Synchrony and Dick’s Sporting Goods Extend Credit Card Program Partnership

Dick's Sporting Goods

Synchrony and Dick’s Sporting Goods have extended their two-decade-long strategic partnership that includes a credit card program.

With this multi-year extension, athletes will be able to continue using their ScoreRewards Credit Card and ScoreRewards Mastercard online and in-store at the retailer’s more than 800 locations, the companies said in a Thursday (Sept. 26) press release.

“Our athletes are the center of everything that we do, and with the Dick’s ScoreRewards Credit Card we’re able to reward our most loyal athletes with benefits that matter to them,” Navdeep Gupta, chief financial officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods, said in the release.

The ScoreRewards Credit Card Program includes the ability to earn rewards “2X faster,” exclusive offers and digital account management, according to the release.

The company’s locations at which the cards can be used include Dick’s Sporting GoodsHouse of SportGolf Galaxy and Public Lands, per the release.

“Through enhanced technology capabilities, expanded data and analytics and a superior in-store athlete experience, we aim to ensure that the program continues to be a strong differentiator for Dick’s,” Darrell Owens, executive vice president and CEO, Lifestyle at Synchrony, said in the release.

More than 60% of consumers who hold at least one co-branded credit card said that their most frequently used co-branded credit card is affiliated with a retailer — a far greater share than said the same of any other kind of brand, such as travel, local business or technology company — according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Elan collaboration, “The Role of Strategic Partnerships in Consumer Credit Cards.”

The report found that co-branded cards affiliated with retailers are popular among consumers because the cardholders find it easy to use rewards and other benefits.

Synchrony expanded its portfolio by adding or renewing more than 15 programs in the second quarter, including partnerships with Virgin RedJerome’s FurnitureVerizon and Installation Made Easy.

“We continued to leverage our proprietary data and insights, innovative technological capabilities and diversified product suite to add new partnerships, expand our distribution networks and deliver enhanced digital wallet capabilities,” Synchrony President and CEO Brian Doubles said July 17 during the company’s quarterly earnings call.


Treasury Secretary: DOGE Has Found $50 Billion in Savings 

Treasury Department

The U.S. Treasury Secretary says a new government cost-cutting effort has found $50 billion in savings.

Speaking to Fox News Tuesday (Feb. 18) evening, Scott Bessent said the work by the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a group created by executive order last month, could ultimately lead to “several percent of GDP that we are saving.”

The secretary added that the public doesn’t “have to be concerned about any of this,” in reference to attempts by the Elon Musk-connected team to access taxpayer data, leading Democratic lawmakers to raise concerns about privacy.

At the Internal Revenue Service, Bessent said, there’s one member of the DOGE team “looking at an outdated IT system, that’s all they’re doing.”

Bessent said two people at Treasury had “read only access” to the payments systems, meaning they don’t have the ability to make any changes.  “There are very strict guardrails around them,” he said.

The $50 billion figure is slightly lower than the $55 billion in savings DOGE claims to have found so far. However, a report from Bloomberg News Wednesday (Feb. 19) notes that while DOGE says it has saved $55 billion, its website accounts for just $16.6 billion.

That site also includes an error, the report added, mislabeling an $8 million contract as $8 billion, reducing the amount of the group’s itemized savings by nearly half.

DOGE’s efforts have helped bring about hundreds of thousands of government layoffs, some of which have been rescinded as departments realized they were missing crucial workers. 

For example, the mass firings led to the dismissal of a team in the U.S. Department of Agriculture working on the government’s response to the avian flu. The department has said it is now trying to reverse the firings.

In another incident last week, the National Nuclear Security Administration rescinded firings for employees responsible for monitoring the nation’s nuclear stockpile, only to discover it had no way of getting in touch with said employees.

The idea for DOGE was first floated last year, with President Donald Trump announcing that Musk would lead the project. However, the administration has since said that Musk was an advisor to the White House, and not in charge of the department.

In a recent interview with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, Amias Gerety, a Treasury official for the Obama administration, warned of the consequences if DOGE’s efforts to access payment systems created uncertainty.

“If there’s one phrase that dominates discussions about the Treasury’s role in the nation’s finances, it’s ‘full faith and credit,’” Gerety said.

“The full faith and credit of the U.S. government should not be impeached. It’s literally in the [Constitution]. If you’re a bank, if you’re an investor, if you’re a government contractor, if you’re a retiree receiving Social Security — you have to ask, will my payments go through? That uncertainty should be felt around the world.”