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John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

Name: Partnership Card
Rating: 1.31 (890 reviews)

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1.31

Based on 890 reviews, last reviewed 27th Mar 2026

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

20% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

88%

Latest highest rating:

4

The JLP card offers cashback based upon spending and... The JLP card offers cashback based upon spending and it is possible to generate £100+ cashback per year. Managing the account is straightforward via t... Read more Reviewed on: 22nd January 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

I used my card to pay for petrol at my local Sainsbu... I used my card to pay for petrol at my local Sainsbury's. Later that day I received a message saying there was a suspicion of fraud. A simple glance a... Read more Reviewed on: 27th March 2026

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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 (890)

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

awful company, shocking

absolutely no support at all for your purchases Reviewed on: 25th May 2017

Mixed bag

Customer service - especially on the phone - is good. Website is awful however and making payments is a chore Reviewed on: 2nd May 2017

great rewards on this card

we love how quickly the reward vouchers add up - and because they are john lewis vouchers you get - i can use them for my grocery shopping at waitrose which is great and practical. Other credit card rewards had become so bad that this really is a good option. Reviewed on: 30th April 2017

Rubbish Travel Money site does not work

Trying to purchase foreign currency which the flyer in my statement said would be fee free if I used my Partnership card - It was NOT! Tried switching to a debit card and after trying to execute the order I could only see a strange diagram with no explanation. called them on the number shown on the flyer, but was told I was calling the wrong number, I was connected to the right number, but it rang out for so long, and the judging by the background noise and unclear speech from the previous call staff, I decided to hang up and purchase the currency elsewhere. Reviewed on: 13th April 2017

So rewarding...

I use my John Lewis Partnership card for all big spends and major purchases. Rewards in the form of John Lewis vouchers posted to me. Pay off in full each month so no interest. #MaxYourMoney Reviewed on: 31st March 2017

Money off vouchers to spend in a Group that does not perform well? - hardly worth it!

John Lewis Partnership Card goes from bad to worse. Having admitted their errors and awarded extra Points as compensation they cannot even get that right and do not actually produce the points they claim to have awarded. On top of that they issue an arrears notice when the account is and has been for some time in credit - they owe their customer money but still their system churns out an arrears notice - how can you miss making minimum payments to your account when your account with them is in credit?! Be aware of detrimental affect on your credit score if you choose to do business with this Group. Much better off with a 4.3 scoring company that can provide a cash reward back onto your account with them with the effect that you are free to spend awards earned wherever you like. Reviewed on: 21st March 2017

MaxYourMoney Get John Lewis vouchers!

I love making my money stretch further by using my John Lewis credit card. Although it doesn't give cash back, it does give John Lewis vouchers back which to me are as good as cash as I spend them at Waitrose on my groceries. As long as i stay up to date with paying my credit card bill off promptly each month it really helps me #MaxYourMoney Reviewed on: 20th March 2017

Service, service, service

A trouble free card which repays loyalty with John Lewis vouchers, always a treat to look forward too (and recently the vouchers saved me quite a bit of money on a new washing machine!) Customer Services are always helpful to a fault too. Reviewed on: 20th March 2017

Card is great, the website for managing your account is appallingly bad...

The card itself is brilliant, however, every month when I attempt to manage my account online it is really confusing and very unfriendly. Current balance is very misleading and trying to work out what the next month's amount owing is very difficult to see as you have to try to work it out yourself. It is just so appallingly bad, I find it difficult to comprehend how they could have actually designed it to work like this. Reviewed on: 17th March 2017

Poor customer service rating

After our recent experience I am amazed that John Lewis Card Services gets a score as high as 1.47/5 Response times to phone calls is really slow and quality of information & feed back from Call Handlers and Customer Service Managers is really poor We are in the process of switching card providers and would recommend everyone to do the same Reviewed on: 27th February 2017

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