What the heck is going on with Synchrony?

[heavyjay]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
I just a poster on another thread mentioning a decreade from 25,000k to like 1500. I hope the poster finds this thread so we can see if there is anything we can suggest or if there are any pertinent details we can learn from. I think the thread is on decreasing limits with Synchrony if anyone would like to see.

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He hadn't used the card in almost a year and a half.

ETA:Which reminds me, I need to hit a Rite-Aid and buy something with my wife's Care Credit card. Been 9 months.

[Anonymous]

I was too stupid to open 20 credit cards with synchrony in 2016.

They closed them all last month, because of: 1) SSN 2) address. They say they cannot verify my identity. I had a lot of address and name problems in my TransUnion that I disputed them a couple of days ago. Synchrony gave me a chance to dispute their investigation results.

My TU credit report is full of "closed by creditor"s. I need a couple of their CCs out of 20. What do you suggest me to do? Should I ask them to reopen a couple of CCs? or just provide them my SSN card and some address verifications? Or kindly ask them to remove their hard pull inquiries and change "closed by creditor" to "closed by customer" (IDK if it's possible).

My FICO is ~750, no negative point except tons of inquiries and age.

[AverageJoesCredit]

I understand once an account is closed by Sync, the account is closed and houd have to wait a whole year before applying again. Sorry to hear about this happening but there seemed to be a couple red flags for Sync, and opening 20 cards from them in 1 year is very excessive. If your name and address or your ssn didnt match up at some point, i guess Sync was looking at it like it was fraud or potential for fraud.

As to what you can do, im not sure , it seems you are taking the appropriate steps to correct your issues with you name and address. I cant tell anything about your profile aside from the score you provided but if thats a Fico 8, a 750 opens many doors so you might want to look at another lender in the meantime. Thanks for sharing your story. If you add a few more details on your profile im sure there can be more pointed advice on what youd like to do or get

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply. The problems on my report were minor typos, like missing a letter or typing first name instead of the last name. Same for the addresses, plus some addresses came from authorized accounts. Therefore, I assume they are smart enough to not consider these things as a fraud.

I forgot to say they didn't close a master card that I am using a lot (~$2000/mo).

I am trying to avoid synchrony because of their behavior. I will have not future investing in building credit with them. The reason I might like to reopen some of them is because some of the offers are exclusive to synchrony (i.e. Banana Republic and lowe's card).

So they are not willing to reopen the closed CCs?

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for your reply. The problems on my report were minor typos, like missing a letter or typing first name instead of the last name. Same for the addresses, plus some addresses came from authorized accounts. Therefore, I assume they are smart enough to not consider these things as a fraud.

I forgot to say they didn't close a master card that I am using a lot (~$2000/mo).

I am trying to avoid synchrony because of their behavior. I will have not future investing in building credit with them. The reason I might like to reopen some of them is because some of the offers are exclusive to synchrony (i.e. Banana Republic and lowe's card).

So they are not willing to reopen the closed CCs?

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I'm thinking the same could be said for you as well.  20 card with any lender in one year is excessive and just asking for trouble.  I didn't know Synchrony backed that many cards.  As far as them changing from closed by creditor to closed by consumer is a very long shot but I guess you've got nothing to lose so go ahead and try.  Lay low with them for a while...maybe after a year or so, and you've cleared up the identify issue they're having with you, maybe then you could try again...but by then you may not even want their card anymore.  Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

[UncleB]

20 new accounts in a year really is a lot, but 20 with one lender is truly exceptional (and unfortunately not in a positive way).  If it were me I would definitely be looking at other issuers at this point (but at a much lower quantity, of course).

As for reopening (or rather, reapplying for) an account that has been closed... from what has been shared on here with Synchrony you have to wait a year to reapply for an account if it's closed by you (i.e. closed by consumer) but it's less clear if that same stipulation is always enforced when the account is closed by Synchrony.  It will be YMMV at best.

I'm personally not sure I would want to try it in any case, though... I would always be concerned about another closure, at least without waiting things out for a while.

Just my 2¢. 

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

20 new accounts in a year really is a lot, but 20 with one lender is truly exceptional (and unfortunately not in a positive way).  If it were me I would definitely be looking at other issuers at this point (but at a much lower quantity, of course).

As for reopening (or rather, reapplying for) an account that has been closed... from what has been shared on here with Synchrony you have to wait a year to reapply for an account if it's closed by you (i.e. closed by consumer) but it's less clear if that same stipulation is always enforced when the account is closed by Synchrony.  It will be YMMV at best.

I'm personally not sure I would want to try it in any case, though... I would always be concerned about another closure, at least without waiting things out for a while.

Just my 2¢. 

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+1 What UncleB said.

[Anonymous]

There are many, many posts re/ Synchrony and the blue envelope, just search the forums.

Here is one to start:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/What-the-heck-is-going-on-with-Synchrony/td-p/4669682

[Anonymous]

I bet the folks - this is a general comment, I'm not calling out anyone in particular - reporting trouble with Synchrony because of so darn many credit cards from that issuer (I mean, really, twenty?! What all is it that's at so many stores that people would want to buy enough to go through the trouble of applying for cards for all of them?) have relied way too much on the so-called "shopping cart trick". I know it can help people get credit quickly but for my own part I think you should only apply for cards that you really intend to use regularly. I have a Synchrony Amazon Store Card (not the Prime card yet, I might change up to that if/when I get a CLI) but that's because I buy something at least once a month through Amazon. I have also considered getting CareCredit for medical spending but the reports on that are all over the place and since I just got Discover It I don't feel any urgency to apply for CareCredit at this point. As for most of the other stores Synchrony handles, I don't have enough interest in what they have to offer to apply for cards with them.

Now, I'm interested in getting the Costco (another place where I'm a longtime, regular customer at) Visa once the dust settles on my credit-obtaining activity over the past month and I've established some more payment history, but that's a whole different subject. Again, I just don't think it's such a hot idea to get a whole bunch of cards if you're not going to use them regularly (leaving aside whether you can afford to keep up a good payment history). I figure once I get a Visa and an Amex with decent credit lines and get a couple of good CLI's on the other cards I now have, I'll be satisfied.

[Anonymous]

And another ironic point is Synch seems to have monopolized store CCs. I wish there was diversification there. Different lenders backing different store cards.