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John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

Name: Partnership Card
Rating: 1.32 (862 reviews)

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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

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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 (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

Customer turkey purchase

We served customers with turkeys as we have for several years. John Lewis Partnership cards failed to work for nearly all our customers. It was an utter disgrace. Some customers had to either owe or use an alternative card. Reviewed on: 28th December 2022

TOTAL CRAP

AWFUL GOD FORBID WHY CHANGE THIS LOT ARE USELESS ANYWAY NOW HAVE AN M&S CARD SO MUCH EASIER SO MUCH BETTER SO ITS NOW BYE BYE JOHN LEWIS AND BYE BYE WAITROSE Reviewed on: 28th December 2022

Abysmal customer service

I've been a John Lewis credit card customer for years. HSBC, the previous card provider was efficient, approachable and courteous. New Day operates like a loan company, sending reminders to pay your bill as soon as the statement appears, and advising me to set up a DD which I have no intention of doing. I always pay in full prior to the due date using the online system and have never defaulted on payment - this is my preferred method and it was never an issue with HSBC My credit limit was almost halved and the payment terms have been reduced to 2 weeks. There is no incentive to continue with this card and I shall pay in full this month and move to another card provider. My credit rating is excellent so this won't be a problem. John Lewis has lost another loyal customer. I can only assume the change to New Day was advantageous to John Lewis because it certainly isn't to customers Reviewed on: 27th December 2022

Watch your credit rating

So I receive my monthly statement and make a £700 payment. Several weeks later I am warned that I am in arrears on my payments as no payment was made. Turns out yhat due to a 'system glitch' my payment was somehow allotted as being paid prior to the statement, thus prompting charges, and potentially impacting my credit score and having this card stopped due to non payment. Their collections department said that no payment had been made since the statement, which it had. Financial ombudsman here I come... Reviewed on: 22nd December 2022

A card that doesn't even work in John Lewis stores

I went to pay for an expensive duvet in John Lewis store but the New Day partnership card wouldn't work and neither did using the magnetic strip. It declined the transaction. I ended up having to use a reliable bank credit card to pay. This isn't the first time I've had issues with the card randomly not accepted. Assistant suggested I might not have activated but it was no fault on my part. I've used the card for past few months and pay the bill on time so I have no idea why it wouldn't work. As a result I'm also less inclined to shop in JL. As a partnership card user for many years I will stop using it as its too frustrating. M&S credit card is superior and you gain M&S vouchers as rewards. Reviewed on: 21st December 2022

Cannot balance-transfer away from NewDay John Lewis Partnership card

This is a terrible card provider. Why did JL change its card provider??? Reviewed on: 21st December 2022

Abysmal new credit card

Where do I start! The app is terrible, not easy to navigate and originally unable to find what the statement or payment dates were. But, I was able to change the payment date, even though I didn’t know what it was! More importantly, I ve found out after a couple of phone calls is that the credit period after the statement date has been reduced from 25 days to 15. Nothing at all about this in the introductory email! I’m still using it a bit, but not much. Reviewed on: 21st December 2022

Read small print

Changed to new JL card and took the balance transfer @0% for 6 months. When statement arrived I was charged interest even though purchase balance had been paid in full. When I called JL I was told that if you take a balance transfer offer all purchases are charged interest from the day you purchase to the day you pay in full. Apparently it’s in the small print. I have never known anything like this and have now had to repay the balance transfer. I am now looking at another card provider as JL Card is not the same since they moved it away from HSBC! Reviewed on: 21st December 2022

Poor app and general management

We have been customers of the John Lewis credit card for the last 18 years. The experience of moving over to the new card platform was a bit annoying; not the end of the world, but a few times I wondered why I was bothering. After getting new cards (late) we have tried to set ourselves up for managing our joint cards from our mobiles. Big mistake - the platform doesn't allow the second cardholder to register for online card management. Worse than that, I can't even log in to the account using the main cardholder's login on the other phone. We tried to contact the provider (New Day?) via chat in the app; we were told that we could log in the secondary cardholder, but still we haven't managed to. All told, it's a bit rubbish. Not very bad, just a bit rubbish and a long way from what the state of the art of for online management. There's not much more to recommend the card; John Lewis vouchers are nice enough, but maybe no longer enough of a draw to bother with this card any longer. Reviewed on: 20th December 2022

It takes a genius to generate so much irritation and anger over the mere change of a credit card provider.

Admittedly I did feel a tad smug when my application for a new John Lewis partnership card was approved - but why not as I've been a faithful customer for decades. Friends and family were moaning about their problems. But now I understand. The new monthly statements are a disgrace, and I tried to log on to check my balance and ensure the direct debit was correctly set up. But apparently my date of birth has changed, and before I knew it the AI algorithm had frozen then cancelled my card. Luckily I have several alternative cards but I'll not be using JL Finance again. Reviewed on: 20th December 2022

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