Anyone else hit with recent and random Synchrony CLDs?

[minimist]

Just wondering if this is happening to anyone else or if someone can shed a light on why this happened to me, and possibly give advice.

I have 5 sync accounts, with old navy being my newest and lowes was one of the oldest (I believe it was the second Sync account I'd gotten). All of them are relatively new being barely over 1 year old, wit  ON being 6 months old. Total combined limits are $20,300.

I've never been late on any of the cards, some I carry a balance on others I don't, have never gone over the limit and haven't had any crazy changes in my credit report. If anything my score is higher than what it was when I got most of these.

In September I had a CLD on my Lowes from 6k down to like ~$1100. When I called and asked why this happened I couldn't get any answers and was told to wait for a letter which I still have not received. Yesterday my ON statement cut and I show that was also slashed, its now down to $800 from 4k. I actively use these and all the cards I have with them so I am really freaking confused on why I seem to be targeted for decreases. As these two cards in particular were padding my util (I don't have a lot of cards in general) my credit scores have sufferred massive hits. Im not at 630 / 618 / 637 when all three were above 670 and TU was in the 690s. And I don't even think Lowes is reporting the new balance yet so I'm unfortunately anticipating further drops.

I think this is super ridiculous and a huge setback to my progress. I'm now going to have to double down on paying these and my other ccs off. Has anyone had any success in having them restore the limits at all? Should I just close the cards before they do?

[Anonymous]

Synchrony has a long history of AA against people who are getting into trouble.

First of all, Synchrony does not like people who have too many accounts with their bank.  5 cards is a lot.  Some folks have more with no issue, but you have a lot with one lender at a subprime credit score.

Secondly, Synchrony does a lot of SPs to review your profile.  If you have any high utilization accounts, they're afraid.  You were rebuilding your credit obviously. but now you're taking many steps backwards by having (probably) high utilization.

How many accounts do you have with utilization over 49%?  If they're over 49%, what is their utilization?

Having $20,000 credit limits at a FICO of 690 is usually fine.  Having $20,000 credit limits with FICO scores in the 610 region is red flag territory.

Some other threads:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Screwed-by-Synchrony-again/td-p/4770569

Megalong thread with lots of data points: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/What-the-heck-is-going-on-with-Synchrony/td-p/4669682/p...

Fix your utilization -- use the AZEO Method -- and you will be at a lesser risk of being AA/CLD'd.  Note that if you're running high utilization without the ability to pay quickly, you're at risk of ruining your credit again!  Be careful and take it as a warning!

[minimist]

Thank you for the reply. The scores in my signature are very outdated and I will remove them. I'd considered myself as rebuilt as I possibly could be for my profile(I still have a low AAOA and my util does change, all late payments are now 2+ years old) but my most recent scores, which I don't check as often, I know were all 670+ and I'd specifically checked TU last month when Lowe's got cut and it was at 690.

I have a lot of card that are over 49% but I always pay them down within a month or two. The only two things I can think that would have spooked them had they done an SP recently was that I was at 100% of my Discover limit and very very close to Amazon limit. But, tbh I am always close to the amazon limit as I use it constantly and just pay it down . I could use cash but then I wouldn't get the discount. I've since paid Discover off too over a wekk ago but that hasn't reported, and my discover limit is really low anyway so when I put any kind of big purchase on it it is automatically a high util. My William Sonoma account is rather high as well due to a new purchase, although I am not sure if that has reported yet though. It was prev at a 0 balance.

Honestly I'm thinking I should just switch back to just using cash, I have definitely learned a lot about credit from this community but it just seems to me in my past 2 years of rebuilding there is always something to knock you back down if you actually use the credit you get. I'm thinking I will take the rest of the year to pay off all my balances and then just not use them any more. It is very discouraging to see your scores return to what they were before your rebuild!

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I misread your post to say that you went from 690 to 610!

Using cash is a terrible idea because you earn no rewards, get no ability to chargeback, and you don't get extended warranty coverage or insurance "for free".

