Synchrony account closure

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@FinStar wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

No updates yet.. still waiting for the snail mail letters to arrive. I'm sure it'll state vague reasons as to why they closed all the accounts so nothing exciting to look forward to. Pretty bad that synchrony would go to this extreme to close all accounts without any warnings BUT it is what it is..

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Thanks for keeping us posted @Anonymous.   I hope things are well with your mom and she's having a smooth recovery. 

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I have the 2% cash back SPM (Synchrony PayPal Mastercard). It is one of my favorite credit cards and use it all the time, especially at Wally World. It is also my catch all credit card for non bonus category spend. I make many charges a month but never carry a balance

The SPM is the only Synchrony card I have and I never liked how intwined with PayPal it is. I cannot log directly into the Synchrony credit card portal. I must log into PayPal first. I cannot withdraw my cash back directly into my bank. I have to withdraw it into my PayPal balance first than my bank. PayPal has a deserved reputation for banning people and holding their money for months on end.

I wonder if I should look for another 2% cash back card just incase?

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The problem is that there isn't another 2% card that lets you redeem for cash that lets you redeem any amount, has no AF, and has no FTF and has no other hoops. Every 2% card I have seen has hoops whether it be minimum redemption thresholds (Alliant, NFCU, FNBO, BBVA, Fidelity), FTF (Alliant, FNBO, BBVA, KeyBank), AF (NFCU, Venture), needs deposit account and sometimes balance or direct deposit to get 2% (BBVA, PenFed, PSECU, FNBO (they have a 2% card available until April that doesn't have this requirement), KeyBank, Fidelity) or lack of app or decent website (PayPal, Synchrony's own branded 2% card). (This is mostly done from memory so some cards in this list may have additional hoops not listed like I'm not sure about FTF status on some of them)

In the grand scheme of things, the PayPal and Sync 2% cards have the least fuss but you're dealing with atrocious APR and you're trusting that Sync will handle fraud claims well. From reading, I'm not convinced there. 

[notmyrealname23]

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@notmyrealname23 wrote:

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@FinStar wrote:

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. 

Thanks. I have Amazon Store card for 3K also through Synchrony, but that's it. I'm gardening right now, this card + others I have are fine for my credit rebuild.

The Cathay card is good one time for the bonus (it's basically buying 42000-43000 miles for $135, figuring I lose 2% cashback for that 2k in spend, I can get $300-400 in airfare value out of that easy peasy in coach, even more nominal dollars in business if I want), but bluntly, as a $95 AF card, beyond year 1 it's weak sauce compared to the Capital One Venture (I have that) or any other number of AF travel cards. The Venture transfers miles to Asia Miles at 2:1.5, but you get 2 miles on ALL purchases, not just dining and international, so like a lot of airline cards, the flexible currency cards beat the airline brand ones as long-term plays. The only way this card makes sense long-term is if I spend a ton on Cathay airfare (spoiler: I don't), or if the benefits are juicier in 2021 (who knows but not holding my breath), or I get a reason to keep it (I won't be mad if I don't get one if/when I ask next year; it's just not a long term keeper past the initial bonus with the benefits it has now).

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And $600 of spend in, I have my first fraud alert, at a diner 5 blocks from my home.

Great job with your fraud algorithms, dudes. And by "great job" I mean "I am going to be upset if, while on my planned travel for the next couple of months, I keep getting declined for fraud, since it's not much of a premium travel card for $95 if I have to call in for bogus fraud alerts all the time".

[DenverFox]

Hi,

Some more ideas for consideration:

A few folks have offered a perspective that the switch to Vantage 4.0, which includes a historical trend analysis (similar to the new FICO 10), may have triggered the account closures. It's an interesting thought because even though I have maintained a high FICO 8 & 9, and a high Vantage 3.0, those are all "snapshots". I have certainly done my share of "creative financing" over the years and I have no idea what my Vantage 4.0 scores are.

I was typically carrying significant CC debt until a few months ago on various Navy Federal CC's (30k), my Citi Costo (35k), PenFed (15k). I would take advantage of the 0% for 12 or 18 months and move money around when another balance transfer from my Venture (45k) came around (43k) but this was all against total available lines of ~480k so my overall utilization was reasonable. I would time my CLI's and the transfers and applications for new cards with new the payment reporting dates and inquiries against specific bureaus I knew would be pulled for specific lenders (Citi, PenFed, NFCU, Synchrony, Amex, PenFed, etc) and really milk the most out of the system. The FICO's stayed in the 700's and then around March and October each year I pay large blocks off (30k and 80k) through stock distributions. It was kind of a hobby seeing how much credit I could amass in open lines to keep keeping my utilization low no matter what I spent and having a large number of cards age over time so in the aggregate and I wouldn't see much of a hit on opening a new account against my AAoA. All that said, with the new scoring models, the trend analysis for 24 months may have shown me to be a higher risk than the snapshots of the other models. 

Does anyone know where I can pay for or pull my Vantage 4.0 without opening a new Synchrony account? All monitoring services and cards that I have shows Vantage 3.0. The only way I can put this to rest for sure is to see my Vantage 4.0 and I can't locate a site where I can pull it. Any ideas on where I can retrieve?

Many Thanks!

[RSX]

I tried to close my PayPal account today, but they have a transaction + 180 day policy preventing closures 

even though my PPC was closed and paid off, they are counting the payoff as a transaction.  

I only kept PayPal open due to the Credit Line.  So I haven't needed it for quite awhile.  

I guess I will set a calendar reminder to close it in August.  

[GApeachy]

@Anonymous  I just unenrolled and re-enrolled and my score went up 100 pts....highest ever since Oct. when I first saw my V4. 

[sto0pyd]

Still stumped as to why all 14 accounts got closed and all were PIF, except PayPal Cedit since I was getting a promotional rate. I see all the Vantage discussion and checked mine out and it couldn't update since TU is frozen. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it.

Also, of all the amounts closed, I'm most bummed on Sam's Club. They owe me $200 in rewards which I was supposed to get this month. I called CSR and they said it was forfeited since my account was closed. I asked to speak to a supervisor and they said the same thing and was POS and said that his decision was the "end all-be all" type of decision. Anyone have any luck in getting accrued rewards after getting their account involuntary closed?

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I've not seen any data, ever, that stated rewards were granted after an account was closed.

[tcbofade]

@Anonymous  @RSX , did either of you have your TU frozen when this happened?

[RSX]

I didn't have any frozen. I haven't ever done that

[Anonymous]

My TU isn't frozen... I did get all the other closure notices though and sure enough, all closed for the same reason. What was it.. High risk of failure to pay. Still not 100% why some of us were targeted but again... be cautious of the love button and maybe even the unenroll/enroll fico score synchrony provides. But like I have mentioned before though, I didn't overdo the SP CLI on any of my cards. My BECU card reported to the bureau's right around the time synchrony closed all my accounts.. perhaps that triggered the review? I don't know, just guessing. 

Again, thanks for all the well wishes! Mama is still doing good! It'll be a long while before she's fully up and walking but we are taking it one day at a time.