Synchrony Financial
Financials
61
out of 100. Number 114 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where Synchrony Financial does well
- Renewals 0 of 20. Nothing found.
- Arbitration CAN be rejected: a 45-day mailed opt-out (with small-claims and active-military carveouts), and the rights waiver is spelled out in plain all-caps — more disclosure and exit room than many issuers offer.
- Privacy: Synchrony honors the Global Privacy Control opt-out, provides a CCPA rights portal (access, erasure, correction) with a no-retaliation pledge and published annual metrics, and states it does not sell California consumers' data 'for monetary consideration.' Marketing-data sharing with third parties and nonaffiliates IS limit-able via 1-844-894-3960 or the LiveRamp opt-out, and California/Vermont billing addresses are automatically treated as opted out of affiliate/nonaffiliate marketing sharing. No annual fee on the flagship card and a standard 23-day grace period.
You give up your right to a judge, a jury, and any class action — disputes go to one private arbitrator with weaker evidence-gathering and almost no appeal.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
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You give up your right to a judge, a jury, and any class action — disputes go to one private arbitrator with weaker evidence-gathering and almost no appeal. The clause covers everything (transactions, fees, fraud claims, even past conduct), extends to PayPal and debt collectors, batches mass claims in groups of 50, and survives even after you close the account. You can opt out only by mailing a signed notice within 45 days of opening.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IF YOU DO NOT REJECT IT, THIS SECTION WILL APPLY TO YOUR ACCOUNT, AND MOST DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND US WILL BE SUBJECT TO INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION. THIS MEANS THAT: (1) NEITHER A COURT NOR A JURY WILL RESOLVE ANY SUCH DISPUTE; (2) YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION OR SIMILAR PROCEEDING; (3) THE ABILITY TO OBTAIN DOCUMENTS, WITNESS STATEMENTS AND OTHER DISCOVERY IS GENERALLY MORE LIMITED IN ARBITRATION THAN IN COURT PROCEEDINGS; AND (4) APPEAL RIGHTS WILL BE LIMITED. ... This Arbitration section shall survive the repayment of all amounts owed, the termination, cancellation or suspension of the Agreement or your account or credit privileges...
PayPal Cashback Mastercard Account Agreement — Resolving a Dispute with Arbitration
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Synchrony can rewrite the deal whenever it wants — rates, fees, and charges — with only legally-required notice, and it can change its privacy policy entirely without any notice to you. Separately, it may raise or lower your credit limit and decline any charge for any reason.
Changes To This Agreement: We may change, add or delete terms of this Agreement, including interest rates, fees and charges. ... We reserve the right to modify or supplement this Privacy Policy at any time and without prior notice.
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Your data is shared with outside companies (including retailers and 'direct marketing companies') for their marketing, and even if you call to opt out, the opt-out does not stop sharing with the merchants and program sponsors tied to your card — they can still use your data for marketing of the credit program. Sharing for Synchrony's own marketing and joint marketing with other financial companies (including insurance companies) cannot be limited at all.
For nonaffiliates to market to you — Does Synchrony Bank share? Yes. ... Nonaffiliates we share with can include the retailer named on your account and direct marketing companies. ... Please keep in mind that, as permitted by federal law, if you choose to limit our sharing of information with nonaffiliates, your choice will not prohibit us from sharing your information with dealers/merchants/retailers/contractors/providers (and their affiliates and program sponsors) that accept the credit card in connection with maintaining and servicing the consumer credit program identified on your credit card agreement or credit card, including marketing of such program.
Synchrony Bank Consumer Credit Card Program Privacy Policy, Rev. 3/17
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Synchrony's own disclosure admits its ad-tracking counts as 'selling' your data under California law — identifiers and browsing history went to data-analytics and ad/marketing firms in the past year. Third-party trackers follow you across other websites to build ad audiences, and your browser's Do Not Track signal is ignored. The policy also lists voiceprint biometrics, call/meeting recordings, precise geolocation, and financial log-in credentials among collected data.
Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies may be considered a sale or sharing of Personal Information under the CCPA. Categories of Personal Information that we have sold under the CCPA include identifiers and Internet or other similar network activity. Categories of third parties to whom Personal Information is sold under the CCPA include data analytics providers and advertising and marketing providers. ... These third-party cookies collect information about our Site traffic by tracking users across websites and across time and generating reports for us to better understand our Site users and to create audiences for our advertisements based on such understanding. ... Do Not Track: We take no action in response to 'Do Not Track' requests received from user's web browsing software.
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You pre-authorize Synchrony, PayPal, and any future account owner or debt collector to robocall, text, and autodial your cell phone at any time — even if the messages cost you money — and every phone call you have with them can be recorded.
You consent to us and PayPal, Inc., as well as any other owner or servicer of your account, contacting you through any channel of communication and for any purpose and at any time, as permitted by applicable law. For informational, servicing, fraud, or collection related communications, you agree that we may use the phone numbers that you provide to us to contact your cellular phone or wireless device with text messages, artificial or prerecorded voice calls, and calls made by an automatic telephone dialing system. ... This consent applies even if you are charged for the call under your plan. ... For quality control, you allow us to listen to and/or record telephone calls between you and us.
PayPal Cashback Mastercard Account Agreement (Consent To Communications / Telephone Monitoring)
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Closing your account doesn't stop the data flow — Synchrony keeps sharing your information the same way afterward, and its retention policy lets it hold your data indefinitely for vague 'business requirements.'
When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice. ... We will retain your Personal Information until the Personal Information is no longer necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it was provided. We may retain your Personal Information for longer periods for specific purposes to the extent that we are obliged to do so in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, to protect you, other people, and us from fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access, as necessary to protect our legal rights, or for certain business requirements.
How these were found
Documents read live via browser_open on 2026-10-01: (1) PayPal Cashback Mastercard Account Agreement and application Terms and Conditions (rates accurate as of Jan 1, 2026) at synchronybankterms.com, Synchrony's official terms site; (2) CareCredit Rewards Mastercard / CareCredit Credit Card Account Agreement, rev 3/2026, at apply.syf.com (official), which contains the Synchrony Bank Consumer Credit Card Program GLBA Privacy Notice Rev. 3/17 used for the sharing table; (3) Synchrony Bank GLBA Privacy Policy for deposit accounts Rev. 3/17 (official PDF at synchronybank.com), which confirmed the 'no longer our customer' clause; (4) Online Privacy Policy effective July 1, 2025 at synchrony.com/legal/privacy-policy and synchrony.com/banking/privacy (REV 6/2025). No third-party mirrors were needed. Note the GLBA model privacy notices are dated Rev. 3/17 (March 2017); the sharing table quoted for the credit-card program was read in full from the official apply.syf.com document. All quotes verified verbatim via browser_open.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.