Background

Hi everyone, I’m ISAAC. In March 2020, I applied for a Cathay Pacific credit card. At the time, the welcome bonus was 65,000 points after spending $5,000 within 3 months. I applied for the card at the end of March, and in June I used it to prepay $5,000 in federal taxes. There was very limited information about this card on the forum, but many people pointed out that this is a terrible bank. After going through this myself, I fully experienced Synchrony’s true nature, so I’m writing this up to share with everyone.

My Experience

Before applying for the Cathay Pacific credit card, I had seen comments saying that points normally take 2-3 statements to post, so I kept waiting until September. But I still had not received any points.

Calling Customer Service

At the end of September, I called the number on the back of the card, 866-273-9028. A very friendly male representative answered. After checking my account, he told me that my Asia Miles account was not in their system. I was shocked, because I was absolutely sure I had entered my membership number when I applied. The representative then updated my member information in the system and told me the points should post in about 1-2 statements. After waiting through 2 more statements, I finally received points—but only 151 points. I checked my transaction history and found that those were points from a restaurant purchase in August, not the welcome bonus.

So I called the number on the back of the card again. This time, the representative was a woman. After hearing the full story, she opened a case for investigation and gave me a case number, saying that someone would contact me soon. I then waited another month. By December, the points still had not posted, so I called the number on the back of the card again, explained everything, and asked the representative to check the status of the case. She actually told me the case had already been closed, even though no one had contacted me during that entire month. This representative was very friendly and opened another case for me, again promising that someone would contact me soon.

Paper Mail

Finally, on December 25, I received the following letter.

This letter came from the customer service center in Florida. After receiving the form, I filled it out right away and mailed it by regular mail to the address provided by customer service. To make sure they understood the full situation, I also wrote a separate letter explaining everything from start to finish. About 2 weeks after mailing it, I received two replies:

When I received the second letter, I was speechless. That was when I really understood what this bank was like. Customer service was extremely unprofessional, and even their handling of paper mail was sloppy. The phone representatives were all polite, but their authority was very limited, and they simply could not deliver on what they promised. Still, I followed the instructions and called Asia Miles to confirm that I did not have a second account under my name.

Filing a CFPB Complaint

After confirming that, on January 16, 2021, I wrote another strongly worded complaint letter to Synchrony and mailed it to the Florida customer service center. At the same time, I also submitted the complaint to the CFPB. The CFPB complaint website was very easy to use. After I filled it out, I quickly received an email confirming that my complaint had been forwarded to the bank and that the bank was required to respond within 60 days. Around noon on January 20, I received a call from Synchrony Bank from SD. The caller seemed to be a specialist handling CFPB complaints. She confirmed the details of my complaint and promised to verify the situation and get back to me. On January 28, I received an email from the CFPB informing me that the bank had responded. I opened my inbox and saw the following letter. It said I would receive the points within 7-10 business days, but in fact I received all of the points the very next morning, on January 29. I have to say, the CFPB handled the complaint very efficiently and quickly, and it also seemed that the staff involved had real authority.

Summary

Based on this experience, if you run into a similar dispute with Synchrony, I would recommend skipping regular customer service and going directly to the CFPB. The bank’s phone representatives were all polite, but their actual competence left a lot to be desired.

About the CFPB

CFPB stands for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is a U.S. government agency that protects consumers’ rights in financial matters. If you feel that a bank has treated you unfairly, or if the bank refuses to honor what it owes you, you can file a complaint through the CFPB. The CFPB will have staff contact the appropriate department at the bank and relay your complaint. Generally speaking, banks do take CFPB cases seriously. Many issues that cannot be resolved through direct contact can be handled much more efficiently once the CFPB gets involved.

Click “submit complain” in the upper right corner.

You need to complete five steps:

  • Step 1: What is this complaint about?
  • Step 2: What type of problem are you having?
  • Step 3: What happened?
  • Step 4: What company is this complaint about?
  • Step 5: Who are the people involved?

Most finance-related issues are covered.

Of course, the CFPB is not all-powerful. For example, PayPal, that old bully, does not seem particularly afraid of the CFPB. Also, with some banks such as Chase and AMEX, if you are aggressively gaming their promotions and then use the CFPB to pressure them into giving in, they may satisfy you this one time and then shut you down afterward. Maybe for three to five years.

Have you ever contacted the CFPB? Feel free to share your experience~