Write a review

John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

Name: Partnership Card
Rating: 1.32 (862 reviews)

View other John Lewis products

1.33

Based on 862 reviews, last reviewed 24th Dec 2024

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

67% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

88%

Latest highest rating:

5

Customer satisfaction They are vgery focussed and always go the extra step to ensure we are happy Reviewed on: 24th August 2024

Latest lowest rating:

1

Disaster of a credit card company - total fail! We recently tried adding our John Lewis Partnership Card to Apple Pay, only to find it blocked by NewDay, the card provider. Shockingly, this happened... Read more Reviewed on: 24th December 2024

Read all reviews See your review

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?

Find out more about the Partnership card by reading our reviews from the Smart Money People community - people like you. You can also write your own John Lewis Partnership Card review to share your own experiences.

Smart Money People is the UK's leading financial services review and insight hub. Together, we can make financial services work better for everyone.

John Lewis Partnership Card reviews (862)

Review of the John Lewis, Partnership Card:

JLP and Newday in cahoots.

Told I'm ineligible - despite >50 years loyal JLP customer, 5 figure credit limit and score excellent - I have after communications with JLP managers concluded that this oust has been orchestrated by JLP. From sources including JLP and Newday websites,, I speculate: JL stores are in financial difficulty, currently supported by Waitrose itself on the brink. It’s not that JLP doesn't want higher spending loyal customers, it sure does; but what it wants is custom that doesn’t sap profits.    With the HBSC JL Partnership card, each £1 spent qualifies for a point, whose number depends upon whether spent at JL and/or W or elsewhere. The more elsewhere the less JLP gets the more it costs JLP. I think it used to be one point for every £1 spent in JLP, two for every £1 elsewhere. Nowadays for some eligible purchases at JL and W 5 points for every £4 spent; and for other eligible purchases at JL and W 1 point for every £4; 1 point for every £4 spent elsewhere. Fewer vouchers for spending elsewhere is not a deterrent. For example, if a card-holder with £5,000 credit limit spends £4000 a month elsewhere then JLP issues vouchers. Vouchers can only be used in JL or W but it doesn't follow the purchase price has to exceed the vouchers value. A cardholder could amass a substantial sum in vouchers without having spent a penny at JL or W. When using vouchers to buy in JL or W not have to buy anything involving any extra payment for the difference between the vouchers and price. JLP would make a loss. JLP says that over the last five years £230m has been issued in vouchers. How much of approximately £126,000 a day average has gone to customers that haven't paid JLP anything. By enlisting Newday to either render higher credit limit existing Partnership cardholders ineligible or where the applicant is eligible a substantially lower limit JLP is reducing the value of vouchers issued. JLP is probably getting a share of any interest paid by new card-holders and paying a lower commission on receivables (transaction sales). JLP I suspect envisages that where an existing Partnership cardholder is rejected that person would obtain a desired credit limit from another card provider and continue to buy from JL/W whenever. Whether enough existing Partnership cardholders would want to continue loyal to JLP is a separate issue. A JLP partner qualifying for discount told me that for most goods and services there are cheaper deals elsewhere. Not a deposit-taker Newday hasn't any revenue beyond credit cards. It borrows to re-lend, loan note interest between 2% and 6+% a year - with interest rates rising costs will go up: for how much longer its business is sustainable is anyone's guess. To finance JLP's transaction, Newday has taken out a loan of £650M. Any cardholder paying the whole balance monthly is getting an interest-free loan from the date of purchase to balance payment date - if you time it carefully then up to 45 days - so for that reason alone an existing JL Partnership cardholder is ineligible. Newday plans to float shares on the stock market next year so boosting the number of cardholders is to impress shareholders. A £5000 credit limit to one card holder (unlikely to pay interest) is akin to £500 limit to 10 card holders (likely to pay some interest). The net proceeds of a stock market float (rumoured capitalisation £2.5Bn) would provide a injection of interest-free cash. The sad part is that JLP could increase its profit margin and number of loyal customers without having to resort to destroying long-term customer relationships with JLP. Instead of the vouchers issued regardless of where a JL Partnership cardholder spends, the vouchers should be linked to the myJohnLewis and myWaitrose cards. Show or scan a my-card before paying and have the voucher value credited to the my-card - and since printing on paper is costly to administer, to issue every JL and W customer a my-card which can be produced by the customer at the check-out for credit and debit with the points/voucher value. Reviewed on: 5th September 2022

Disguted

I have had a John Lewis credit card account for many years, have always paid it on time. With the advent of the new card everything seems to have gone to pot. For the last 3 payments I have paid for it on time and each time I have had a message saying I owe them money. I have sent them prints from my bank account showing that I had paid. They appear to have ignored them and as a result my credit rating has been adversely affected. It now transpires that the payment ended up in my new John Lewis credit card account. I have rung John Lewis on many occasions, there staff who appear to be based in India were next to useless. It appears in changing their credit card provider John Lewis have shot themselves in the foot and whoever made this decision should be shot themselves. They have badly tarnished the name of John Lewis and it will not be the same again Reviewed on: 25th January 2023

Don't use it as your credit card anymore!

