topic Re: Goodbye Synchrony in Credit Cards

Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:10:05 GMT

I opened a Wal-Mart and Belk's credit card about a month ago and charged about $125 to each card. i paid half of the balance off 2 weeks ago with no issues so i figured i would go ahead and pay the remaining balance to $1 before the statement cuts. BAD IDEA!!! The money was taken from my bank account friday but i was not given the credit to my available balance. Called in to speak with a csr agent and she was beyond rude. She told me that Synchrony does not like consumers paying multiple payments during a billing cycle and i had earned myself a 5-day hold on funds. She further stated that if i keep doing it, the hold can be placed for up to 21 days and my accounts could be closed. Synchrony seems like a preditory lender to me. I just might close both accounts with them. This is unreal.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:16:10 GMT

Sorry to hear that this happened to you. I've had Synchrony cards for some time and have never had an issue with payments, and I have made multiple payments per month on several occasions. The credit to your account is not always immediate, but it isn't immediate with many other lenders either.

Discover also has policies about a number of payments within a certain period of time, and how quickly the account is credited.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:39:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I opened a Wal-Mart and Belk's credit card about a month ago and charged about $125 to each card. i paid half of the balance off 2 weeks ago with no issues so i figured i would go ahead and pay the remaining balance to $1 before the statement cuts. BAD IDEA!!! The money was taken from my bank account friday but i was not given the credit to my available balance. Called in to speak with a csr agent and she was beyond rude. She told me that Synchrony does not like consumers paying multiple payments during a billing cycle and i had earned myself a 5-day hold on funds. She further stated that if i keep doing it, the hold can be placed for up to 21 days and my accounts could be closed. Synchrony seems like a preditory lender to me. I just might close both accounts with them. This is unreal.

I have a tendency to pay multiple times during a course of a month and I did that with Walmart. The exact thing that you are experiencing happened to me, except for the rude CSR, lol! I was told with new accounts they do hold the second payment in case of fraud. After the second month, all of my payments cleared as I paid on my account. Give it another month and they will apply your payments immediately to both CL and Bal.

I have the same thing happening now with Wells Fargo, they are outrageous! This is my second statement and they have held a 250.00 payment that had cleared my bank account 1 day after I payed WF and it is day 12 and my available bal has not been updated! When I call WF they said they can hold up to 30 days. Talking about parinoid, it's ok though, they are at a zero balance and will remain there, not worth the aggravation, lol!

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:39:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I opened a Wal-Mart and Belk's credit card about a month ago and charged about $125 to each card. i paid half of the balance off 2 weeks ago with no issues so i figured i would go ahead and pay the remaining balance to $1 before the statement cuts. BAD IDEA!!! The money was taken from my bank account friday but i was not given the credit to my available balance. Called in to speak with a csr agent and she was beyond rude. She told me that Synchrony does not like consumers paying multiple payments during a billing cycle and i had earned myself a 5-day hold on funds. She further stated that if i keep doing it, the hold can be placed for up to 21 days and my accounts could be closed. Synchrony seems like a preditory lender to me. I just might close both accounts with them. This is unreal.

Wow. I've had my Walmart card for almost a year and I have never had a hold on payments and I make multiple payments during the month. Sometimes there is a 24-48 hour lag, but that is with all of the Synchrony accounts. There is a 48 hour lag with my Apple Rewards account. Now Discover and Amex tend to post the next day. Sounds like you got a terrible CSR. Can't say I blame for closing the cards if someone is that rude to you. Have you considered calling back in and asking to speak to a manager. What do you have to lose, especially as you are considering closing them.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

jeffery581 — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:39:47 GMT

Don't let one rude csr ruin YOUR credit plans. Learn and move on. You should call and ask a supervisor for clarrification on multiple payments. Also depends how they payments were made as well. Complain to a super for inferior service.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

creditguy — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:49:36 GMT

I too learned the hard way Synchrony does not like multiple payments in a billing cycle. Two months ago I got a chevron card with a $300 SL, in order o maximize the fuel credit promotion I was using it heavily. In order to use it to heavily I made two payments in a month. They did not like this and froze my card and put a hold on my payment. i could not use my available credit and they even froze my walmart card which I only pay once a month. It was the weirdest experience I have ever had with a bank. Needless to say I won't be doing that again, I do wish they would have reached out to me though explaining what the deal was instead of me wondering why my cards were frozen. Ehh live and learn and move on is my theory.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

UncleB — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:50:05 GMT

@jeffery581 wrote:
Don't let one rude csr ruin YOUR credit plans. Learn and move on. You should call and ask a supervisor for clarrification on multiple payments. Also depends how they payments were made as well. Complain to a super for inferior service.

