The title pretty much explains it - I’m interested in a couple of cards from them, specifically the Verizon card, the Lowes card, and the Venmo card (I think that is through them). Mainly because the perks of those cards align with my spending/I utilize all three vendors a lot (Verizon for my phone, the Lowes in my town is much better stocked than the Home Depot usually, and I use Venmo whenever it’s accepted). But, obviously a lot of people seem to not care for Synchrony and I’m sure there’s valid feedback for that. Should I really be wary?
I have Care Credit with them. I used to have a NewEgg card and Walmart card (before Capital One) that was through them. I also have a loan for 2 ATVs through them. I want to say, but not sure, PayPal Credit used to be through Synchrony or they had a deal or something along those lines. Anyways, I’ve not had a bad experience with them. I’ve always paid my statements in full, but I’ve never had to contact customer service. My bills have always been right (no weird or unauthorized charges, so far).
Edit: I want to add I have used several of their “promotional financing” offers like 0% interest for so many months. Never had an issue with that either.
I have the PayPal Mastercard. It’s been fine, but I’ve never had to contact customer service about anything. It used to be a heavy-use card until I started using Amex for most things, now it’s just a backup for when Amex isn’t accepted.
My only gripe has been that it has an annoyingly low limit for my income; it’s my lowest-limit card even though I have other cards that I use less. Not a big deal, just a minor annoyance. Since it’s been nerfed to 1.5% I’m going to cancel it and replace it with another 2% card, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
@Floyd
They do easy and no hard pull credit line increases through the app. They for some reason only gave me $1000 for an Amazon Prime card but one year later it’s $10,000. My Verizon is now $20,000 after a few CLI requests over the last year. Shit even my Synchrony Mohawk charge card CLI went from like $8,000 to my current $20,000 limit. All without hard pulls.
Now, I have great credit so perhaps not surprising they don’t bust my balls for CLI requests but still, no complaints from me. I’m putting thousands on my Amazon Prime Store card, no issue.
Literally every 3-4 months I go ask them to double or more my credit line, and they’ve never said no.
@DanielKelvin2
It’s probably my low usage, since the best way to get CLIs is to post high statement balances and I rarely ever spend more than $100 a month on it. But still, it’s my lowest-limit card at $20k even though my income and credit score make me think it should be higher. I have a BoA card I use even less and they gave me $30k.
I’ve had the Verizon card for almost 4 years and I haven’t had any issues with it. I haven’t had any reason to contact customer service either though.
I have the Sam’s Club MasterCard with them. No issues. Will say, when I initially got issued the card, I think the wife threw it out thinking it was junk mail. I called to get it reissued and the guy in customer service sounded like he hated life and wanted someone to put him out of his misery.
@Brooklyn
> the guy in customer service sounded like he hated life and wanted someone to put him out of his misery.
To be fair, I probably would too if I had to work for Synchrony CS.
Have four cards with them and had my piano loan through them that I just paid off. Customer support was lacking on the loan and haven’t had to call for any others yet hopefully not ever.
The responses here are unhelpful. When someone says “x bank is horrible!” they are invariably speaking about customer service and anyone here saying it’s good but have not had to contact CS can be completely disregarded.
Synchrony is probably around D tier and handle a lot of business. They are non-transparent, incompetent, have been caught blatantly lying, and have very little authority. Avoid as often as possible because when issues arise and you need to call, which they will, you’re going to regret having them as an institution you may depend on. Not bad as a niche option tho.
I’ve had a HYSA account with them for close to 10 years and never had any problems, though I can’t speak to their credit cards.
They are fine. I have several with them (Amazon, Belk).
The real pain is Comenity — got my AAA card for the 5% groceries. I couldn’t even get it to activate.
I do not have cards thru them anymore and never had any issues with them when I did, but from what I’ve read Synchrony will balance chase you if they think you’re a high risk. If you don’t know what that is here is a site that explains it… https://www.supermoney.com/encyclopedia/balance-chasing
Edit to add: This is why I think most people hate Synchrony.
I’ve had their Amazon card for years and use their PayPal and Venmo cards several times a week. Never had any issues with them. I’d continue to apply for their cards if the perks make sense for my spend.
I have the ebay card. Never had to contact them and never had a problem. Pretty much goes for every credit card I’ve ever had.
I’ve had/have the Synchrony; Amazon card (Closed), PayPal Credit, PayPal Card, and Verizon Card.
I’ve only ever had good experiences.
Synchrony Approves almost anyone, so I think much of the bad experiences are Synchrony approving people who really aren’t ready for credit.
I’m really enjoying the Verizon card.
Prime Store Card was my first non-AU card when I was 18 (thinking that a store card would be easier to get approved for as a teenager with no credit file). Had 1 issue with them notifying me about possible fraud. Fraud dept called one morning, asked if I had put a charge on the card the previous day, I said no. They sent me a new card and I got a new card number, I changed my password on the Amazon account, etc. Turns out it was just Amazon putting a pending charge of $1 on the card to make sure the payment method was still active for a Subscribe & Save order that I only get once every 3 months.
Have a HYSA with them as well (was 4.75% when Discover/Amex/Cap1 HYSA’s were at 4.35%, from a bank I had heard of that didn’t require direct deposit, now that rates are coming down I may switch). Their banking side has a separate customer service team that I actually had a positive experience with, surprisingly enough. Needed to call to get my CD to close upon maturity and deposited into the HYSA. I could understand the rep I got, she was knowledgeable of how to help me with what I needed, and had no problem giving me her name or ID number if I needed to call back and talk with someone else later about the same issue.
Last thing I have with them is the Venmo Visa, I’ve been happy with that. App interface is good and I’ve had no issues with it.
Advice I would give with Synchrony: limit your exposure to them. Enough data points of them balance chasing or just closing down all your accounts if your credit limits creep too high. Only a soft pull on CLI can be nice, but can bite you later if it’s overused.
TLDR: CC customer service bad, Banking CS good, User interface by Synchrony bad, UI by partners possibly good. Limit exposure/high limits to avoid shutdown.
I hear the most about their Customer Support and Payments issues / slow processing, so I’ve included my data points below for those.
CS: I have them through the Venmo Visa and they’ve always had pretty spot-on customer service! Wait times are always low and it’s generally a 75/25 toss-up between off-shore and on-shore CS, but they’ve been helpful either way. Every time I have had to contact them, my issues have been resolved, and I haven’t had any issues that have taken more than one phone call to work out. My touchpoints have also included instances where my card has been credit restricted, so it’s not just the usual CS problems, too.
Payments: I post my payments through the Venmo app from my Venmo balance and they typically credit them within 24 hours.
Short answer: no.
People here just love to rag on Synchrony mostly because repeating what other people claim must be super cool or something. Ignore it. If you find a Synchrony-backed card with offers that suit your needs, go for it.
I have a Lowes card. I’ve never had any trouble with it.