Re: Check your Synchrony Cards for Fraud

Anonymous · ‎03-29-2017

My marvel card was hit last week, 3 transactions in London for a total of $500 i still have the card new one on the way.

AverageJoesCredit · ‎03-29-2017

Infinitizx, be glad it was 16k from India lol, early poster from when Marvel came out with a 25k limit got hit with that headache, ouch.

All this talk of Lobster, in hungry

JSS3 · ‎03-29-2017

Yeah, I was hit on my Xtras about 7 days ago. I believe from "Belk" and "tatas" for about $200. Logged in on the day it showed up and called up Syn. They are sending the new one. Bummer it has to report as a new account and ding my AAoA.

When this sort of thing happens, and it's caught before it posts, the theif doesn't end up getting the money, correct? The chargeback results in Synchrony not losing their money?

DeeBee78 · ‎03-29-2017

@JSS3 wrote:
Yeah, I was hit on my Xtras about 7 days ago. I believe from "Belk" and "tatas" for about $200. Logged in on the day it showed up and called up Syn. They are sending the new one. Bummer it has to report as a new account and ding my AAoA.

When this sort of thing happens, and it's caught before it posts, the theif doesn't end up getting the money, correct? The chargeback results in Synchrony not losing their money?

Card replacements don't count as new accounts. Your history and age stay the same, your account number is the only thing that changes.

Man-Of-Steel · ‎03-30-2017

@fedxboy wrote:
My Marvel card got shut down last month. I didn't even know they shut it down, till I tried to use it and it declined at the register. They already sent me a new card and different cc#. I guess they caught it before it happened and shut the card down.

They reported to the credit bureaus that my card was closed and lost/stolen. However, that wasn't the case, since I still had the card. They also wouldn't disclose what vendor they suspected. Thank goodness, I didn't lose my history when the new card reported recently.

Can you provide more detail regarding this? How and where did they indicate that? Did they close the old account and then open a new account that has your original account open date? Unless I'm missing something here, it sounds like that could potentially cause someone an AAOA ding. JSS3 made a similar comment (regarding a new account reporting), so now I'm curious.

In contrast, Barclays proactively changed my Sallie Mae MC card number twice in the past 2 years or so, and it was completely transparent on my credit reports, except for the account number change.

UncleB · ‎03-30-2017

@DeeBee78 wrote:
@JSS3 wrote:
Yeah, I was hit on my Xtras about 7 days ago. I believe from "Belk" and "tatas" for about $200. Logged in on the day it showed up and called up Syn. They are sending the new one. Bummer it has to report as a new account and ding my AAoA.

When this sort of thing happens, and it's caught before it posts, the theif doesn't end up getting the money, correct? The chargeback results in Synchrony not losing their money?
Card replacements don't count as new accounts. Your history and age stay the same, your account number is the only thing that changes.

Unfortunately Synchrony is an outlier.... in the past people have reported that for a lost card Synch would close the existing account then report the new card number as a brand-new account.

Lately reports have been mixed, though, so hopefully they're getting this fixed. YMMV.

Anonymous · ‎03-30-2017

@JSS3 wrote:
Yeah, I was hit on my Xtras about 7 days ago. I believe from "Belk" and "tatas" for about $200. Logged in on the day it showed up and called up Syn. They are sending the new one. Bummer it has to report as a new account and ding my AAoA.

When this sort of thing happens, and it's caught before it posts, the theif doesn't end up getting the money, correct? The chargeback results in Synchrony not losing their money?

They should transfer all history over to the new number with the CRA's. A family member just PC'd and got a new number so we're waiting for next month's report since it was their oldest account, but I've heard few problems. What UncleB said is better advice on Synch.

The thief already walked out with the merchandice. Liability goes to the bank unless the store failed to support the chip reader, in which case they're out.

Anonymous · ‎03-30-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
@JSS3 wrote:
Yeah, I was hit on my Xtras about 7 days ago. I believe from "Belk" and "tatas" for about $200. Logged in on the day it showed up and called up Syn. They are sending the new one. Bummer it has to report as a new account and ding my AAoA.

When this sort of thing happens, and it's caught before it posts, the theif doesn't end up getting the money, correct? The chargeback results in Synchrony not losing their money?
They should transfer all history over to the new number with the CRA's. A family member just PC'd and got a new number so we're waiting for next month's report since it was their oldest account, but I've heard few problems. What UncleB said is better advice on Synch.

The thief already walked out with the merchandice. Liability goes to the bank unless the store failed to support the chip reader, in which case they're out.

Right, the thief is certainly OK, then the fight begins between the merchant and the bank, with smaller merchants pretty vulnerable (the bank still has the money in most cases so the merchant needs to get paid).

Years ago, before the internet (when it was Arpanet) a renewal card of mine was diverted somehow, and the thief put $8K on it (which was real money in the 1980s!) The bank made the merchants eat it because the start date of the card was after the date of transactions. Not sure if clerks were really trained to check that (rather than exp date) but that's what the bank did.

DeeBee78 · ‎03-30-2017

@UncleB wrote:
@DeeBee78 wrote:
@JSS3 wrote:
Yeah, I was hit on my Xtras about 7 days ago. I believe from "Belk" and "tatas" for about $200. Logged in on the day it showed up and called up Syn. They are sending the new one. Bummer it has to report as a new account and ding my AAoA.

When this sort of thing happens, and it's caught before it posts, the theif doesn't end up getting the money, correct? The chargeback results in Synchrony not losing their money?
Card replacements don't count as new accounts. Your history and age stay the same, your account number is the only thing that changes.
Unfortunately Synchrony is an outlier.... in the past people have reported that for a lost card Synch would close the existing account then report the new card number as a brand-new account.

Lately reports have been mixed, though, so hopefully they're getting this fixed. YMMV.

If they're reporting an already-established account as a new account, they are violating FCRA.