If you can afford to pay off a card, pay it down BEFORE statement date, not due date.  This way high utilization doesn't report.

Never let a card report more than 88% utilization, ever.  This is considered "maxed out" if it's reporting higher than that.

If you can, never let a card report more than 38% utilization as that's a red flag to some lenders that you're creeping into the trouble zone.

The best thing to do is to use your cards as much as you want, but pay them way down BEFORE the statement cuts and posts to your credit reports.

Credit is very useful of a tool, but 99% of folks don't understand how to use it well and profitable.  I earn thousands of dollars a year in benefits, cashback, extended warranty, etc -- I would never go back to paying cash.

If you have a lot of cards over 49%, stop doing that.  Use them up to 100% if you want, but pay the balance down to under 48% before that statement cuts.  If you're paying a lot in interest every month, you're not really rebuilding well -- work to avoid interest by not spending so much.

[Anonymous]

It seems like your main problem is high utilization. Remember that individual card utilization matters just as much as overall utilization. Based on what you posted, it looks like Synchrony saw that you suddenly had two-three cards maxed out (anything higher than 88%). That is a huge red flag, even if the limits are low. Never run up a card to maxed out and let that balance report, it will wreck your credit.

The good news is, once you pay off the balances and they report, your scores will go back up to where they were before. Don't be discouraged away from using credit, just remember that in the future you should avoid charging anything that you cannot immediately pay off. This seems to be your big issue.

[minimist]

I'm definitely going to take your advice. I never really watched the cut dates and all that before because I knew I'd be able to pay stuff down in a few weeks, I generally use every other paycheck solely on cc balances. You are right though this definiely is a wake up call to stop needless spending. Its just so weird to me, I'd think if they were going to decrease the limit on any card it would be amazon since that it the one always close to its limit. I also have the Walmart MC from them with a relatively high limit that they have left alone. I actively use Lowes (and Amazon) for my business so that kind of sucks, but if my util is whats spooking them then I will definitely bring it down.

[Anonymous]

Get your utilization down using the AZEO Method each and every month that you can.

If you can't, then try to split your spending up across cards so they're all equal in utilization if you can.

After a few months of reporting low utilization, you may qualify for CLIs again with Synchrony and they may approve them.

They're loaning you their money and you're showing risky behavior so they're cutting you back but if you show responsible behavior they should give you better limits again.

Don't apply for any more Synchrony accounts for at least 2 years -- they really don't like you having a lot of accounts.  Find some prime bank cards with good rewards to add when you're ready for more.

[UncleB]

I'll defer to others to address the who/what/why, but when Synch (then GE Money Bank) hit me with a CLD years ago on my Lowe's I planned to close the card but never got around to it.  It ended up languishing in the SD for years.

I'm now glad I didn't... it's now my oldest revolving account and has a $20k credit line. 

In my case some new baddies reporting to TU caused the CLD/balance chasing, and once I got those resolved (in my case, years later) I was able to get CLIs to put me much higher than my original limit even.

TL;DR... Synch cards that are CLD can eventually rebound. 

[K-in-Boston]

Even when it's not the case (which from your description it's not), having maxed-out cards showing on your credit reports looks like you are struggling to pay and a high risk. Unfortunately, that gets aggravated even more by slashing credit lines and it can domino across lenders if you don't nip it in the bud.  Synchrony likely got very spooked by the high utilization showing on your Discover card and the Amazon card, combined with your older negatives.  

Have you requested a CLI with Discover?  That's a soft pull unless they explicitly tell you otherwise.  Having a high balance then paying it off to $0 often works wonders with Discover opening the purse strings.  They didn't slash your Amazon card, right?  It may be worth calling the overseas Credit Solutions number (look in back door numbers thread) to ask for a credit line increase on that card - note your high spending on the card.  I'm not too keen on the "close it before they close it" strategy; as UncleB said, sometimes cards can become very good later on.  And certainly don't go the cash route if you're earning rewards; that's just throwing away money.  Get the utilization under control and you'll bounce back with Synchrony in no time!

[Anonymous]

what is AZEO Method? Thanks.