I no longer use the partnership card as my default credit card. After decades of the John Lewis card being our default card for everything, we stopped using our except for Waitrose shopping. Having used the card for so very long we were so disappointed in the New Day card arrangements. As we always pay back everything and never incur interest charges, I suppose they don't like that. The statement to payment date is ridiculously short and no other card has that. Disgusting. JL is losing custom. Big mistake to change. We'll only use our M&S card from now on. Reviewed on: 24th January 2023

John Lewis Credit Card Provider let them down

There have been issues ever since JL switched from HSBC to New Day as their Credit Card provider when you need their help. The people at HSBC were polite and efficient and seemed to be aware they represented JL, whereas the Customer Service people at New Day are incompetent at best and can’t be bothered at worst. This card is fine if there are no issues, but as soon as you have one….. My card which is only 3 months old does not work at any payment points either contactless or chip and pin. I spoke to the guy at customer service and I had to explain 3 times what the issue was and then he asked me ‘What is wrong with the card?’ which is precisely the reason I was calling them. He couldn’t deal with the problem and told me someone senior would get in touch within 48 hours. 5 days later and still waiting. I rang John Lewis Customer Services to complain about New Day. I won’t bother chasing it. I will just switch to Amex who have great customer service and you get points off Amazon purchases. John Lewis is badly undermining its service credentials by association with this company. Reviewed on: 23rd January 2023

Hopeless

Since I was forcibly switched to the NewDay finance card, I've had nothing but problems. The online service ALWAYS fails to recognise my log in details, and even DOES recognise incorrect details, like my old email address. It's impossible, therefore, to see my statement. I've tried phoning, and the person I spoke to was polite and sounded helpful. But he hasn't cured the problem. I cannot be bothered to call again. I give up! Reviewed on: 23rd January 2023

New credit card using New Day is a disaster..

After 20 years of using the previous JLP credit card arrangement, I find the New Bay arrangement useless. I had had attempts to use it for retail purchases rejected many times and luckily I carry other cards to which I could resort. The formatting of the monthly statement is terrible compared to the previous arrangement, obliging me to convert the digital statement to a CSV file, then to format it using Excel so that I can get a clear picture of my spends. Add to that the fact that communicating with New Day is dire, I’m afraid I will be moving on to a different card. An I’ll considered change with not enough detail work to make the change, at least, satisfactory Reviewed on: 22nd January 2023

Locked out again

Three times i have been locked out and pin denied. Three times unlocked by telephone call to a very slow answer on the customer services help line. Just about to give up the card after a J.L. card for about 40 years. SHAME on the new provider.. Gill Pitt. Reviewed on: 22nd January 2023

Very poor

Originally turned down for the card as I’m retired but then accepted when unearned income was taken into account. Card keeps getting blocked, often for small payments. Friends think they’ve been turned down because they pay the whole balance each month. Moving to a different provider and would not recommend to others. Reviewed on: 22nd January 2023

Very poor customer service

Only 1 customer service number with myriad of automated prompts which do not work. Very concerned at fraudulent activity on my account, tried 3 times to select this option with ridiculous responses such as 'was it your Pin you want to change?' The Web chat was not much better. Given misleading information, took over an hour of repeated attempts/web chat to get through to an actual person. Appalling service especially in such distressing circumstances. Reviewed on: 22nd January 2023

Sharks

It's not that they (see Sandy Garfield, below) can't tell you why. It's that they won't tell you why. And they won't because it's precisely people who pay in full every month that they don't want. They want people who will build up debt. Reviewed on: 22nd January 2023

I have had no issues

In the interest of rebalancing a bit I have had no issues with the new JL credit card. My credit limit was retained and I have found the app straightforward to use. Reviewed on: 21st January 2023

Do you have a different John Lewis product?

Share your experiences with products to help others make smarter financial decisions and learn more about different products available. Write a review

Are you a business? Get insights, reply to reviews, invite customers and understand their needs

Alternative products

Fluid Credit Card
from NewDay 4.12 from 103 reviews
Gold Card
from first direct 3.78 from 8 reviews
Flexicard
from Halifax 4.65 from 5 reviews

There's still more to see!

John Lewis has a range of products available. Check the ratings of each product to find the right one for you. View all products

Join Smart Money People

Keep up to date on ratings of your favourite businesses. Find out about our awards and write new reviews with ease

Create an account

News, guides and insight from our team

View resource hub