Jump to content

Synchrony cutting limits and closing cards


Cookie4253
 Share

Recommended Posts

I am so beside myself right now. 

I worked so so so so hard over the last 4 years to rebuild my credit and get my scores up above 750. 

Synchrony has slashed all my limits to the amount of the balances and closed 2 accounts with balances. 

 

I've never been late on any of them,  at or over the limits. 

Today was the day I actually have a anxiety attack. 

Experian alerted me that accounts were updated (thinking great, I just about paid all of them off). 

Then another email from Experian saying my credit score was updated. 

 

I was so excited to see how much my score went up. Imagine my surprise when my score dropped 97 points! I was in shock. As I read the notifications one after the other, closed, closed, closed, limit decreased, limit decreased. All I could do was sit there and cry! 

 

Has this happened to anyone? 

How am I going to repair this damage? 

Edited by Cookie4253
Link to comment
Share on other sites


If you have no delinquencies on the Synch accounts, then longer-trrm there's no significant hurt from the closures (just residual frustration).

 

I write "longer-term" because, for the present the now maxed-out/closed Synch accounts are what nailed your credit score due to "high utilization".  Once these accounts are paid off, the hit to your credit score should mostly or fully reverse itself.

 

You're not the first to be on this boat.  Truth is, Synchrony is a reliable partner... until they're not.  My general advice to people is not to load up on more than 2 Synch accounts.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Cookie4253 said:

How am I going to repair this damage? 

You can't. What's done is done!

 

Unfortunately, every bank will probably do what Synchrony is notorious for and close your account if you carry a high balance running for a long time and make minimum payments. They are the worst when it comes to credit limit reductions and account closures.

 

I would just add that to protect yourself, diversify your credit card issuers and try to pay all your credit card accounts in full each month.

 

80% of people with balances from other creditors who have 3 to 5 Synchrony credit cards will eventually have their CLD or account closed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Damaging people's credit scores should be illegal! 

Why not wait until someone pays off the card to decrease the limit or close the account? I don't get it. 

 

Funny thing is, they advertise on their Web site about how they strive to help people, how credit scores are so important and how making payments on time and yadda yadda yadda. Damn hypocrites lol 

 

I didn't want crap one in my wallet looks like I will be kicking synchrony out of my wallet as well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cookie4253 said:

I didn't want crap one in my wallet looks like I will be kicking synchrony out of my wallet as well. 

As of now, U.S. credit card debt has exceeded a trillion dollars, charge-offs and bankruptcies are on the rise, consumer debt trends are increasing, inflation is still affecting everyone, people are in financial trouble due to company layoffs, and bills are everywhere, and need to be paid.

 

All banks are run by algorithms, and if they detect a risk, the algorithms respond to the risk by making adjustments, such as CLDs or closing accounts to mitigate the potential risk.

 

Capital One is doing CLD every year to folks who have excellent credit. Your 750 score is good enough to apply with BofA, Chase, or Wells Fargo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Cookie4253 said:

I am so beside myself right now. 

I worked so so so so hard over the last 4 years to rebuild my credit and get my scores up above 750. 

Synchrony has slashed all my limits to the amount of the balances and closed 2 accounts with balances. 

 

I've never been late on any of them,  at or over the limits. 

Today was the day I actually have a anxiety attack. 

Experian alerted me that accounts were updated (thinking great, I just about paid all of them off). 

Then another email from Experian saying my credit score was updated. 

 

I was so excited to see how much my score went up. Imagine my surprise when my score dropped 97 points! I was in shock. As I read the notifications one after the other, closed, closed, closed, limit decreased, limit decreased. All I could do was sit there and cry! 

 

Has this happened to anyone? 

How am I going to repair this damage? 

