decided to pay off now and then re-use the credit line to purchase the new machine.

When I called in to explain all of this and to ask about applying my full payment of over $1000 only to the past promotional purchase instead of the general balance, I was told to make the payment and then to call back within two days to tell them to apply the funds however I wished. I did this and they did apply the funds to the past promotional balance. They also reflected the new total balance as that much lower.

However, they did NOT make the funds available for use. I called again a few days later and asked about the funds since I already had a machine on hold at a store that was ready to ship. I was told the funds would be available two days later. So, I called again two days later and was told the funds would be available as of that night and to call again the next day.

I called again the next day but was then told that the funds would not be available for TEN more days. Of course, this was not acceptable as I had made that payment in good faith that they would follow through, and at no point down the line had anyone told me that the funds would be held (obviously so they can skim some interest) for ten full days.

I then asked for a supervisor and told them that either I need that credit opened right away or that they can refund my payment and I'll just put the purchase on another card. She put me on hold and then came back to say that there was nothing they could do. So, in spite of the fact that THEY gave me false information and mislead me into believing that they would apply my funds immediately for me to be able to utilize them, they instead kept my funds and refused to release them until they have earned enough interest off my money.

I am scheduled to leave in five days for at least ten weeks of travel and need to take this machine with me. It has to be shipped from Los Angeles to Chicago for me to take it. So, obviously, none of this is now going to happen. The only options I have are to purchase it on another card that WILL charge me interest, or to wait until they finally get around to crediting my funds so that I may make the purchase interest-free for the promotional period and then try to have it shipped to wherever I will be and hope it arrives in a timely manner there.

What I have learned from this experience is never to trust anything they say. Their customer service staff either is terribly under-trained and unfamiliar with their own policies and procedures, or they simply don't care. Either way, that is the last time I will ever depend on them. From now on, I will always assume that they will hold my larger payments for at least two weeks and will plan accordingly. I won't use them to make purchases that I will need right away.

They have failed in customer service.

If this happened to the Synchrony employee that is reading this, they would be very upset. However, since it does not affect them, they could care less. I appreciate you wasting everyone's time by providing canned responses and insulting my intelligence. However, I am not letting you off that easily.

