topic Re: Care Credit Payment Holds in Credit Cards

Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 18:22:42 GMT

Hi all,

So I'm a 8 year customer with Care Credit and never had issues with my payments being on hold that affect my available credit in the past.

Last week I made a $600 pull payment which was processed and posted with both Sync and my bank account. While the total balance reflected the payment, the available credit did not change to reflect said payment. Apparently per Sync chat anything over $500 will be on hold for 10 days, regardless if its a pull or push payment.

Now I'm the type who is OCD about my finances and make sure they all line up. While the available credit is not changing (and not a dealbreaker), again I like to see everything being updated vs waiting 10 days as an example.

Is this a new thing with SYNC not allowing large payments to reflect after they are posted and processed?

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

HeavenOhio — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:45:17 GMT

They did it to me twice last fall. The information you got about $500 being the cutoff to avoid a hold is consistent with what Synchrony told me.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:48:46 GMT

Thanks for the information. I didn't know that. Synchrony is strange though, imho, with their payment postings taking longer than any other creditor I have. It is virtually impossible to have a payment posted to show a zero on my account if I make the payment anywhere near my statement date. I have often wondered why.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 20:37:12 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
They did it to me twice last fall. The information you got about $500 being the cutoff to avoid a hold is consistent with what Synchrony told me.

Yikes. Was there anyway you got around it?

I'm trying to think its because of the payment patterns changing? Its my first over $500 payment as in the past its either the minimum or a couple of hundred.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 20:40:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the information. I didn't know that. Synchrony is strange though, imho, with their payment postings taking longer than any other creditor I have. It is virtually impossible to have a payment posted to show a zero on my account if I make the payment anywhere near my statement date. I have often wondered why.

This $600 payment was for 4/19 posted and processed on 4/20. The total balance did change to reflect the $600 correctly. Its the available credit that did not change due to the dumb 10 business day hold. Even my own Credit Union is confused as it shows the money was successfully pulled from Sync with no issues.

Anyone have a payment problem related to their Synch accounts (doesn't necessarily have to be Care Credit)?

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

HeavenOhio — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:12:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@HeavenOhio wrote:
They did it to me twice last fall. The information you got about $500 being the cutoff to avoid a hold is consistent with what Synchrony told me.

Yikes. Was there anyway you got around it?

I'm trying to think its because of the payment patterns changing? Its my first over $500 payment as in the past its either the minimum or a couple of hundred.

I made two $1,000 payments. They told me that had I made four $500 payments, I would have been fine. After that, I paid smaller amounts more frequently.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:07:12 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@HeavenOhio wrote:
They did it to me twice last fall. The information you got about $500 being the cutoff to avoid a hold is consistent with what Synchrony told me.

Yikes. Was there anyway you got around it?

I'm trying to think its because of the payment patterns changing? Its my first over $500 payment as in the past its either the minimum or a couple of hundred.
I made two $1,000 payments. They told me that had I made four $500 payments, I would have been fine. After that, I paid smaller amounts more frequently.

Good lord. Did they actually remove the hold on the 10th day? Problem with making four $500 payments in the same day is that all four seperate payments can't be from the same bank account for the same day.

I got one more payment for $1,200 that I want to pay on May 17th, a couple of days before the statement cuts and would also zero out the balance. I would like to try something new by pushing the payment (rather than have them pull it)and see if what they say holds water about how even a hold can happen for a bill pay push.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

HeavenOhio — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:24:18 GMT

Yes, the holds were gone after 10 days. Had I had a chance to do over, I would have made the payments over four consecutive days.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:25:21 GMT

I had an issue with another CC I had and what I had to do was get them to ring up my CU and have them confirm the payment had cleared my account and they then removed the hold on my available credit before then and there instead of holding it for 5 days. Not sure if Synchrony would do the same but it'd be worth a shot.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:28:39 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
Yes, the holds were gone after 10 days. Had I had a chance to do over, I would have made the payments over four consecutive days.

Yeah looks like I'm going to have to go that route then. So random for a issuer to have a problem with something over $500 vs splitting up payments over four days.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:30:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I had an issue with another CC I had and what I had to do was get them to ring up my CU and have them confirm the payment had cleared my account and they then removed the hold on my available credit before then and there instead of holding it for 5 days. Not sure if Synchrony would do the same but it'd be worth a shot.

Irk, I actually brought that up and they said nope. I even pasted the actual transaction with id numbers, etc showing confirmation it was pulled and cleared. Still a big fat nope. Seems like Sync doesn't want to lose the interest they earn when a customer does the responsible thing and pays their obligation down or completely off.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

HeavenOhio — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 22:37:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Seems like Sync doesn't want to lose the interest they earn when a customer does the responsible thing and pays their obligation down or completely off.

The other thing they did was open open my account with the card maxed out. It's almost like they're trying to create a high-risk customer. It so happens that I cancelled the card this morning.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:05:20 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Seems like Sync doesn't want to lose the interest they earn when a customer does the responsible thing and pays their obligation down or completely off.
The other thing they did was open open my account with the card maxed out. It's almost like they're trying to create a high-risk customer. It so happens that I cancelled the card this morning.

Yeah I hear ya with cancelling. Once I get my overall debt paid to zero (across all tradelines) in October (currently at $15k, 47% overall Utilization, 6.8 years AAOA), I'm going to do closures on cards that I have no need for starting with a couple of AF cards, Five Sync cards(all opened 2007-08) and also two commenity cards. Nice thing is these won't affect my score since my overall Utilization in October will be 0-2%. Just another 6 months .

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:27:51 GMT

I had this issue with my BP credit card last month(which is backed by Synchrony). I made a payment of $714 to PIF my remaining balance. They put a 10 day hold on this payment. When I called in to ask about this they told me that this payment was put on hold because I had made 3 other payments in the month. They would prefer to see one large payment instead of 4 separate payments. It made no sense to me especially since the funds had already been withdrawn from my bank account.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:07:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I had this issue with my BP credit card last month(which is backed by Synchrony). I made a payment of $714 to PIF my remaining balance. They put a 10 day hold on this payment. When I called in to ask about this they told me that this payment was put on hold because I had made 3 other payments in the month. They would prefer to see one large payment instead of 4 separate payments. It made no sense to me especially since the funds had already been withdrawn from my bank account.

After your $714 payment was processed (the next day), did your total balance change to $0 and your available credit was unchanged?

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

UncleB — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 02:39:07 GMT

This is either recent, or it's YMMV.

Until January (when I had to start working on sign up bonuses) I regularly put $1100-1300 on my Sam's Club MasterCard each month, and I never dealt with a payment hold.

I always push my payments using my bank's bill pay, and a couple of days later my balance is updated and available credit is restored at the same time.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 02:44:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I had this issue with my BP credit card last month(which is backed by Synchrony). I made a payment of $714 to PIF my remaining balance. They put a 10 day hold on this payment. When I called in to ask about this they told me that this payment was put on hold because I had made 3 other payments in the month. They would prefer to see one large payment instead of 4 separate payments. It made no sense to me especially since the funds had already been withdrawn from my bank account.
After your $714 payment was processed (the next day), did your total balance change to $0 and your available credit was unchanged?

Correct.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

HeavenOhio — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 02:51:11 GMT

I wonder if it has to do with 0% promo cards. I have a Wells Fargo card that's actually worse. Unlike Synchrony, they wouldn't tell me how to avoid the holds. The rep said he's "not at liberty to discuss Wells Fargo's risk policy" and that it's "proprietary information." All he could tell me was that I could avoid the hold by paying in a branch. On the positive side, that card came with a decent limit. But it's on the chopping block too.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

pip3man — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 11:59:44 GMT

I think this might just be isolated to you. The last time I paid my Care Credit about 2yrs ago, the $650 balance was paid in full in one shot and the available credit/balance was updated within the next 48hrs. Even more recently, I paid my Amazon $849.92 and Lowes $2170 promotional balance in full - matter of fact my available credit on each individual account was updated immediately while the balance reflected the next day or two. Never experienced any payment hold with SYNCB, didnt even realize they do that until seeing your post.

Re: Care Credit Payment Holds

HeavenOhio — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 12:10:15 GMT

@pip3man wrote:
I think this might just be isolated to you. The last time I paid my Care Credit about 2yrs ago, the $650 balance was paid in full in one shot and the available credit/balance was updated within the next 48hrs. Even more recently, I paid my Amazon $849.92 and Lowes $2170 promotional balance in full - matter of fact my available credit on each individual account was updated immediately while the balance reflected the next day or two. Never experienced any payment hold with SYNCB, didnt even realize they do that until seeing your post.

I'm not sure that "isolated" is the correct term if we're seeing multiple reports here. Plus, two of us have been told about the $500 thing. I'd surmise that the policy has been changed since the last time you made a payment two years ago.

My guess is that the other Synchrony cards you mention have a more customer-friendly policy.