Sued over a Synchrony account? First check who the plaintiff is.

Usually not. The FDCPA covers debt collectors, and a bank that collects its own debt is generally outside it. In the two Synchrony cases Brian reads on video, the papers Synchrony filed carried a notice that they came from a debt collector. Brian argues that the notice makes Synchrony a debt collector in each of those cases. Some state laws reach a bank anyway, depending on your state.

Brian asks for the assignment from PayPal. He says Synchrony took over a large group of PayPal Credit accounts, he thinks in 2018. In his reading, the buyer was Synchrony Financial. Synchrony Bank, the plaintiff, is a different company. He says he has never seen an assignment from PayPal. In one Washington case, the complaint did not name PayPal. It said only that the defendant contracted with the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s assignor.

In one Kansas case, the statement Synchrony attached showed a new balance of $0.00 after the charge-off. The complaint asked for $4,447.79. Brian says a charged-off account shows zero on the statement. His point is that a statement offered to prove a balance should not show zero. He calls that a contradiction Synchrony wrote itself. Ask for the statements that add up to the amount in the complaint.

In one Kansas case, a Synchrony employee titled Media Affidavit Senior Representative signed the affidavit of the balance, in Florida. Brian says it never shows the signer was there when Synchrony made the records. He calls it hearsay unless it fits the business records exception. In the debt buyer cases Brian has read, a Synchrony Media Representative signs an affidavit of sale in Florida. In one Midland case, that affidavit named Synchrony alone, while the bill of sale named four sellers.

Start with the bill of sale. In Brian’s cases it names four sellers: Synchrony Bank, RFS Holding, Synchrony Card Funding and Retail Finance Credit Services. One person signs for all four. Check the date of each signature against the transfer date the bill of sale states. Ask for the sale agreement it names. Brian also says you can serve Synchrony with a trial subpoena for your hearing date, as a non-party. He says you can do this even in a court whose rules shut off discovery against the plaintiff, as some small claims courts do. The rules for that depend on your state.

Brian says it does not, on its own. He tells clients to search Synchrony’s annual reports for the word securitization. He will not let a client swear to it in a counter affidavit until the client understands it.