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John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

1.33
Based on 876 reviews, last reviewed 25th Sep 2025
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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
carol cheshire's avatar
carol cheshire

Latest lowest rating:

1

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 servi... Read more Reviewed on: 25th September 2025
Lexee's avatar
Lexee

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.


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John Lewis Partnership Card reviews (876)

Review of the John Lewis, Partnership Card:

JLP and Newday in cahoots.

1
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

We too are cancelling our new Partnership card

1
We totally agree with other reviews. The transfer to a new card was supposed to be easy and painless. Both of us have had our credit limits reduced, by quite a margin, and the credit period has been reduced on one card but not the other. I wrote a poor review (review requested by John Lewis) regarding the change and was then told my ‘complaint’ had been passed to NewDay. If I had wanted to make a complaint I would have done so, in more detail. I spoke to someone at NewDay having heard nothing and was told my ‘complaint’ had not been upheld! No notification to me. My husband has already cancelled his card in disgust and sworn never to use John Lewis again. I will not use my card again unless there is an emergency. In the meantime we have both swapped to another provider and John Lewis have lost a great deal of good will. As a previous reviewer stated, the old card worked well for many years, why fix something that isn’t broken? Was there an element of greed, ie better terms to John Lewis, because it certainly hasn’t been better for most customers. Reviewed on: 14th December 2022

Lacks visibility of transactions with multi cards

1
If you have more than one card to your account, the statement does not breakdown the spend by card. Reviewed on: 12th December 2022

Absolote shambles

1
I cannot believe John Lewis approved this company to take over their credit card. Absolute shambles/ I will not use it ever again. I have had a partneship card for may years. Reviewed on: 12th December 2022

Crooks

1
This new company are a complete disaster. Tried making a payment, got message back to say payment hadn't been approved, did it again, same message back. Phoned them to find out what was going wrong to be told both payments were going through as pending, asked them.to stop one of the payments, said they couldn't and either speak to my bank or they would issue a refund after payment had been fully processed which would take about 5 days, absolute crooks, JL need to investigate this shower!!! Reviewed on: 12th December 2022

Diabolical

1
I have already cancelled this account so dire is New Day. I put in a complaint to John Lewis who simply forwarded it to New Day and then, like many people, I received a letter with appalling grammar telling me the "complaint had not been upheld". JL need to take responsibility for their terrible mistake in hiring New Day, I can only assume because they thought it would save them money not lose them customers in droves. Reviewed on: 12th December 2022

Complaining to John Lewis about their new card just sends you to the card provider

1
I wanted to complain to John Lewis about the terms they've negotiated with new credit card provider New Day. Because the window between statement and payment dates has halved to 2 weeks compared to old provider. New Day simply told me that was the agreement with JL. No warning of this in the literature about changing provider. When i changed my payment date they changed the statement date (without telling me) so i ended up with 2 bills in the same month. I tried to register the issue with John Lewis and they took basic details, said they would raise a complaint form and someone would be in touch by email or phone the next day to find out more. Turns out John Lewis weren't raising it internally but with New Day so im now in the New Day complaints system. Which is rubbish. After several days I got an email from New Day, not a phone call to say someone would be in touch. No-one got in touch. Several weeks on i got a letter to say my complaint is being 'reviewed'. They dont have my complaint, just a summary of my issue as raised with the lady at John Lewis. I have no record of what parts of our conversation she sent on to them. I only gave her the bare bones of what i would have included in a proper complaint. The old card worked so well for years. Am very unhappy. Reviewed on: 12th December 2022

Looking for a new card

1
What a shame. This new JL card is a total disaster with zero customer service. After many satisfactory years with the old JL card I am now looking for a new provider. Reviewed on: 11th December 2022

Card & app good. Unable to balance transfer - very bad!!

2
So the app for the credit card works well & is easy to navigate. BUT you can't balance transfer your debt from this card to another provider!! Or reduce your credit limit on it. Hmmm! May well be looking elsewhere very soon. Reviewed on: 11th December 2022

Balance transfer to other card

1
You cant balance transfer the money out of this card to clear the debt. This card is not recognised by other banks. There are no PDF style statements on line just a total of whats due. This is unbelievable as you are forced to either pay off the entire amount with a debit card to avoid interest charges or part pay and incur interest charges WONT BE USING THIS CARD AGSIN!! Reviewed on: 10th December 2022

New Day No New Dawn

1
I have been a customer of JL for over 40 years and have always seen them as the standard of modern shopping. I have refused a new card since I was told that my original card has now been withdrawn. I applied to New Day for a new one as I was instructed to do by JL only to be told that I do not meet the requirements. I am in semi retirement now but still have an income of over £50k pa. What a sorry state JL have come to, the chair person needs to consider who their real customers are and look after them, they won’t get help from the so called younger shoppers so they should consolidate their existing and long term shoppers and keep them sweet Reviewed on: 10th December 2022

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