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John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

Name: Partnership Card
Rating: 1.33 (882 reviews)

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1.32

Based on 882 reviews, last reviewed 12th Nov 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

No new 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

88%

Latest highest rating:

5

had a partnership card for years now. had a partnership card for years now. love the rewards vouchers on spends and the points you are awarded for using their credit card which i normally ... Read more Reviewed on: 12th June 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

Lost my £3000 payment to my Partnership card Lost my £3000 payment to my Partnership card through their app for 2 weeks, causing much stress and many phone calls trying to get my money back - as ... Read more Reviewed on: 12th November 2025

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About this product

Read our John Lewis Finance Partnership Card reviews to help you to find out about the pros and cons of taking out the Partnership credit card. What kind of features does the John Lewis Partnership card have? What do people think of John Lewis' customer service? Does the card have great benefits?

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John Lewis Partnership Card reviews (882)

Review of the John Lewis, Partnership Card:

Reasons for ineligible or derisory credit limit?

Told ineligible for the newday JL Partnership card - despite >40 years loyal JL/W customer, credit score excellent, £12,000 credit limit and superb payment record - I have commented on Trustpilot and Linked-in and direct to upper echelons of JL. I was upset and livid to begin with. Composure regained - withdrawn my application - I have been thinking about why ineligible and why paltry credit limits. Newday is akin to a parasite, not a lender in its own right, it has to borrow to lend. It pays interest between 2% and 6%+ on its borrowings - source: loan notes listed on London Stock Exchange - so cannot afford to subsidise cardholders that do not pay interest. Newday is a puppet, its strings pulled by funds advised by Cinven and CVC Capital Partners. With plans to float on the stock market, newday wants to increase the number of cardholders to boost its standing in the minds of investors. One cardholder with for example £5000 credit limit and paying the whole of the balance monthly (no profit for newday) equates to 10 cardholders each £500 limit, mostly incurring interest (profit for newday). Newday has taken out a loan circa £650M to pay JLP for receivables (source: newday results presentation August 2022) - a loan carrying interest will ultimately have to be paid for by cardholders. The presentation highlights perceived benefit of the JLP account. "Higher customer transaction volume and loyalty. Diversifies customer base towards prime. Delivers growth and attractive profit profile." Newaday’s 28.9% cost to income ratio maintained only if existing and new cardholders pay at least the same amount of interest. Ineligibility is I would think also orchestrated by JLP. A JL manager assures me JLP would have been satisfied with its due diligence. JLP is in financial difficulty. Its overheads and operating costs are unsustainable: top-heavy with overpaid managers and ceo, not attracting enough retired part-time workers for saving on National insurance it is suffering wage inflation, most generic products and services on offer are a soft touch for competitors. With profit margins shrinking, JLP strategy is for JL Financial Services to become an important profit centre in its own right. As agent for insurers, JLP gets commission. Likely a cut of the interest paid by cardholders. I would think JLP wants to reduce the cost of the vouchers cardholders get when using the card whether or not in JL and/or W. A form of cash-back, the idea of the vouchers was that cardholders would mainly buy from JL and/or W, not as I suspect most do to mostly buy elsewhere. The points differential is not enough to deter. As JL Financial Services knows how much cardholders spend, what they buy when and where, I suspect JLP has analysed every existing credit limit and told newday to get rid of what JL regard as unprofitable cardholders via ineligibility or derisory credit limits. Although it appears that JLP has alienated its core customers, from JLP's perspective it could be argued partly our own fault for not regarding JL and W as our sole suppliers. I am proper loyal to W in particular but I gather my attitude is unusual. If f i were to buy elsewhere something that JL or W sells then what I spend elsewhere wouldn't be helping JLP so rather than shop around I only shop at Waitrose. I doubt JLP rates newday for customer service, more likely for ruthlessness. JLP is I suspect using newday to do its dirty work. In its presentation newday says "Moved to the latest version of Customer Management bureau data and tightened growth strategies for existing customers" and "Tightening of affordability criteria and initial credit limits for new customers". On balance if what i reckon is correct or something along those lines then that doesn't say much for JLP's ethics but then again JLP is not what it was. Reviewed on: 30th August 2022

Lost my £3000 payment to my Partnership card

Lost my £3000 payment to my Partnership card through their app for 2 weeks, causing much stress and many phone calls trying to get my money back - as if I was to blame - I had to find who had stolen my money in effect - diabolical shambles and then a short dismissive letter from Partnership card - PayDay / NatWest payment system or whoever represents them saying sorry for the inconvenience- go elsewhere - I have! Reviewed on: 12th November 2025

New Day are a shambles.