This is what happened to me in 2008. One credit card cut my limit to 105% of my balance at the time, then they all did, jumping my Util from 4% to 90%. My scores took a 100 point hit. I got so mad I made up my mind to not pay them a penny more, and I didn't. I figured if my credit was to trashed I might have well done something that would trash it. Fast forward about 8 years and all the bad TLs are gone. My scores are rising and are mid-700-ish Getting close to the Good-to-Excellent range. I save my money and paid off my car note early, figuring less debt and paid-in-full-satis TLs would make me look like a better risk. How foolish of me. Paid off the car and took a 40 point hit!!! Two months later I paid of my mortgage. The two of them freed up well over $1,000 a month of cash flow. Another 60 point hit. It took me three years to get those 60 points back.

 

What are he lessons to be learned?

 

1: Credit is a 3-card monte game stacked against you. Heads they win, tails you lose.

 2: Creditors will do anything they can to screw you over, any time they want.

3: Just like playing Global Thermonuclear War (like in the movie War Games) the only way we can win is to not play.

4: Synchrony is good at screwing with its customers. There are stories all over the Board about the same thing happening to them as happened to you. Now they are Balance Chasing - as you pay down your balance, they reduce your lie accordingly. They have made up their mind that they and you are finished. I have refused CCs at several stores that I shop at regularly because Synchrony handles their credit cards. I just tell them "Synchrony made me a Former Customer of theirs forever, and they give your store that same status with me - Former shopping place forever.

5: Credit Scores are tillted to favor the lender, not the borrower.  As I heard a friend of mine say, "One AW S#*t cancels 100 Attaboys".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Cookie4253 said:

How am I going to repair this damage? 

 

Breathe deep and exhale. Sorry for the bump in the road you hit, but your credit isn't ruined. Credit score and utilization has no memory.

Just come up with a plan of action and pay off the balances while finding a couple or more of other issuers that are willing to play ball with you.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, hdporter said:

If you have no delinquencies on the Synch accounts, then longer-term there's no significant hurt from the closures (just residual frustration).

 

I write "longer-term" because, for the present the now maxed-out/closed Synch accounts are what nailed your credit score due to "high utilization".  Once these accounts are paid off, the hit to your credit score should mostly or fully reverse itself.

 

You're not the first to be on this boat.  Truth is, Synchrony is a reliable partner... until they're not.  My general advice to people is not to load up on more than 2 Synch accounts.

I think hdporter hit the nail on the head. I would just add that all of the big issuers are reliable partners... unless/until they're not.

 

 

12 hours ago, MP80 said:

Unfortunately, every bank will probably do what Synchrony -did- and close your account if you carry a high balance running for a long time and make minimum payments. They are the worst when it comes to credit limit reductions and account closures.

 

I would just add that to protect yourself, diversify your credit card issuers and try to pay all your credit card accounts in full each month.

Diversity is certainly a key to stave off this sort of issue in the future.

 

 

12 hours ago, MP80 said:

80% of people with balances from other creditors who have 3 to 5 Synchrony credit cards will eventually have their CLD or account closed.

I am very interested in the dataset you pulled that percentage from. Care to share a link? This is the type of hard data that interests me.

 

 

8 hours ago, MP80 said:

Your 750 score is good enough to apply with BofA, Chase, or Wells Fargo.

Was potentially good enough before the current score drop from the slam in utilization.  I would search and carefully choose a few good cards from 2 or more issuers to try to apply for based on current score.  Amex has a nice no initial hard pull pre-approval method, and Capital One is a fine issuer and may be willing to let you in sooner.

 

 

2 hours ago, Flyingifr said:

 

So, the moral of your story is if someone who lent you money makes you angry then just steal from them?

 

 

 

 

Edited by greendeh
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, greendeh said:

Was potentially good enough before the current score drop from the slam in utilization.  I would search and carefully choose a few good cards from 2 or more issuers to try to apply for based on current score.  Amex has a nice no initial hard pull pre-approval method, and Capital One is a fine issuer and may be willing to let you in sooner.

 

 

I was approved for a Discover last year as well with a lower credit score than OP, although my utilization was much better at the time.  They also have a pre-approval page.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Need to diversify. Sounds like you had many Synch cards and nothing else. That's a recipe for disaster, which, sadly, you have found. 

