@notmyrealname23 wrote:Well, I'll be holding my breath now. I just got a Cathay Pacific CC by Synchrony, 40,000 miles for $2000 spend in 90 days, but the CL is only 2500.
I have some natural planned spend (airline tickets, junior college tuition that can be reimbursed from a 529, some travel plans involving expensive tickets) but they would all push things close to 2k on a 2.5k CL; it sounds like Synchrony is super jumpy. I'm already doing some payoffs in between statements so utilization doesn't go very high- hope they don't think I'm trying to bust out (I'm not, I just want that bonus before this gets sock drawered for a year until AF time, when I ask for a retention bonus, if they say no I close the line).
AFAIK, and just so you might not be disappointed, there isn't any retention bonus if you decide not to keep it. You can decide if the program works for you and evaluate once the AF comes up for renewal. By the same token, they offer a variety of incentives to boost those miles.
If this is your only SYNCB account, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Pretty soon Sync cards will be even harder to get than a Chase card
🥴😳
@Iusedtolurk wrote:This must be some type of Syncoronavirus or something because it seems to be spreading and no one really knows why.
I chimed in when it was about 60 comments and stated that this post had a nice amount of comments already but now looking at over 100 comments and a nice amount are referencing account closures it has become a sad state of affairs as most people seemed to be pretty good with their accounts.
Some thoughts of possible triggers:
Too many cli requests?
Sock drawer too long?
Not nearly using cl?
Too many Sync accounts?
Is the Vantage4 they are utilizing now across all accounts a variable?
One thing I know is that forum members equal a small tidbit of Sync customers so at the rate of closures for forum members, the rate across non-members would equal a staggering amount.
I only have one Sync account and was considering going for a carecredit account in the near future. I wonder how many new accounts they are granting and how will they treat those. 2 would be my max with Sync either way.
Hope the people who have been targeted so far are not majorly affected in a negative way.
Good luck everyone!
Actually I think you may have inadvertently hit on a more salient point: macroeconomic issues. Maybe.
A point from the OP which I didn't see answered: closed by consumer vs. closed by credit grantor doesn't matter at all to FICO scoring. Review in the future is going to know what's up anyway seeing all the accounts closed at once but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Macroscopically though, things are a little sketchy right now: it's been basically sunshine and happiness for the banks as of late but there was a wave of subprime auto issues that have been building in the market for the past 1.5 years give or take, and Sync isn't exactly a prime lender. Add in COVID-19 and ain't nobody got any clue what's going to happen: Powell didn't sound rosy and there's rising concern that the outbreak might actually trigger the recession people have been talking about for years... certainly a larger risk than the other things people have talked about and the CDC basically suggested containment is going to break, and we're probably going to be dealing with this through 2021 at least.
If you're a lender, and you're expecting bigger expenses, potential job impacts (not everyone can work remotely and at some point companies either fold or reduce expenses by cutting workforce if productivity is near zero), well, I can understand why lenders are pulling in their horns and out of any lender on this particular little forum, Synchrony is almost certainly the leading indicator.
I don't know where this is going to wind up, and I've always preached lender diversification but I'd look to Comentity and Cap 1 next, if we start seeing issues there batten down the hatches as it might go back to 2007-8 where it was bloody in the credit markets.
This is a pretty pessimistic view to be fair, I'm just outlining what might be happening so please don't take this the wrong way and assume the sky is falling... if you follow the stock market at all everything is still levitating right now so most people aren't thinking the sky is falling and I'm holding tight there too so I'm not expecting the worst case, but I'm not Synchrony either when it comes to my personal finances.
@Anonymous I hope your mother continues to do well... personal credit where as long as you have a few open credit cards and a FICO score, individual lenders really are irrelevant.
I think somewhat of an argument could be made that Discover and the 4506t requests were the beginning. It certainly feels like lenders are a bit spooked/being more selective on the whole. Cap One demanding a lot of use for CLIs lately would be another example. Seemingly small adjustments, but when looked at together can only make you wonder.
I don't think the sky is falling - yet, but there seems to be some nervousness that it is a tad unstable in its present form.
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:To me its a ridiculous reason to close accounts in good standing. Do you know how many people carry balances on Sync cards and struggle to pay them off due to interest? Make a late payment and i could understand but what a bad way to lesson risk. Ok rant over
Makes some sense to me. Firstly, having huge unused CLs, MyFico style, is unusual, and maybe enough of those cases (outside MF) correlate with trouble, people credit seeking knowing that something bad is going to happen, so building up "reserves" just in case. And then there is the profitibility case (which I know you have argued against!), these big lines could be used by someone else, generating swipe fees and hopefully interest and the occassional late charge.
And, IMO, from the lender view there is very little positive in allowing the large unused lines to continue. Even if closing them makes the customer swear off Sync for life, so what? They weren't very profitable anyway.