There were 595 consumer reviews of Synchrony Bank in Stamford, Ct on the BBB website. Synchrony Bank has a rating of 1.06 STARS out of 5 STARS. There were 1950 complaints in the last year alone and 5053 complaints in the last three years. Somehow, the BBB rates Synchrony Bank with an A+ Rating probably because the BBB collects a yearly fee from Synchrony Bank and presumably because Synchrony Bank will provide you with a canned response no matter what about what they are legally allowed to do, which they abuse beyond belief.
There is a huge difference between legal and ethical norms. Synchrony Bank can do just about anything they want to legally but that does not mean it is ethical. If you take the time to read complaints, you will find that Synchrony Bank does not care about your business. They do not care that they are hurting your credit score even when you are a good paying customer. Take the time to read the responses that Synchrony Bank has to individuals that have paid their accounts as agreed and had their credit rating destroyed by this company. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of individuals, that have had their credit destroyed by this business without cause and the responses from Synchrony Bank are all canned. The consistent responses are always:
1) When you got credit from the bank, you agreed to allow Synchrony Bank to reduce your credit limit or close your account at any time for any reason even though they will not contest in the majority of complaints that a customer has paid them on time for even a matter of years.
2) If you say, correctly that I might add, that Synchrony has hurt your credit score. The response is that your credit score can change on a daily basis. Even though Synchrony banks employees without any doubt that they hurt your credit, don't expect an apology or an admittance that they have done so.
3) Synchrony Bank claims to provide notice to individuals that they have reduced your credit limit or closed your account, even though it is statistically impossible for them to actually be doing so as required by law.
4) They will say that they will review your credit periodically with their credit scoring system and tell you that you need to contact the credit report agency when they hurt or destroy your credit for NO REASON.
5) They will report closing your account or reducing your credit limit immediately and claim that it would hurt their reputation with the credit reporting agencies if they did not do so. Of course this is an utter lie, the FCRA does not require anyone to report anything at any time and I doubt highly that the credit reporting agencies care as long as a consumer is complaining.
6) They will say that we care about your business even though it is obvious that they do not. Read their canned responses to complaints.
Between 12/21/2020 and 2/8/2021, Synchrony Bank received a total of 48 consumer complaints SOLELY directed at the headquarters element of Synchrony Bank and SOLELY through the Better Business Bureau (BBB) located in Stamford, CT. This DOES NOT include complaints directed at any other Synchrony Bank subsidiary locations and DOES NOT include complaints from other BBB locations throughout the United States. Furthermore, this analysis DOES NOT account for the number of complaints on other platforms or number of individuals that never made a complaint. Thus, we can extrapolate that the numbers of incidents is EXTREMELY under-reported.
Out of the 48 complaints between 12/21/2020 and 2/8/2021, 50% (24 complaints) related to Synchrony closing accounts (20) or reducing credit limits (4) on accounts. From a statistical standpoint, approximately 50% of the 1950 complaints in the last year or 975 complaints were for closing accounts or reducing credit limits. In the last three years, approximately 50% of 5053 complaints in the last three years or 2526. 5 complaints were for closing accounts or reducing credit limits.
Out of the 24 complaints associated with closing accounts or reducing credit limits, the following information was extrapolated:
62% (15 of the 24 individuals) specifically stated in their complaint that they paid their account on time and Synchrony Bank did not dispute this in their response to the claim. From a statistical standpoint, approximately 62% of 2625. 5 individuals (1627 Individuals) in the last three years had a DECREASE in their FICO or VantageScore as a SOLE discretion of Synchrony Bank closing or reducing their credit limits when they paid their account on time or had a zero balance.
58% (14 of the 24 individuals) stated specifically in their complaints that they NEVER received notice from Synchrony Bank at all PRIOR to OR AFTER accounts were closed or credit limits were reduced. From a statistical standpoint, if the approximately 58% held true. Out of the 975 complaints in the last year, approximately 565 people did not receive ANY notice that their account was closed or their credit limit was decreased. In similar fashion, it would indicate that about approximately 1522 individuals out of 2625. 5 people in the last three years DID NOT receive the required notice. Synchrony Bank stated explicitly multiple times in their responses to individual complaints that they are aware of the requirement in the Fair Credit Reporting Act to notify clients that their accounts were closed or limits were decreased. Synchrony Bank claimed that the individuals that complained all received notice even though 58% said that they received no notice. Thus, it is highly that Synchrony Bank is in fact making false statements and is in direct violation of the law.
50% (12 of the 24 individuals) stated specifically in their complaints that their credit was negatively impacted as a DIRECT RESULT of Synchrony Bank.
In a technical sense of the word, Synchrony Bank may legally close or reduce the credit limit on any account for ANY REASON at their SOLE discretion. However, it is HIGHLY UNETHICAL to destroy an individual's credit when they are paying their Synchrony bill as required or maintaining a zero balance. This becomes an even greater issue when Synchrony Bank is OBVIOUSLY not providing many individuals notice or allowing the individual an opportunity to reduce their credit utilization rate prior to reporting to a credit bureau.
Synchrony Bank has made claims that their credibility with the credit bureau would be hurt if they failed to report accounts closed by the creditor for no legitimate reason other than they can do so legally without any oversight or repercussions. It is also technically legal to decrease an individual's credit limit at their sole discretion without oversight or repercussions. However, it is extremely poor business to not give an individual an opportunity to decrease their credit utilization prior to reporting the decrease to credit bureaus. Synchrony Bank's claim about credibility with a credit bureau is laughable. There is nothing in the Fair Credit Reporting Act that forces a creditor to report closing an account especially when the individual has been a loyal paying customer of the business. Why would you do this when you know all it does is hurt a loyal paying customer? There is also nothing in the Fair Credit Report Act that prohibits a creditor to have the decency to allow an individual an opportunity to reduce their credit utilization rate prior to reporting a credit limit decrease to a credit reporting agency. Synchrony Bank has the legal ability to arbitrarily reduce someone's credit limit based upon whatever "credit scoring" system that they deem relevant. Thus, this bank can reduce your credit limit from $3000 to $1500 without notice. If you owe $1490 when the decrease takes place, your credit utilization rate will increase from 50% to 99% without any notice. In a case like this, Synchrony Bank will DIRECTLY negatively impact you FICO or VantageScore in a major way. Since 35% of your credit score is based upon credit utilization, your credit score could be impacted by a hundred points and there is nothing you can do about it because Synchrony Bank can do whatever they want to do with your credit and there is nothing you can do about it.