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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

Still no response from my complaint of 20 October...

I left a review on 1 Nov concerning the Partnership Card, having written to the Partnership on 20 Oct with that complaint , the synopsis of my letter was: 1. Why wasn’t I told that my cards would be cancelled if I ordered new contactless cards? 2. Why did they have to be cancelled before I had registered my new cards? (That has never happened to me before.) 3. Why are the telephone queues to speak to someone so unacceptably long? 4. How do I apply to have points credited to me for the expenditure that I have to put on to other cards until I can register my new ones, due to this oversight by The Partnership? They acknowledged my letter on 1 Nov, indicating that they were investigating the complaint and would reply, & that if I hadn't heard in 8 weeks of raising the complaint I have the right to refer the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I have yet to hear from them and will post the final response when I receive it. Reviewed on: 29th November 2016

Payment problem

I tried to pay and was given three options: 1) minimum amount, 2) full amount, 3) something in between. There is no box to click on and so I went to "Make payment". I got a message telling me that my payment was successful but no indication of how much I paid. I rang customer services. I was on hold for 19 minutes during which the female robot told me almost 60 times that they were busier than expected. The agent told me that there are boxes to click on but they aren't visible. He was unable tell me how much I paid and wouldn't know for 24 hours. An absolute shambles! Reviewed on: 26th November 2016

They seem incapable of fixing their own mistakes, or indeed of communicating at all.

Note - this review relates to the John Lewis Partnership card, not John Lewis in general. Back in September, they made a small mistake in processing one of my transactions. Since then I've phoned, written and used their secure messaging service. None of these has produced any response at all. They seem to be in some sort of melt down. I've just arranged to get a new credit card from a different supplier. Avoid the John Lewis Partnership card at all costs. Reviewed on: 24th November 2016

(new) Website is major backward step

New website is a major backward step with loss of simple functionality: - No longer gives total of transactions pending - you have to calculate yourself whereas previously was there - No longer able to download statements in useful format - MS Money version missing, plus cannot download a PDF copy of statement, yet they want you to go paperless! Reviewed on: 23rd November 2016

Appalling

Around 6 months ago I had a phone call from JLFS saying my card had been compromised and that they would stop my card and issue a new one. Fine. All went well and the card arrived and no problems. Excellent service I thought. In November my bank pointed out that I had several out of date, unused for months direct debits that they felt was a risk to my account security and should be cancelled. One of these was to pay the full amount of my Partnership card each month and quoted the old, cancelled by JLFS card. I carefully checked that the new card had a direct debit, it did, so I cancelled the old card number DD. In November no DD was taken for the new card. Duly phoned them the day after it was due to be told I had cancelled the DD. They simply could not grasp that they had set up 2 DDS and that the new card was active on my bank account. "No it's all cancelled at our end". Did not bother as most companies do to query why it had been cancelled. So I am fortunate enough to be able tell them I'll pay off what I owe and it's goodbye from me! Cancel the account. Frankly the service from all areas of John Lewis seems bogged down in red tape. I have had problems with the stores. Lovely people but working with their hands tied behind their backs. That's another story. Reviewed on: 22nd November 2016

ONGOING LACK OF CUSTOMER AWARENESS ISSUES

Bland boiler plate apologies. Site still lacks functionality and unable to download statements into e.g money format. What a shame - previous website much better. JLP are in reverse gear. Reviewed on: 22nd November 2016

Worst service ever - refused to deal with suspected fraud

I have this credit card and have recently noticed an unexplained transaction on my statement relating to an overseas payment which I did not make. I followed the John Lewis Partnership Card instuctions for querying a transaction, a process for which I will be penalised to the tune of £5 if John Lewis can prove me wrong. According to the procedure I downloaded and printed a form then posted it to John Lewis. I did not receive any acknowledgement of this and I have been waiting two months. I then logged on to my account on the John Lewis website and used the online messaging service to query the transaction. Again I have had no response. I have tried calling the John Lewis telephone line many times but have never been answered despite me holding for over an hour each time and incurring large call charges. There now appears to be no way for me to report what I believe to be a fraudulent transaction Reviewed on: 22nd November 2016

Simply horrendous

I recently moved house, trying to get them to answer the phone is a joke, the website doesn't work and they don't reply to letters. Reviewed on: 21st November 2016

Gone to the Dogs!

UTTER DEBACLE! For many years, JLFS could be trusted to deliver prompt professional service but gradually, over the last 18 months, this has degenerated into a complete shambles. I need to order a new card and am currently 28 minutes into an endless repetition of muzak, while waiting to speak to someone. This is my third attempt to speak to someone.....I abandoned the last attempts after 44 and 53 minutes respectively! Finally answered....They are unable to send out a new card with a longer expiry date without reporting my card stolen! (Even though it hasn't been!) So, I would have to be without any card at all for about two weeks. What a complete waste of time and effort........Time to move on, methinks. Reviewed on: 21st November 2016

Appalling Service

I have had a JL credit card for years. l always paid off in full every month by direct debit. Last month there was a fraud of several hundred pounds on the account. JL said they woud refund it - it took 5 phone calls to get it done - then promised my direct debit would not include the amount of the fraud. But it did, and if I had not had enough in my bank account I would have been embarrassed with the bank, and sustained bank charges. JL Then denied saying the direct debit would not include the fraud, even though I had the name of the person who said it and the time of the call. They eventually agreed to refund the sum to my bank account - they did - and to credit my account with a number of points as compensation - they didn't. Rang today. No record of the points to be added. Told them to listen to phone calls. Eventually they agreed to give me what they promised over a week ago. We will see if this transpires. What a waste of time and energy this shower are. As soon as this gets sorted, I will look elsewhere for my financial needs. Reviewed on: 18th November 2016

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