The most interesting part of the article is they plan to go after some of the same contracts that we have seen traditionally carried by BofA/Chase/Citi/Barclays/AmEx from airlines and related. I believe the main one up for bidding is United and perhaps offering a US version card for a foreign carrier.

Synchrony does an okay job on some of the card it offers. They haven't been offering contactless tap on many of the cards and their cardholder websites are not as rich with data as other companies. I suspect even if they offered competitive pricing in a RFP response, their lack of similar experiences might keep them from winning.

What is likely more relevant is they have not been paying off the blog portals or offering much SUB (a $25 one comes to mind). Maybe I am okay with them not trying to create cardholders who will just cycle their cards, but they also could do more to attract a larger share of ongoing spending. They seem to have allowed AmEx and Capital One to match or top many of their non-store reward cards too easily.