 

The good news is this gives you the opportunity to rebuild the right way, with quality issuers and cards that actually suit your spending habits. Also, maybe it gives you the impetuous to pay off those pesky balances. I can't imagine you aren't paying 30% interest on most of those cards. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, shifter said:

Need to diversify. Sounds like you had many Synch cards and nothing else. That's a recipe for disaster, which, sadly, you have found. 

 

The good news is this gives you the opportunity to rebuild the right way, with quality issuers and cards that actually suit your spending habits. Also, maybe it gives you the impetuous to pay off those pesky balances. I can't imagine you aren't paying 30% interest on most of those cards. 

I only had 4 accounts with them. No latest on any other accounts. I do have major bank cards. Chase, Citi, discover. 

3 auto loans, 2 paid off, 1 never late, 

Personal loans through my CU paid off never late. 

 

29% int. 

I used Lowes and Amazon frequently and only carried 30% balances every month. 

 

It doesn't matter. I'll come back from this just like I did before. It just SUCKS that I was on my way back up and they had just had to knock me back down. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cookie4253 said:

It just SUCKS that I was on my way back up and they had just had to knock me back down. 

I don't really understand how this was such a big knockdown. If you have all those other cards, once you pay off the balances, your score will go back up. And unless you were planning a big app in the next month, the score drop is meaningless. I must be missing something. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, shifter said:

I don't really understand how this was such a big knockdown. If you have all those other cards, once you pay off the balances, your score will go back up. And unless you were planning a big app in the next month, the score drop is meaningless. I must be missing something. 

big app in 2 weeks 

I paid everything off. 2 accounts not reflecting payments yet on reports (I missed the reporting date by 1 day). 

The lender has the receipts showing them paid to 0 bal. 

 

To me it's a big deal, it might not be to anyone else but it is to me. 

Since this has happened I've come down I'm not panicking anymore it'll be okay. (that's what I keep telling myself lol) 

Edited by Cookie4253
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, greendeh said:

I am very interested in the dataset you pulled that percentage from. Care to share a link? This is the type of hard data that interests me.

Go search for various credit forums master threads on Synchrony adverse action CLDs and account closures you will gather empirical data to reach the 80% conclusion as those former Synchrony customers reported.

 

Synchrony Bank is so hated that excellent credit profilers ditched all their issuing credit cards. I will remind you that Comenity and Barclays are similar to Synchrony's tactic. Most people with exceptional credit will not apply for credit cards from these issuers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MP80 said:

Go search for various credit forums master threads on Synchrony adverse action CLDs and account closures you will gather empirical data to reach..

And here I thought you had a sweet dataset for me.


I HAVE searched various credit forums master threads on Synchrony adverse action CLDs and account closures over the past year+.  I have even saved all those threads and have a Master Master Synchrony thread folder. This thread has already been saved in that folder.


What I can conclude is that Synchrony has a much higher tenancy for closures than other issuers and that 100% of the people that had adverse action CLDs and account closures had adverse action CLDs and account closures.


Is the one out of 5 people "safe"? Or do they get put back in the pool like a lottery? Like take 100 people and 20 make it. Those 20 go back in the pool and repeats. Repeat that 25 times and you have 20 people safe out of 2020 make 0.0099%


Does "eventually" have any form of time frame? days, weeks, months, years, decades?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, greendeh said:

Does "eventually" have any form of time frame? days, weeks, months, years, decades?

It's irrelevant, the bottom line is they ruined the reputations similar to what Capital One is pursuing by CLD towards good customers without blemished credit. Once you go down this path there's no return, your relationship is finished. 

 

It's also true that OP didn't stiff Synchrony for this dreadful treatment, again, by repeatedly showing how this card issuer leaves no escape route for their customers, you have to leave room to reserve the road trajectory for yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/5/2024 at 9:15 PM, Cookie4253 said:

I am so beside myself right now. 

