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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 Composure regained - withdrawn my application - I have been thinking about why ineligible and why paltry credit limits.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

Locked/ unlocked/locked ad infinitum

Is the worst credit card I have ever used. Do NOT use Reviewed on: 29th December 2023

Unlock account

It says unlocked when logging in account locked, round and round again and again Reviewed on: 24th December 2023

remember Never knowingly undersold?

John Lewis change card provider to New Day and now their interest rate on partnership card increased to 27.9%. HSBC have upped their rate to 18.9% (too high), Halifax 22.9% (so can't recommend) Metro Bank 14.9% (they claim this is a low rate. I don't agree)' Just a bit better than most! I now understand why John Lewis has dropped there claims of being competitive and suggest their recent poor performance is due to this kind of poor management decisions' Sems to me the banks have found a way of squeezing a bit more out of those in the UK who might need a bit of credit in the current drop in living standards. Perhaps the government will encourage the return of 100% plus payday loans so those who have sufficient can get a bit more at the expense of those have not.. Reviewed on: 1st December 2023

Loyalty - what loyalty?

Having us a John Lewis Store Card since 1979 I got a partnership card when they closed the store card system - so don’t think you get much more loyal. Well when New Day took over they significantly cut my credit limit and I had to haggle to get half what I had - and with a 100% record of paying balance every month. So now I find myself on holiday and they have halved my credit limit with no warning - so down to £5k. Think they just want clients who can’t afford to pay off the bills now. My credit rating is good. Thank goodness I have another ca re to pay for any holiday expenditure. John Lewis - wake up! Reviewed on: 26th November 2023

NewDay Credit Card terrible

I've had a JL credit card since they first issued them using HSBC as the host bank. The recent (?) change to NewDay has been a disaster as far as I'm concerned. Aside from the frequent failures to accept contactless payments in UK shops, which is merely aggravating, I found myself stuck at a toll booth on a French motorway unable to pay the toll, which only accepted contactless. It wasn't until I phoned up the helpline from France that I found out the card does not do contactless outside the UK. Thank you JL and NewDay for making life so stressful. Reviewed on: 8th November 2023

Panasonic Micro wave NN-E27JWM

Made the mistake of ordering a Micro wave from John Lewis at Kingston-upon-Thames. The item was delivered few days back to my home address only to realize the oven was seriously faulty as I could not open the front door after using it for the first time to warm up a cup of coffee. I did contact the store and to my surprise, the individual I spoke to, ( NOT HER FAULT ) informed me that I should take the Micro wave back to the store in order to be inspected. I explained that I am 72 years old and that it would impossible for me to carry the item on a public bus all the way to Kingston upon Thames. I suggested that, as the item was going to be replaced, to use the delivery driver to take the faulty item back to John Lewis. That was not accepted and the lady in question insisted that there was not any other option. Are you really serious John Lewis ? What ever happened to your once polite, excellent customer service ? The item is still at home, of course I can not possibly use it and I will not be able to take the Micro wave back to the store by bus. Shame on you JOHN LEWIS, SHAME ON YOU JI Caamano Reviewed on: 30th October 2023

Constant problems

While John Lewis used HSBC I rarely had problems. Since New Day took over, lots, including repeated failures with online purchases; a problem reported, apparently corrected; but recurring. Reviewed on: 22nd October 2023

Unclear balance on statement

The new online statement is very unclear , what needs to be paid that month . Consequently you run the risk of paying more than is due , in which case JL make interest or not paying enough and risk paying interest . I like to imagine this is unintentional, however with such a large business I would imagine a product re launch like this would have been seriously pre tested on there demographics!! Reviewed on: 19th October 2023

NewDay - Bad day

When John Lewis changed to New day the credit card went south. Too eager to slap a charge on you and not make it clear the drop dead date for payment. Then when we received a £12 fee for being late on a £5 payment........AND we were told in a text that they now will notify credit collection services !! We have used John Lewis credit card for possibly over 25 years and now we have cut the cards up and use someone else. John Lewis generally going down hill Reviewed on: 7th October 2023

The App and online management is an embarassment

Unlike all the other banking/credit card apps I use, this one doesn't give me live updates on transactions, nor does it log the correct time of the transaction on the app or on the online management. From a security point of view, that's rubbish. It's just basic functionality you would want from it Reviewed on: 19th September 2023

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