topic Re: Synchrony forgiveness? in Credit Card Applications

Synchrony forgiveness?

coreysw12 — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:08:29 GMT

I had a $3,000 Synchrony (walmart) card from 2014 until 2016, when it got charged off and went to collections. I settled it in 1/2019.

I'm well on my way to credit recovery now, and Chase and Cap1 have both already forgiven me for screwing up my previous accounts with them around the same time; Cap1 gave me a new card this year ($2k SL) and Chase gave me 2 new cards ($5.6k & $8.4k SL).

Discover and Wells Fargo are both still holding grudges, however... according to their prequalification websites.

Since Synchrony doesn't offer a prequal website, I can't check to see if they've forgiven me without taking a HP, so I'm hoping some other people can chime in with their experiences with Synchony forgiving past screwups or not. I'm hoping to get a Lowes and an Amazon store card from them at some point.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

FinStar — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:29:59 GMT

Based on collective DPs, it appears that they do, but time is the common element for reestablishing a relationship with SYNCB.

Perhaps others can chime in on some general timeframes for being able to reapply with them.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Meanmchine — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 00:46:34 GMT

Years ago, I had like 10+ Synchrony store card accounts and 2 MCs with 2 unpaid Synchrony COs still reporting. Yes, they forgive. Chase is another story

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 10:47:06 GMT

I had an amazon store card chargeoff in 2014. Paid it off last summer when I started rebuilding. I had no problem being approved for a Synch-backed Lowe’s card at the beginning of April. I’m not sure if the time since chargeoff mattered or just the time since I paid what was owed, however.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

drboxing — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 01:25:06 GMT

I had 4 accounts with synchrony, and they closed all but 1 of them for no reason, never been late, had small balances on them. Id never take another synchrony card, ever. You have cap 1 and chase which are real nice cards, congrats on your rebuilding, but id avoid synchrony

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 01:35:58 GMT

@drboxing wrote:
I had 4 accounts with synchrony, and they closed all but 1 of them for no reason, never been late, had small balances on them. Id never take another synchrony card, ever. You have cap 1 and chase which are real nice cards, congrats on your rebuilding, but id avoid synchrony

They obviously had a reason. You may have not liked their reasoning or agreed with it but if banks went around closing accounts of their satisfactory customers, they wouldn’t have any customers.

To close 4 accounts, something definitely happened and if it wasn’t on your Synchrony cards, it was somewhere else in your credit reports.

Synchrony and Comenity have useful cards. As long as you go into the application being fully aware that they can slash limits or close your cards any time, use them to your benefit while you can and keep cards with other companies too. I’m not going to pass up a big discount or other perks from a place I do a lot of business with just because the issuer is risk averse though.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

drboxing — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 02:02:25 GMT

No reason, there’s been many post on this forum concerning synchrony

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

coreysw12 — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 02:32:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Synchrony and Comenity have useful cards. As long as you go into the application being fully aware that they can slash limits or close your cards any time, use them to your benefit while you can and keep cards with other companies too. I’m not going to pass up a big discount or other perks from a place I do a lot of business with just because the issuer is risk averse though.

That's kind of what I was thinking too, I don't really want them for credit rebuilding purposes, I just want the perks. Both Synchrony cards I want offer 5% off at their respective stores (Lowe's and Amazon) and special 0% financing options on large purchases. If synchrony closes Lowe's, oh well. And if they close Amazon, I'll open an amazon Visa instead.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 03:29:36 GMT

@drboxing wrote:
No reason, there’s been many post on this forum concerning synchrony

There absolutely are -- and every time people are prodded for changes in their credit reports, balances on other cards, credit seeking behavior, etc., there is always an explanation for the AA to be found in the data.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 03:34:51 GMT

@coreysw12 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Synchrony and Comenity have useful cards. As long as you go into the application being fully aware that they can slash limits or close your cards any time, use them to your benefit while you can and keep cards with other companies too. I’m not going to pass up a big discount or other perks from a place I do a lot of business with just because the issuer is risk averse though.

That's kind of what I was thinking too, I don't really want them for credit rebuilding purposes, I just want the perks. Both Synchrony cards I want offer 5% off at their respective stores (Lowe's and Amazon) and special 0% financing options on large purchases. If synchrony closes Lowe's, oh well. And if they close Amazon, I'll open an amazon Visa instead.

Yep I love my Amazon card... I will do what I have to do to keep Sync happy as far as keeping that one. The savings is very nice and the B&H Payboo card I just got is basically a 4% discount off anything I buy since its an instant discount for the amount of taxes that I would be paying on B&H (Amazon charges the full 7.25% so even with the 5% cash back, B&H will now come ahead of Amazon quite a bit for my electronics purchases too). Very useful cards although I would have to apply for the other B&H card if I ever want to take advantage of their financing offers.

As far as your question about Sync forgiveness. You settled or paid in full? If you paid in full, it shouldn't be a long timeout at all. If you settled, I'm not sure.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

coreysw12 — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 03:46:08 GMT

I settled for ~50%.

I may try applying in September and see what happens. Right now I'm gardening so that I don't scare Chase with any new accounts on my report, and by September about 4 inquires fall off of each report, and my other new cards will have 3 or 4 months under their belt.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 03:57:58 GMT

September seems reasonable.

I mean worst case scenario its a wasted inquiry.

If they don't want to approve you for the unsecured Amazon card, they could offer you the Amazon credit builder card that graduates so it shouldn't be a wasted inquiry actually if you're willing to take a secured card to build that trust back.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

coreysw12 — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 04:48:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
September seems reasonable.

I mean worst case scenario its a wasted inquiry.

If they don't want to approve you for the unsecured Amazon card, they could offer you the Amazon credit builder card that graduates so it shouldn't be a wasted inquiry actually if you're willing to take a secured card to build that trust back.

I would cry if they gave me a credit builder card That's a good idea though, if I apply for the amazon card first then it'll be a good indicator of whether or not I stand any chance with other Sync cards. If they only give me a secured card, then that tells me I shouldn't waste inquiries trying to apply for other unsecured cards with them for a while.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 09:29:27 GMT

Synch is a known TU fan, pulling almost exclusively, and they’re very score-reliant. Your TU will get you in unless you really ticked them off somehow, and you should definitely recon an SL if it’s low - you should have enough score to get at least a couple grand IMO.

Re: Synchrony forgiveness?

ibebarrett — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 16:26:08 GMT

Synchrony seems very liberal with SL's, so since it's paid off I'm sure you'd be fine. That being said, I regret opening my CareCredit card, it screwed up my CBIC's harcore!