I worked so so so so hard over the last 4 years to rebuild my credit and get my scores up above 750. 

Synchrony has slashed all my limits to the amount of the balances and closed 2 accounts with balances. 

 

I've never been late on any of them,  at or over the limits. 

Today was the day I actually have a anxiety attack. 

Experian alerted me that accounts were updated (thinking great, I just about paid all of them off). 

Then another email from Experian saying my credit score was updated. 

 

I was so excited to see how much my score went up. Imagine my surprise when my score dropped 97 points! I was in shock. As I read the notifications one after the other, closed, closed, closed, limit decreased, limit decreased. All I could do was sit there and cry! 

 

Has this happened to anyone? 

How am I going to repair this damage? 

 

If you have an account with a credit union I would suggest that you take out a personal loan to consolidate the accounts into the loan.  

 

I've seen BECU be very lenient when it comes to debt ratio.  My mom did this with Navy and her scores jumped up from 640 to 815 after Navy paid all the accounts off.  Then once all the bureaus updated she applied for the Navy Federal Visa card and was approved.  Navy has given mom close to $70,000 total between visa, car loan and personal loan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, ShawnPY1972 said:

 

If you have an account with a credit union I would suggest that you take out a personal loan to consolidate the accounts into the loan.  

 

I've seen BECU be very lenient when it comes to debt ratio.  My mom did this with Navy and her scores jumped up from 640 to 815 after Navy paid all the accounts off.  Then once all the bureaus updated she applied for the Navy Federal Visa card and was approved.  Navy has given mom close to $70,000 total between visa, car loan and personal loan.

I did what I said I was going to do.

I kicked them all out of my wallet. 

What they didn't close they lowered the credit limits and it looked like I was at 100% utilization. I paid those off and closed them. 

They already hit me for almost 100 points so I figured paying them off at closing them can't hurt me anymore. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/6/2024 at 11:56 AM, Flyingifr said:

This is what happened to me in 2008. One credit card cut my limit to 105% of my balance at the time, then they all did, jumping my Util from 4% to 90%. My scores took a 100 point hit. I got so mad I made up my mind to not pay them a penny more, and I didn't. I figured if my credit was to trashed I might have well done something that would trash it. Fast forward about 8 years and all the bad TLs are gone. My scores are rising and are mid-700-ish Getting close to the Good-to-Excellent range. I save my money and paid off my car note early, figuring less debt and paid-in-full-satis TLs would make me look like a better risk. How foolish of me. Paid off the car and took a 40 point hit!!! Two months later I paid of my mortgage. The two of them freed up well over $1,000 a month of cash flow. Another 60 point hit. It took me three years to get those 60 points back.

 

What are he lessons to be learned?

 

1: Credit is a 3-card monte game stacked against you. Heads they win, tails you lose.

 2: Creditors will do anything they can to screw you over, any time they want.

3: Just like playing Global Thermonuclear War (like in the movie War Games) the only way we can win is to not play.

4: Synchrony is good at screwing with its customers. There are stories all over the Board about the same thing happening to them as happened to you. Now they are Balance Chasing - as you pay down your balance, they reduce your lie accordingly. They have made up their mind that they and you are finished. I have refused CCs at several stores that I shop at regularly because Synchrony handles their credit cards. I just tell them "Synchrony made me a Former Customer of theirs forever, and they give your store that same status with me - Former shopping place forever.

5: Credit Scores are tillted to favor the lender, not the borrower.  As I heard a friend of mine say, "One AW S#*t cancels 100 Attaboys".

Did any of the credit card companies you shafted try to get judgements against you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like many things one man’s meat is another’s poison. 
 

I have two Synchrony cards, the Verizon is actually an excellent card if you use Verizon and Cathay Pacific if you fly them frequently which I do.

 

Use them and pay in full and you can rack up nice bonuses.  Just don’t apply unless you actually take full advantage of them and make  only a few choices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines