topic Re: Synchrony blue envelope. in Credit Cards

Synchrony Accounts Restricted

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 16:25:29 GMT

I got an alert in all my Synchrony accounts saying I can't use my cards until I called customer service,

After I called them they said to look after a letter on the mail within a week, however I can still manage my accounts online.

I've heard of the blue envelope, what should I expect?

Thanks.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:18:34 GMT

Submit to a full colonoscopy of your finances or close the accounts. They want you to fill a 4506-T which gives them access to your tax returns.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:28:43 GMT

My credit history is fairly new.

My oldest credit card is not a year old yet,

What is the worst that can happen if I file the 4506-T?

is this going to **bleep** my credit from now on?

Thanks for replying

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

JR_TX — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:37:14 GMT

I see the blue Sync love letter is back with a vengeance!
They’ve been dormant and quiet this neck of the woods lately.
Sorry OP but either you adhere to that or close all your accts entirely! No in betweens!
They’re most likely gonna ask for IRS Form
4506-T which gives them access to your tax return and pertinent info within it such as your dependents’ and co-filer’s infos!
Scary part is it will be coming from LexisNexis which is a third party data collecting and mining company that sells all these precious information to willing buyers!
It’s all up to you but if it happened to me I’ll close all my Sync accts with and never do business with them ever again! But that’s just me.
By the way, welcome to the myFICO community! Please do stick around.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:37:40 GMT

If you lied on the application or fudged the numbers they will close the accounts. Even if you didn't they may still close the accounts. Hard to say what it would do to your score if they close all the accounts, when this happened to me I refused and just closed my account.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:56:11 GMT

Hopefully this isn't the blue envelope but if it is, I wouldn't even bother sending them the info. It's known to be a kiss of death when compared to AMEX's financial review that rarely results in closure as long as you comply with their requests.

As for credit impact, it depends on how much credit you had with Sync vs your total limits and what you're using. If you go down to less than three revolving accounts, there's a credit scoring penalty. There's also a scoring penalty for aggregate utilization crossing 8.9%, 28.9%, 48.9%, 68.9%, and 88.9% so if the loss of those limits pushes you over one or more thresholds there will be a score penalty.

There isn't a score penalty for closed accounts but beware that a sudden influx of closures could spook other lenders but it's not something I would be that worried about as long as your utilization is under control.

No matter the outcome, it's not anything you can't bounce back from quickly.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Jetboy — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 03:26:37 GMT

I would read as much as you can to understand what it means to send in that form. Some have pointed out that Synchrony will share the data with a third party called LexisNexis. Are you ok with the very personal information on that form being shared with a third party?

I quickly found the below 3 posts about this happening but there are probably 100's of these posts out there!

Synchrony Bank - What if I want to send them 4506-T?

As the latest victim of Synchrony AA, quick question

If you are really bored here is a 88 page thread from 2016 when Synchrony went on a rampage sending out blue envelopes.

What the heck is going on with Synchrony?

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:06:39 GMT

Thanks a lot for your response,

I forgot to mention the Synchrony CSR said they were fraud protection and that the letter would provide instructions to give "verification" information.

it still worries me a lot, I had never heard of LexisNexis until today lol.

I guess it's wait and see, I do have a balance now but it's nothing I can't pay at once.

Thanks again.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:09:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks a lot for your response,

I forgot to mention the Synchrony CSR said they were fraud protection and that the letter would provide instructions to give "verification" information.

it still worries me a lot, I had never heard of LexisNexis until today lol.

I guess it's wait and see, I do have a balance now but it's nothing I can't pay at once.

Thanks again.

If it's for fraud, it should just be a code you have to give them. Blue envelopes are an entirely different beast where they are concerned with the exposure you have with them.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Jetboy — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:16:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

it still worries me a lot, I had never heard of LexisNexis until today lol.

LexisNexis Report -- Next level creepy

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:19:28 GMT

Sorry to hear this. I literally just joined the Sync family this month with the PayPal Mastercard, and now wondering if this is something I should expect? If you don't mind, please keep us posted on how this moves forward.

If you don't mind sharing, how many accounts do you have with Synchrony and how long have you been with them?

Thanks.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

KJinNC — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:25:03 GMT

As a regular guy, giving honest information on applications, maintaining or trying to get regular cards, I would be highly offended and exasperated if asked for a 4506-T. In fact, I was. I wanted an Amex card enough to jump through a lot of hoops, but that is a hoop I refused to jump through when Amex demanded it. (Then, strangely, they seemed to decide that was ok, and gave me the card anyway, but that's another story.)

