Posting this here because PayPal doesn't seem to read their messages and just tells me contract Synchrony Bank (easier said than done as you can tell from my post). I have never dealt with such terrible bank (or any business for that matter) as Sychrony. Has anyone else experience this? Why does PayPal stays with them?
Letter to PayPal begins here---------
Somewhat sadly, I cancelled my PayPal Extras MasterCard after multiple, aggravating phone conversations with Synchrony Bank, which I now believe is the absolute worst bank that you could have chosen for your product.
Although uncertain due to Synchrony’s complete inability to provide answers, I believe my problems started when I tried to use my PayPal MasterCard to transfer money as a Christmas gift via Xoom.com (another PayPal company). I normally use by bank account to transfer funds on Xoom, after buying my daughter a car for Christmas, a change in my wife's payday cycles, and changes to a stock brokerage account that made withdrawals slower, it was the only way to get it done before the holiday. However, the card was declined multiple times, without providing any reason for the denial. The card had a zero balance, and the amount was well within both cash advance and total credit limits.
After these unsuccessful attempts, it appears Synchrony put a block on my account. I did not find this out until a couple of days later, when looking up anticipated gift delivery dates for some Amazon purchases, I found out through Amazon’s site that my card had been declined there as well. I tried to access my card information through my PayPal account, but was blocked when it tried to pass me off to Synchrony’s site.
I then called Synchrony’s customer service line to find out why. After having verified the card number, last 4 of my social security number, and DOB, I was told that they would call me with a security code to verify the line. However they would only call my home phone number, which was tied to the account, and I was at work, so that was a dead end.
That night, I tried again from home, making sure to call them from my cell phone so my home phone would be available for the “security code” call. After once again providing all of the previously the requested information, my phone rang with an automated message giving the code. However, before the call had even finished, their representative on my cell phone told me to disregard it and hang up. He explained that since my home phone utilized VOIP, it was not “secure.” That seemed odd, given that today most VOIP uses SSL or TLS, just like their website, but even more annoyingly, I was told that since the only phone number on my account was tied to a VOIP line, I would not be able to get answers over the phone.
Their solution was to send me a form in the U.S. mail, as if that was more secure than VOIP telephone line or an encrypted email (my suggestion). I was told it would take 7-10 day to complete this process, making the card worthless for any Christmas purchases. Aside from online purchases, I had originally obtained to the card largely to use during travel, but this ordeal demonstrated that it would be worthless for that purpose. If they won’t let me talk to them from my home using VOIP, or from my desk line at work, surely they would be worthless from a hotel in another state or country. After considering this, along with their propensity to suspend my account after legitimate attempts to use the card, it became clear this MasterCard was not going to serve my needs. I asked them to close my account, which they quickly did despite that fact that my request did not come through a “secure” channel.
A couple of days later, I received emails from them informing me that my account had been frozen due to potentially fraudulent charges. These emails actually only consisted of a link taking me to a “secure” website where I could download the letter. Of course, had there been actually fraud, waiting a few days to notify me would have only compounded the problem. Since their letter asked me to call a different phone number than the customer service number found on the back of my card, and the fact that I was still curious as to why they denied my original charges, I called them up. As before, they asked for all of the same information as our previous interactions, plus my mother’s maiden name, and then I again, they mentioned that they would need to send a secure code to the phone number on my account. I knew the call was doomed at this point, and pointed out that my home phone number used VOIP, at which point they offered to send a secure form. All this just to verify if there was indeed fraud on my account!!! I just resigned, confident that my decision to cancel the account was the correct one.
I am by no means ignorant of fraud methods plaguing credit cards. For most of the past decade, I administered and later managed the department overseeing a corporate card account with a monthly spend of over a million dollars. I both sourced and wrote the most recent contract for my company’s cards, and the card issued in my name card had a six-digit credit limit. I am certified as a purchase card professional, have spent a great deal of time analyzing spend patterns and have created at least one audit flag (which I shared with our bank) that was able to catch fraudulent transactions that slipped through MasterCard and our bank’s automated fraud detection systems.
In both my professional and personal bank interactions, I have NEVER seen such a convoluted and asinine verification system. While Synchrony claims it is for security, it actually makes it worse by introducing delays and obscuring any charges from the legitimate cardholder. Until know, I would have doubted that a company with Synchrony’s pathetic level of customer service could actually exist in this day and age.
I have used PayPal for many years, increasingly find it to be my preferred payment method, and genuinely admire the company. However, its choice to tie a branded product (the “PayPal Extras MasterCard”) to such a shoddy bank is both hurting its customers and damaging its reputation.
