Synchrony surely is not resting on their laurels after reporting strong fourth quarter 2018 results last week. Two weeks ago, we wrote about the firm’s solid performance, with double-digit growth in the retail card business, and 7% growth in the CareCredit business unit. Most importantly, though, they settled a large potential lawsuit with Walmart.
Yesterday, the firm announced the rollout of the Synchrony Home Card. The new plastic works much like Synchrony’s Care Credit Card; as a private label credit card that creates a large closed loop. With CareCredit, you can finance many healthcare expenses, from removing a miniscus from your knee to getting a nose job. The potential for CareCredit is incredible. Just for elective surgery, alone, the American Society of Plastic Surgery says Americans had 17 million elective procedures
Synchrony enables approved retailers in the home repair and home goods sectors to process outside of the MasterCard/Visa network. This story in a Connecticut paper says the Discover Global Network is running the payments infrastructure..
It looks like Discover ’s process will work as a restricted authorization network (RAN). Here is a link to the topic of RAN from the Mercator library. It is an oldie, but goody, dating ten years ago. The underlying technology is the same.
Synchrony will not have a problem rolling out the card. No annual fee, plus:
- Six-months promotional financing on purchases of $299 or more at any retailer that accepts the card.
- 12-to-60-months promotional financing on qualifying purchases at thousands of participating Synchrony HOME locations nationwide.
A win for Synchrony, a win for Discover. A win for merchants.
…Maybe it is time for that kitchen upgrade!
Overview by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group