New Day are a shambles. My bank does not recognise New Day’s new account. Why does John Lewis subcontract their services incapable companies that do not share their values? Just stick to your core business.. my rating refers to New Day’s, not to John Lewis stores, though the6 need to sharpen up their customer service there too. Reviewed on: 4th November 2025

Issues encountered with NewDays new payment instruction

Like another review, I've encountered issues with NewDay's new account information and not being updated to banks. Had a heated discussion with a representative of their complaints department, who informed me that 'some' banks had updated there lists. Some.... is not 100%. Eventually First Direct managed to send a test payment successfully, but it should not have been such a convoluted manner. I should have been able to set NewDay as a new bill, and not encountered all these issues. Newday just blamed First Direct, but was unable to provide any information for me to challenge First Direct with. Having never missed a payment with John Lewis, I will be applying for a different credit card. I have complete confidence in First Direct, zero confidence in Newday, which is giving John Lewis Partnership a bad reputation. Reviewed on: 3rd November 2025

A third rate financial service

The OTP system for verifying cards has never worked properly for me: today was the latest occurrence. Earlier this year I put in a compliant. The response was:"I’ve checked all the details of your complaint carefully and, taking all the relevant factors into account, I’ve decided to uphold your complaint. "I understand you may feel disappointed that I am not upholding your complaint, so I’ve provided details about how I came to this decision…” So the complaint was apparently upheld and I’m supposed to be disappointed! The service under NEWDAY is third rate. Reviewed on: 3rd November 2025

REALLY SHOULD BE BETTER SERVICE AND COMMUNICATION

They have just changed their bank account details, however the informing letter is written in the smallest font with no hint about how important the message is..no bold, no big lettering , no red ink.. pathetic way of communicating something so important...signed off by "Emma Wilson, Director (no less) of Customer Contact Centres. On page 2 she tells us the sort code to use , she omits to say payee should be NewDay Ltd, not NewDay Bank. Phoned First Direct about this and they said New Day or J Lewis have not yet provided updated info so is not on their list of credit card payees yet. Eventually worked it out and tested with a £1 payment. Really don't like the way they treat customers and how they communicate. Reviewed on: 23rd October 2025

Uncompetitive time to pay

John Lewis Mastercard have a significantly shorter period between bill date and payment date. So much for never knowingly undersold. Spivy and mean minded. Reviewed on: 14th October 2025

If your phone is stolen, you cannot verify anything.

I had my phone and card stolen, to cancel your card you need your phone... to do anything, you need your phone. So then decided to used the chat service, only it said error! You need to have other methods of verification if the worst happens! Reviewed on: 25th September 2025

Extremely poor fraud customer service!

Extremely poor fraud customer service! Reviewed on: 22nd September 2025

Terrible Customer Service and Fraud Support

We have had a fraud claim on out account since May 2025, we have made 5 calls to try and get this resolved, spoken to 4 different Customer Service agents and everyone has told us a different procedure with no resolution 6 weeks later! The latest agent said the only way to try and get this resolved is for her to log a complaint against the dispute team - they would not even pass us through to a manager to discuss - staggering in todays world of financial scammers and fraud Reviewed on: 25th July 2025

Customer Service Very Poor

The card uses 3DS with a reasonable app. HOWEVER, their foreign transaction fraud screening is very high and ignores authorisation on the app. This is a problem if you transact over the internet, where your merchant isn't necessarily on the High Street. You have to call during their Fraud Screening opening hours, which I did and was put on hold for 12 minutes. The agent picked up the call and said 'Hello'. I picked the phone up off the desk and hit unmute and she dropped the call - literally less than a two seconds. So I had to call back and wait another 11 minutes. I gave up half an hour of my day (and was charged for the call), to confirm a transaction I had already authenticated in the app. You also can't file a complaint over the phone after 5pm or via email. Reviewed on: 22nd July 2025

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