[Update 2020.9] In the ninth month after one of my cards was shut down, I applied for a new credit card from Synchrony Bank. The denial reason was no longer the one described below; instead it was listed as Risk Source, which I suspect was related to my IP. So, if Synchrony has shut down one of your cards and you want to apply for a new one, it may be better to wait 6 months, or even until the ninth month. YMMV.

This DP may not necessarily apply to people who were completely shut down by Synchrony (including all cards, Store Card included), but it may still offer some reference value.

[The following is the original article from June 2020]

Over the past few days, Synchrony Bank’s Rakuten Visa card suddenly became an exceptionally strong card. See the following 101 quick news post:

That definitely tempted me, and I also did not really have many other cards left to apply for. Right after finishing that quick news post, I applied immediately. Reality was harsh, though: I was not instantly approved, and the application went pending for review. Today the review result came out (during the pandemic there was no physical letter; the notice was sent by email).

The reason for denial: one of my Synchrony Bank credit cards had previously been closed by the bank.

Thinking back, I previously had a co-branded PayPal / Synchrony Bank card. It was one of the few US credit cards with no FTF and 2% cashback on all purchases. See: Synchrony PayPal Cashback credit card. However, this card was not very forgiving. I used it heavily while back in my home country, which triggered a Fraud flag. The process to clear that up was extremely troublesome, so I eventually gave up, and later Synchrony directly shut down the card.

I checked my credit report, and the card was closed last November, so it had only been about half a year at that point. I do not know when this restriction goes away. This policy feels a bit like Chase’s policy: if Chase proactively closes your credit card account, you usually cannot get out of the doghouse in the short term either.

However, based on my own experience, Synchrony’s Amazon Store Card was not affected. There is very little consolidated information on approval policies from smaller issuers like Synchrony Bank, so I hope documenting this data point will be helpful to readers.