topic Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard?? in Credit Cards

Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

johnsonca2 — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 22:16:47 GMT

Synchrony recently sent me an offer to upgrade my Sams card to their Sams Mastercard (with no hp). I accepted the offer and about a month later it hit my report as a new account and closed my original card that I have had for 6 years. That in turn caused my average account age to decrease and also increased new accounts tally. My question is why wouldnt synchrony transfer the account history, its literally the same company.. is this something I should contest? I have had cards (with other banks) upgrade in the past and they always just transferred the payment history..

I should also mention that they doubled my cl from 10k to 20k, so that was a nice bonus.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

ntenseone — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 22:41:57 GMT

@johnsonca2 wrote:
Synchrony recently sent me an offer to upgrade my Sams card to their Sams Mastercard (with no hp). I accepted the offer and about a month later it hit my report as a new account and closed my original card that I have had for 6 years. That in turn caused my average account age to decrease and also increased new accounts tally. My question is why wouldnt synchrony transfer the account history, its literally the same company.. is this something I should contest? I have had cards (with other banks) upgrade in the past and they always just transferred the payment history..

I should also mention that they doubled my cl from 10k to 20k, so that was a nice bonus.

This is interesting to know. I will have to have my wife look at hers as she took the deal as well and I'm an AU on the account, so if thay have, in fact, done this to all the accounts then that is kind of underhanded in my opinion.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

FinStar — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 22:50:24 GMT

Unfortunately, this is not something that you can contest OP.

This is a known action by SYNCB when it comes to their retail CC versions and accepting the MC/V upgrades. It's unfortunate that you found out the hard way, but what's done is done.

Yes, it may lower the AAoA to an extent, but you now have added flexibility with the MC. It is a reason a variety of individuals decide to pass on the upgrades because of such an outcome. That said, others find value in the SYNCB upgrade afterlife.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 02:13:08 GMT

Yep same thing happened to me with the Walmart Store card upgrade to the MC version. Luckily I only had the store card for a year or so before the upgrade. That said, there should be a rule that they haev to inform you it will result in losing the old account's age etc.

Because most people are unaware of this practice.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

ntenseone — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 05:04:36 GMT

Agreed. They should at least tell you. I'm sure it is in the fine print somewhere, but I doubt if they are forthcoming about it in that paperwork.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

DrewfromTexas — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 07:22:38 GMT

Hell they mailed me a new MasterCard to replace my store card and said call to activate it. My 7k limit transferred over and it was already in the sams club app on its own.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

SunriseEarth — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 23:52:15 GMT

@johnsonca2 wrote:
Synchrony recently sent me an offer to upgrade my Sams card to their Sams Mastercard (with no hp). I accepted the offer and about a month later it hit my report as a new account and closed my original card that I have had for 6 years. That in turn caused my average account age to decrease and also increased new accounts tally.

Unfortunatley, that is just how Sync does things. I experience this when my Care Credit card became a Care Credit MC. I accepted the upgrade because the rewards program was worth it. I was also in the middle of doing some apps, so I decided to hold off on accepting the upgrade for about 3 months. The nice thing is that the opening date of the MC was "backdated" to the offer date as opposed to my acceptance date.

Various lenders handle upgrades in different ways. When my Target redCard upgraded to the MC, I kept the account history of the original RedCard. When I got my Macy's AMEX upgrade, they opened a new CL specifically for the AMEX and the store card remained open as a separate line. My lines remain separate to this day, although Macy's now handles upgrades more like how Target (TD Bank) handles them now.

As for why lenders handle upgrades differently, it's hard to say. I would guess that Sync's method is easier for their system or administrative processes. Other lenders may not have those same issues.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 22:54:39 GMT

Hello @SunriseEarth i also have the care credit card . I would like to know how long it took you after opening the account to get the upgrade offer to the MasterCard version

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

AverageJoesCredit — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 00:06:53 GMT

@johnsonca2 wrote:
Synchrony recently sent me an offer to upgrade my Sams card to their Sams Mastercard (with no hp). I accepted the offer and about a month later it hit my report as a new account and closed my original card that I have had for 6 years. That in turn caused my average account age to decrease and also increased new accounts tally. My question is why wouldnt synchrony transfer the account history, its literally the same company.. is this something I should contest? I have had cards (with other banks) upgrade in the past and they always just transferred the payment history..

I should also mention that they doubled my cl from 10k to 20k, so that was a nice bonus.

This is how Synchrony upgrades work. You can't contest it. Thats the bad part of their upgrades.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

ChazzieT — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 00:55:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello @SunriseEarth i also have the care credit card . I would like to know how long it took you after opening the account to get the upgrade offer to the MasterCard version

To give you some additional DP to whatever @SunriseEarth says, I've had the Care Credit card since 2013 and never been offered an upgrade. CL is $20k, only ever missed one payment and it was a weird calendar thing that made me 3 days late, so they didn't even ding me for it. I've put probably $75k in vet bills and a couple of trips to the dentist on it.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 05:47:11 GMT

@ChazzieT thank you so much for the information . I appreaciate it .
I'll just keep giving it some use & maybe in the future I get an upgrade offer .
thanks again . 🙏🏼

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

ChazzieT — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 05:59:07 GMT

Best of luck!

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

SunriseEarth — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 06:04:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello @SunriseEarth i also have the care credit card . I would like to know how long it took you after opening the account to get the upgrade offer to the MasterCard version

My original Care Credit card was opened in March 2014. I got the MC upgrade offer in September 2017. So I had the original account for about 3 1/2 years.

Re: Synchrony branded Sams Club store card upgraded to Mastercard??

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 23:36:40 GMT

Great info and thanks for the data points! I've had my care credit for 8 years it's 15K not much usage but I will not ever upgrade it after reading this post...