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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?

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 (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

A kind and friendly service

Always ready to help with any queries while offering a professional service Reviewed on: 25th August 2023

Rubbish New Day Back office nitwits... what a shame

I think Sir Michael and John Hourican, a level headed Irishman, should know about the internal process of succesful integration of an ancient John Lewis member in NewDay After applying for an increased limit my account got blocked Retired treasurer of one of the world's largest banks, Experian score of 999 and very wealthy indeed ????? Wake up gents Reviewed on: 22nd August 2023

I think I have been scammed but John Lewis Partnership won't do anything about it as I am not the account holder

My husband is at work, not contactable, and is the main card holder. We have different cards. I think I have used my card in a scam, but John Lewis can do nothing about it without speaking to him. They asked when they could speak to him and I said about 6pm tonight and they were "sorry they could do nothing more". Reviewed on: 15th August 2023

New Day the new supplier is dreadful

Customer service is poor, the card is not reliable and the app fails - the old supplier with John Lewis was great, but since moving to New Day it is terrible - use someone else Reviewed on: 11th August 2023

Poor Reward Vouchers Issues

Whilst I like the card and the fact that you receive reward vouchers once a quarter after that months statement is produced. You wait and wait and nothing arrives. Cal Customer services and they say I have to wait 28 days. I wait 28 days and they say oh...wait a while longer....three months pass and they finally agree that hey had an issue sending out he vouchers. replacement vouchers arrive and a promise that this was a one off. June 14 my latest points are redeemed and I wait and wait. Call the same person to be told I have to wait 28 days.....the call I made was 45 days after and then told to wait another week....still no vouchers. Now they are supposedly raising another complaint.....me thinks they have issues. Also,JL press to be so good environmental...but rather than sending e vouchers they print off paper vouchers, attach a separate letter and put in an envelope, then get them delivered to Royal Mail, then they drive to my house in a diesel van {I live in a rural area} not what I would call environmentaly friendly!!! Reviewed on: 2nd August 2023

John Lewis Newday card is useless

Since John Lewis changed to Newday we have had nothing but trouble with a card that we had previously used for preference over other cards as it was so reliable. Now using the credit card does not work on contactless and even sometimes won't accept the correct pin number. Ther apphas now also failed as it would not accept the correct user nmae or even the correct card number & then blocked the account. A call to the Neyday 'help' number was useless and eventuallt passed to john Lewis team who unblocked the account. I have now deleted to app and will no longer use this card and have obtained a Tesco card instead. It seems John Lewis are intent on losing as many customers as possible, including us who have used Waitrose and the old card for 40 years.. What a stupid thing to do. Just go back to using a proper bank to support your card. Paulline & Don Plimmer Reviewed on: 28th July 2023

Loyal Customer Says AVOID NEW DAY JOHNLEWIS Card

Amir Goshtai What were you thinking when you chose New Day? Post transfer issues assumed to be teething problems, which were pretty painful at the time, but these simply get worse and worse. Other reviews detail the years of loyalty that I will add another 30 years to. Declined transactions, cessation of OTP codes to buy simple items is simply a failure to understand your customers needs. We too have had enough and will look for a new main card provider. Amir and team. Read these posts and understand what your customers need. Equally understand the value of good service and the cost of the current poor Service you have chosen to provide. App deleted. Card will be cancelled. Good bye secondary sales in John Lewis and Waitrose. Reviewed on: 26th July 2023

How the Mighty Have Fallen - The John Lewis Partnership Credit Card is Rubbish

John Lewis used to be a brand you could trust and my wife and I have had Partnership cards in excess of 20 years. However, since John Lewis switched to Newday last year, the service has become absolutely appalling with the latest problem being they insist I have the John Lewis App on my mobile phone - something I refuse to do, so now I cannot make on-line purchases with the card. As a consequence we will are looking for an alternative credit card supplier. Our advice to anyone thinking of applying for a John Lewis Partnership card is DON'T, and to John Lewis Company is ditch Newday as soon as possible and find a reliable bank that customers can trust Reviewed on: 25th July 2023

Useless credit card

The app is not allowing me to authenticate a purchase. I've tried to sort this out with customer service but they're as useless as their app! First they said my phone software needed updating, then their app needed updating, then the device that I was using to make the purchase was faulty. The third person said my account has been blocked due to suspicious activity. All seem complete rubbish! So now I have a card I can't use online. Previously I've had problems with the card being declined probably about a third of the time. A few cashiers have commented that's a common problem with the new John Lewis card. Reviewed on: 25th July 2023

No confidence in John Lewis as a trusted provider anymore.

I have had a Peter Jones (John Lewis) card for over 40 years and enjoyed exemplary serive and support when needed. I then had to move to NewDay. Unlike many others on reapplying I retained my previous credit limit, although was hugely irritated at being asked my spouse's income (I've had my card longer than I've known my husband) so where is the relevance of this? I am now on my third credit card, the first inexplicably ceasing to work. I tried to use the second for an under £100.00 purchase recently. Contactless wouldn't work, nor would chip and pin - two tries down - not wishing to have the card blocked I switched to my trusty Lloyds CC. NO problem. Later I checked my NewDay account online to find that payment had gone through after all. The helpful vendor identified 5 attempts at paying with my NewDay card when I had only attempted two. It was impossible to convey this information to customer services who couldn't explain why payment had gone through or why five attempts had been made to pay, indeed worringly they couldn't locate this detail at all. They recommended I disputed the transaction and had a new card. This I have done, and although an email has arrived explaining a refund will be forthcoming, so far, nothing. The card took 10 days to arrive, just as well I wasn't planning on going away and needing it. I've scaled down my use of my card hugely. Previously I used it for almost all my purchases but I've lost confidence in the service and sadly this is reflected in my views of John Lewis overall. It used to be my go-to shop......but no more. Reviewed on: 22nd July 2023

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