Synchrony Accounts Restricted

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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. 

[Anonymous]

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

[JR_TX]

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.

[Anonymous]

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. 

[Anonymous]

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. 

[Jetboy]

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?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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@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.

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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. 

[Jetboy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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

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LexisNexis Report -- Next level creepy