Back in the day, I was a controller of six small divisions of Ford Credit, one of which was Consumer Loans.

Our philosophy was lend money to support the sales of Ford cars, trucks and even tractors and farm implements.

And we made very good money doing it: rates were high in the states in which we operated, such as Arizona, and even with higher losses because of aggressive lending policies, we had the highest returns on equity in Ford.

So, here’s Synchrony, a credit card company operating out of Florida and favored by dentists and doctors for lending for procedures.

I wanted to reopen my Synchrony account to pay for some dental work I recently had done. Submitted all the paperwork digitally, answered all the questions, and they just couldn’t bring themselves to reopen my closed account. And I have a mid-700 credit score.

The Synchrony policy strikes me as nutso. Their simple answer would be to update my account and provide the credit. That’s what my other three credit card companies would probably do.

But no go with Synchrony, so they lose $700 in earning balances, and wind up with a blog criticizing their lending practices. One wonders how many other profit making opportunities they’ve forgone.

Ah well, can’t cure stupid.