I genuinely don’t even know where to start with this because I feel like I just got my life together for five seconds and then everything blew up again.
So I’ve been working really hard to fix my finances. Like actually trying. I had an account with Synchrony that I wasn’t proud of, and I finally got to the point where I negotiated a settlement and was able to pay it off. It was about $1,000 total, and I had my final payment of $358 scheduled for April 20th.
I literally moved that $358 into my checking account that I use strictly for bills early and left it there untouched because I had everything squared away or so I thought. I wasn’t spending it, I wasn’t touching it, it was set aside for that specific synchrony payment.
Now here’s where everything goes sideways.
I had used MoneyLion in the past, but I had already contacted them beforehand and explicitly told them I did NOT authorize any further charges or for them to have access to my debit or bank information . I was told by a representative that my banking information was removed and that I would not be charged again.
Cool. Or so I thought. Because when April 15th came around and I wasn’t charged I figured I was in the clear with money lion.
TEN DAYS later, on April 20th (the literal day my Synchrony payment was supposed to go through), MoneyLion charges my account $334.97 anyway.
Since ACH transfers take a few days to actually process, my Synchrony payment didn’t immediately fail. But once everything settled, there wasn’t enough money in my account anymore because of that unauthorized charge. So my payment got returned for insufficient funds.
Because of that, my settlement basically got blown up, and now my balance with Synchrony jumped back up to around $750.
So just like that:
- $334.97 gone from an unauthorized charge
- My $358 payment failed
- My balance increased again
- I’m now dealing with fees and a broken agreement
All after I genuinely tried to do everything right.
I called MoneyLion multiple times and they basically just say “sorry” and tell me to contact my bank. No actual solution. No accountability.
I called my bank, and they said I have to file a dispute, but they won’t even start investigating until I get a letter in the mail, sign it, and mail it back. So now I’m just… waiting. With like $200 left in my account, because I have to pay rent of course in 2 days.
I feel like I finally got to a point where I was trying to be responsible and clean things up, and this just completely derailed everything. And I feel guilty for not keeping tabs on the bank account, however according to my ultra type A spreadsheet absolutely NOTHING should have came out of that account before the 1st except that synchrony payment.
Has anyone dealt with something like this before?
Do I actually have a shot at getting my money back?
And is there anything I should be doing right now besides waiting on my bank?
Because right now I just feel stuck and honestly really defeated.
And yes I had chatGPT write this because it is 4 am and I have been up all night calling and messaging chat bots and writing emails trying ti find some sort of resolution where I am not the total loser.
Insanely questionable and deceptive business practices but I am not naive to that just can’t believe I’m at the shit end of the stick right now
Edit: Just clarifying a couple of things, I only have $200 because I DID pay my rent so don’t worry I’m not getting evicted lmao.
And the only reason why it took me 9 days to notice, is because today is payday so I was moving the rent money into my rent account and thats when I saw that long forgotten $334.
And just one more thing I’d like to add, the conversation that I had un authorizing the transaction with money lion took place nearly a WEEK before it was set to be withdrawn (April 15th) and the agent was absolutely telling me verbatim that my information was all removed and I would not be charged (clearly this was false). I am confused on why if they had my information this whole time of course why they didn’t charge me on the 15th and waited til the 20th.