If that's what they want, I'd close my accounts and let them know that I find it offensive. That's for people saying they make $500k, asking for a $100k credit card limit. It's not for standard situations, and a company requesting it in a standard situation is violating your privacy and expressing severe distrust for you. JMO.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:35:32 GMT

Absolutely, I will update my experience while it goes, it's gonna take some time since this letter is supposed to arrive within a week.

I have three accouts on Synchrony.

Google store $1.5K

Amazon store card $1.3K

PayPal credit $1K

1) I have never requested a limit increase

2)I didn't lie on my income, im 21 years old and honestly I don't make that much money, but still I didn't embellished the numbers.

3)I got this three applications accepted within the last 2 and a half months.

My oldest credit card is not a year old yet as I mentioned before, but it is a Capital One card.

I see people here with crazy amounts of credit lol, I can't believe they want to audit me.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 02:42:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Absolutely, I will update my experience while it goes, it's gonna take some time since this letter is supposed to arrive within a week.

I have three accouts on Synchrony.

Google store $1.5K
Amazon store card $1.3K
PayPal credit $1K

1) I have never requested a limit increase
2)I didn't lie on my income, im 21 years old and honestly I don't make that much money, but still I didn't embellished the numbers.
3)I got this three applications accepted within the last 2 and a half months.

My oldest credit card is not a year old yet as I mentioned before, but it is a Capital One card.

I see people here with crazy amounts of credit lol, I can't believe they want to audit me.

That's definitely not a blue envelope situation right there. Wait for the letter but they probably just want more info about something or it's simple address verification. If they blue letter you with limits that small, they've officially lost it and ALL of us are in trouble.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:01:28 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
As a regular guy, giving honest information on applications, maintaining or trying to get regular cards, I would be highly offended and exasperated if asked for a 4506-T. In fact, I was. I wanted an Amex card enough to jump through a lot of hoops, but that is a hoop I refused to jump through when Amex demanded it. (Then, strangely, they seemed to decide that was ok, and gave me the card anyway, but that's another story.)

If that's what they want, I'd close my accounts and let them know that I find it offensive. That's for people saying they make $500k, asking for a $100k credit card limit. It's not for standard situations, and a company requesting it in a standard situation is violating your privacy and expressing severe distrust for you. JMO.

While there are good arguements as to whether one should comply with such requests, I certainly don't view it as offensive. You may well be a " a regular guy, giving honest information on applications, maintaining or trying to get regular cards" or perhaps you are not, or maybe you were but have got in to difficulties, the issuer may not know (and they don't want to be the first to report a default on an otherwise clean CR!). Issuers, as credit tightens, may want more checks than in the past. Credit amounts much lower than $100K will still cause losses and issuers want to protect themselves when they have concerns.

So I think it's a perfectly reasonable request and it's also perfectly reasonable for the consumer to choose not to comply. It's not going to be done on a whim because of the cost to the issuer, only when they think it is worth checking.

(And again, OPs case may well be something different anyway).

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

KJinNC — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:14:02 GMT

If a company chooses to conduct business by implying its customers may likely be dishonest fraudsters and demand that they compromise data security to prove they aren't, that is certainly their right. But that is not a company I want to deal with, unless there is a clear, unusual reason for it.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:20:06 GMT

I've been looking forward to secured credit cards,

Could a blue envelope situation like this happen with Bank of America for example? they've been sending me this secured card offer for a few months now.

Synchrony just out right scared me with this thing.

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:24:27 GMT

What could happen if I called again and flat out asked if they sending me a blue envelope?

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

wasCB14 — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:26:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I've been looking forward to secured credit cards,

Could a blue envelope situation like this happen with Bank of America for example? they've been sending me this secured card offer for a few months now.

Synchrony just out right scared me with this thing.

Did the Synchrony rep actually use the term "blue envelope"? Or are you assuming that the "letter" the rep mentioned is the same thing as the "blue envelope" tax transcript request you've read about on here?

Re: Synchrony blue envelope.

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 03:31:45 GMT

No he never used those words, I mentioned in another comment up there he said the "letter" was containing instructions to verify information, and that his department was fraud security.

I looked up this symptoms on google and found out about the IRS form they like to request.