I couldn't agree more... that Wal-Mart card could really come in handy when it comes time to get new tires!

If you make your payments using your checking account bill pay, you'll probably minimize the payment hold annoyance. I had the exact same problem years ago with HSBC (my account was fairly new as well), and with the tiny limit they gave me the card was nearly impossible to use without making multiple payments - but if I used their website to make the payment there was a hold anytime I made more than one payment a month. Using my own bank's bill pay put a stop to that nonsense!

Don't let one customer service experience turn you away from an entire company... Synchrony has some nice products, and it would be a shame to lose access over one experience. There are 'bad apples' in every bunch!

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

creditguy — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 18:59:50 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@jeffery581 wrote:
Don't let one rude csr ruin YOUR credit plans. Learn and move on. You should call and ask a supervisor for clarrification on multiple payments. Also depends how they payments were made as well. Complain to a super for inferior service.
+1

I couldn't agree more... that Wal-Mart card could really come in handy when it comes time to get new tires!

If you make your payments using your checking account bill pay, you'll probably minimize the payment hold annoyance. I had the exact same problem years ago with HSBC (my account was fairly new as well), and with the tiny limit they gave me the card was nearly impossible to use without making multiple payments - but if I used their website to make the payment there was a hold anytime I made more than one payment a month. Using my own bank's bill pay put a stop to that nonsense!

Don't let one customer service experience turn you away from an entire company... Synchrony has some nice products, and it would be a shame to lose access over one experience. There are 'bad apples' in every bunch!

Couldn't agree more. I can't say I've never wanted to cancel a card out of anger, but after taking a cooling off period I realize the bank will be just fine without me, I'm the one who gets left out. The walmart card does come in very handy and they do have attractive financing specials like 0%, can't beat that. Plus as you mention Synchrony does have have some nice products, Plus they can be very generous.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 20:27:21 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@jeffery581 wrote:
Don't let one rude csr ruin YOUR credit plans. Learn and move on. You should call and ask a supervisor for clarrification on multiple payments. Also depends how they payments were made as well. Complain to a super for inferior service.
+1

I couldn't agree more... that Wal-Mart card could really come in handy when it comes time to get new tires!

If you make your payments using your checking account bill pay, you'll probably minimize the payment hold annoyance. I had the exact same problem years ago with HSBC (my account was fairly new as well), and with the tiny limit they gave me the card was nearly impossible to use without making multiple payments - but if I used their website to make the payment there was a hold anytime I made more than one payment a month. Using my own bank's bill pay put a stop to that nonsense!

Don't let one customer service experience turn you away from an entire company... Synchrony has some nice products, and it would be a shame to lose access over one experience. There are 'bad apples' in every bunch!

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 21:53:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I opened a Wal-Mart and Belk's credit card about a month ago and charged about $125 to each card. i paid half of the balance off 2 weeks ago with no issues so i figured i would go ahead and pay the remaining balance to $1 before the statement cuts. BAD IDEA!!! The money was taken from my bank account friday but i was not given the credit to my available balance. Called in to speak with a csr agent and she was beyond rude. She told me that Synchrony does not like consumers paying multiple payments during a billing cycle and i had earned myself a 5-day hold on funds. She further stated that if i keep doing it, the hold can be placed for up to 21 days and my accounts could be closed. Synchrony seems like a preditory lender to me. I just might close both accounts with them. This is unreal.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. Like others have stated, call back and speak with a supervisor and he/she should be able to clarify what the rules are. You wanting to make multiple payments should not impact your account.

Also, I wouldn't call them predatory as alot of people have had no problems with them. So call and don't let 1 CSR impact your decision of having their cards.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 23:14:28 GMT

I am pretty sure that my second payment with my WalMart card was held for a long time before posting. If I ever use the card (which is rare, and solely to show activity), I push a payment from my bank to the card (mostly because I don't like waiting for a charge to post before I pay it, on cards that I don't use often (for fear I might forget to pay it). Try this method and see if it helps.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 00:25:44 GMT

Lot's of banks during the 1st month an account is open restrict payments especially when no statement has been generated.

You know it is easy to pay Wal Mart in cash at the register. And let your charges post the first month, then lower the balance. Don't do the $1 trick, either PIF or leave a balance of $50 or so after statement #2.

