@Anonymous wrote:
Hello everyone!
I am in desperate need of advice. The other night I was checking all of my accounts and noticed that I only had $200 available credit on my Paypal Extras MC when it should have been $3000! That's when I noticed a pending charge of $2800!! I immediately called Synchrony to report the unauthorized charge. They closed my account and issued me a new card. Well my statement just cut and it is showing a balance of $2800!! Why did Synchrony allow the charge to go through when I reported it while it was pending? Every time I call they tell me it is under investigation. When this balance reports to the bureaus my credit will be destroyed!! It will look as though I have maxed out that card! Will my other accounts be shut down due to this? What are the chances they deny my claim and I am stuck paying for this? I always keep my utilization between 1-2%! I am literally freaking out, any advice would ve greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The bank cannot stop a duly authorized charge from posting if the merchant completes the transaction. Since they closed and issued you a new account I would not worry too much about it but I would back up the phone call with a written and mailed dispute to the bank on the charge it preserves your rights. If you state in it the charge is unauthorized then they have no choice but to end up reversing it back. I would not worry too much about utilization its only temporary if they even report it as some banks will remove the old account when reporting the new account info.
Your credit isn't gonna be destroyed. It's 1 month, maybe 2 of high utilization. Even if Citi or Amex takes AA, they'll reverse it once you talk to them.
Sorry this happened 
. A hypothetical for you guys: if in a crazy scenario something like this wasn't resolved by the due date, should the minimum payment still be made to avoid negative marks even though there is no legitimate balance?
Creditjunky, I would love to hear how long it takes for Synch to take care of this, if you don't mind updating when you hear from them.
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
If it isnt your charge i wouldnt worry. This is one reason to check your accounts more often. Suprising the $2800 charge didnt set off any bells.
Agreed, very surprised that such a large charge didn't trigger something! IME, most charges over a few hundred dollars (particularly for such a large % of your CL) trigger some form of fraud prevention. Granted I have a pretty low income 
