Write a review

Go to business site

John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

Name: Partnership Card
Rating: 1.33 (882 reviews)

View other John Lewis products

1.32

Based on 882 reviews, last reviewed 12th Nov 2025

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

75% increase in 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

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 (882)

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

John Lewis card not a good reflection of John Lewis

I tried to sign into my account to view current statement. Forgot one element for sign in- also lost the will to live - and there are no humans available to help. Just endless robot messages. Help !! Reviewed on: 22nd November 2022

New Partnership Card (Newday Ltd)

Dear oh dear, card refused online each time we have attempted to use it despite card being activated as requested. We have used John Lewis card for many years but since moving to New Day it is just not worth the hassle. When you telephone Customer Services you will lose the will to live! Endless options…..blah blah blah John Lewis take note this is not the service that we expect and it is going to damage your reputation, lose you loyal customers and revenue from what was previously a really good card and service. Mark Downton Reviewed on: 21st November 2022

Change of partnership card

Very poor, what was wrong with the old partnership card, it was easy to use and worked well.I willnot be using new Card. Reviewed on: 21st November 2022

Unreliable with Google Wallet

I'd been using the JL Partnership card successfully with Samsung Pay. Samsung no longer recognises the new JL card . You would need to sign up to Samsung pay plus which needs is part of Curve. I gave up and put the card on Googke Wallet. Other cards OK but JL often not working. JOHN LEWIS.. get this fixed!! Reviewed on: 20th November 2022

Card not accepted for paymeny

Tried using newday card on Stagecoach buses and it's not accepted, thus had to walk as I had no other form of payment. Had no problem with the old John Lewis credit card.... Reviewed on: 20th November 2022

New credit card a total pain

A massive inconvenience having to change all my regular payments. Now Spotify do not recognise the card and I have had my membership cancelled. Absolute pain and such a disappointing experience from our trusted John Lewis - they have seriously tarnished their customer service and experience brand with this I’ll conceived idea to change credit card provider. We also had our limit reduced by 25% despite never missing a payment in over 15 years!, Reviewed on: 20th November 2022

A total nightmare

I have also already experienced fraudulent transactions on the new card. Two of those were on someone using my credit card on PayPal. PayPal were absolutely useless dealing with it and to cut a very long story short so far it looks like I have lost $1400 which is the amount that has been fraudulently charged to my credit card. It’s a lot of money and it’s very upsetting. I was hoping against hope that I would be able to sort this put on Monday but from what I gather from other reviews the customer service is non existent or appalling. More stress to look forward to and probably no result. In any case, I am going to cancel the card now. All the reviews say the same thing, which is that the new card is a shambles. I expected better from John Lewis, they have really let their customers down. Reviewed on: 19th November 2022

Truly awful since moving to newday

Awful service - only had the card a week and fraudulent transactions detected - unable to speak to anyone directly (did have someone call me) - just going round in an awful automated phone loop - very stressful and will cancel this account as soon as I can speak to a human - wish me luck ! JL - why did you change from HSBC to NewDay ? Reviewed on: 19th November 2022

Truly awful

epic inbound call barrier, inadequate security, inadequate printed statement detail, exhausted sounding staff - no one seems to give a fig. The worst customer experience ever. I'm closing acct to go to a proper card servicer. If I were at JL, I'd be thinking its time to take the whole account away from Newday and give it to some professionals Reviewed on: 19th November 2022

Rubbish, very poor customer service.

NewDay like a con artist. Formally complained to John Lewis, it was past onto NewDay, after six weeks they get back to me complaint not upheld. The complaint was could not pay my bill by bank transfer. My bank told me that they had not been informed about the new card. My bank got back to me with a work around so I have to pay Amazon Master Card with my new JL account number. It worked, thanks to my bank. Why, why, why can’t they not separate the two cards transaction instead of listing all together. A final point of note, NewDay took over Laura Ashley card service, which I also had issues with; they also took Frasercard, then both companies went into administration. Beware JL! Reviewed on: 19th November 2022

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

Nectar Credit Card
from Sainsburys Bank 2.80 from 96 reviews
Credit builder credit card
from Vanquis 4.78 from 19909 reviews
American Express Credit Card
from American Express 3.30 from 97 reviews

Want to see more from John Lewis?

Travel Insurance
from John Lewis 4.75 from 3 reviews
Breakdown Insurance
from John Lewis 4.00 from 1 reviews
Home insurance
from John Lewis 2.08 from 75 reviews

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