Don't close the account.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

renclan — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 01:07:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I opened a Wal-Mart and Belk's credit card about a month ago and charged about $125 to each card. i paid half of the balance off 2 weeks ago with no issues so i figured i would go ahead and pay the remaining balance to $1 before the statement cuts. BAD IDEA!!! The money was taken from my bank account friday but i was not given the credit to my available balance. Called in to speak with a csr agent and she was beyond rude. She told me that Synchrony does not like consumers paying multiple payments during a billing cycle and i had earned myself a 5-day hold on funds. She further stated that if i keep doing it, the hold can be placed for up to 21 days and my accounts could be closed. Synchrony seems like a preditory lender to me. I just might close both accounts with them. This is unreal.

That stinks! I have an Old Navy cc through Synchrony and have had that happen to me before. I called and had them escalate me to a Supervisor who immediately updated my account. Money is money; I don't know why they would complain about getting paid.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 01:17:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Lot's of banks during the 1st month an account is open restrict payments especially when no statement has been generated.

Totally agree, Swampy. Amex does this as well.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

ways2go — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 04:43:18 GMT

I never had a problem with my Wal-Mart account, except online you are limited to paying on your account four times in one accounting period. Citi does the same thing on my shell card, 4 times max in one month.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 05:47:36 GMT

Yeah just pay in cash at the stores and there will be no flags.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 11:57:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I opened a Wal-Mart and Belk's credit card about a month ago and charged about $125 to each card. i paid half of the balance off 2 weeks ago with no issues so i figured i would go ahead and pay the remaining balance to $1 before the statement cuts. BAD IDEA!!! The money was taken from my bank account friday but i was not given the credit to my available balance. Called in to speak with a csr agent and she was beyond rude. She told me that Synchrony does not like consumers paying multiple payments during a billing cycle and i had earned myself a 5-day hold on funds. She further stated that if i keep doing it, the hold can be placed for up to 21 days and my accounts could be closed. Synchrony seems like a preditory lender to me. I just might close both accounts with them. This is unreal.

I wish that had not happened to you. I had something mildly similar happen to me with another bank, and while upset., thought about not using their card. I realized my emotion was factoring into that thinking more than logic, and as time passed, so did my thoughts of trying to spite that bank, possibly at my own expense. As others may have said, it can be helpful to keep your eyes on the prize, and factor in how your response to this could potentially effect your goal(s).

Again, it's your decision and we like to do what will make us happy, but sometimes it's helpful to think how our immediate actions can have an effect on long term happiness. Nobody can really tell you what the right move is for your own inner wellbeing, but we can try to help you think of the possible consequences of either decision. Whatever you decide, I wish you success on your journey and will gladly lend support when I can.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

NichelleN — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 14:59:29 GMT

I agree with others' advice not to close it. I opened walmart and amazon on the same day. I went through later and set them up through my bank's bill pay system and scheduled payments. I mistakenly scheduled 2 walmart payments and overpaid in the first month. When I noticed it on the site I also saw that a hold was placed on the account. They explained that it was due to the double payment / overpayment. It was all settled a few days later. I've made multiple payments to Amazon since then with no issues.

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 16:37:07 GMT

I get paid biweekly I make two payments a month to most of my accounts across the board and never have had a problem. as stated before I guess because it's a new account?

I guess some of this out there over do it. find out your statement cut date and slam funds a day or two before that date as it changes up and down for the calendar, and you will be fine. Wait a month or two and ask for increase obviously you're making multiple payments because your limit sucks its a good argument

Re: Goodbye Synchrony

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 20:53:21 GMT

Synchrony Bank lowered my credit line on all my cards periodically over the last year. As I paid, my limits were decreased. I recently paid off my Old Navy Visa which I got 2 years ago and NEVER missed a payment and was NEVER late. I had a balance of $1,800 and paid it off at the end of the year, as well as 6 other credit cards. Just did a consolidation. Synchrony then lowered my credit line to $100 and said it was permanent. I then immediately closed my Old Navy account. I mean, seriously, what can you do with $100 limit? I was shocked. I had paid that card off so that I could use it for emergencies instead of my Amex, but they just pulled all my credit. I have now closed all my Synchrony accounts and will never, ever use that awful bank again. It doesn't matter if you pay perfectly for years, if your credit score drops for ANY reason, they will snatch your credit from you. I have never had a bank do that to me. They allow me credit based on my history with THEM. Use Synchrony Bank at your own peril. They are a terrible bank!!! The worst!!