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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?

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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

New website disaster

What a terrible customer experience: - No notification that the website was changing or that customers would need to re-register to be able to access their accounts. - Website bugs meaning that choosing a pin that the site accepted took close to a dozen attempts. - Payments not being accepted through the website. - Telephone payment system has also gone down making it impossible to actually pay off credit cards. - John Lewis Financial Services unable to stop late payment fines and interest being charged to cards - apparently they will be refunded, but that waits to be seen. - Secure messaging through their website is down. - Statement pdfs not currently working. All in all a case study in what not to do. Perfectly happy customers now unhappy due to change being handled in an appalling way! Reviewed on: 27th October 2016

Hopeless

I have tried for two weeks now to re-register my Partnership card on the new website, with no luck. It keeps telling me it has no records of my details, although during this time it has managed to send me my current bill! I have waited on the phone for ages - at a cost - on numerous occasions and never managed to get through to anyone. Have emailed John Lewis Customer Services who cannot help but advise to ring the Partnership Card number! (No email address given for Partnership Card Customer Services!). Maybe Paula Nickolds could make sorting this fiasco out her number one priority. Reviewed on: 26th October 2016

Who can use the new system

The new system is impossible to use. It keeps telling me to go away and try later. I have given up on the telephone contact. I was beginning to think that I had been scammed until I read some of these reviews. Reviewed on: 25th October 2016

Its a lottery

I tries to re-register my card as instructed. I entered everything correctly and then it came up with a message that the user name should be between a certain number of characters, even though I had obeyed the rule. Rang customer service - waited 29 minutes and basically what they said was the user name works with some people and not others and advised me to re-register the following day. Why didn't they put a warning on the site that it may not work or they could have had a message at the beginning of the phone call to this effect. So in other words it was a lottery if you could register or not!! What a farce. Reviewed on: 25th October 2016

John Lewis Partnership Card switch Over

John Lewis Partnership Card switch over - What a load of RubbishI had my card blocked whilst away for a break in Norfolk. The first I realized was when my card was refused whilst trying to pay for a meal in a pub. I tried to re-register my card using my laptop online without success. When I eventually came home on 14th October to try and sort it out on the phone, (very patchy mobile phone service on the North Norfolk Coast) it took me 3 attempts to get through. First 45 minutes and gave up, second 35 minutes and gave up, eventually at around 11pm at night after another 40 minute wait listening to bland music, I spoke to an adviser who unblocked my account. Hooray! I foolishly thought I could then just re-register; all would be well and pay off my account. After successfully re-registering it would not accept any payment online. I had to go to the bank and do it manually. The way the statements are laid out is very confusing; I preferred the old system, which was simpler to understand. I Have had a look today and tried to login 3 times unsuccessfully this morning, can’t even access the website. Things are going from bad to worse, at least before I could view my account, statements etc. even if I could not make a payment. I still don’t know if it is possible to pay off an account or not online. John Lewis you get a big fat zero!!! Reviewed on: 25th October 2016

Great now worse than terrible

New system terrible service. 3 hours in total on hold, payments not credited to account,no help from the banking team, no communication. Customer Service at its very worst !!! Avoid! Reviewed on: 24th October 2016

Cannot access new website

I currently have no way to access my online banking as the 'upgrade' has locked me out and after hours on hold to customer service no one is picking up the phone. I just want to pay off my credit card! How is John Lewis so backwards with this!? Reviewed on: 24th October 2016

Update - no apology and blaming the customer

You emailed and asked for an update; here it is. I complained by letter on 19th October (the “secure message” section of their website still isn’t working as I write), and have had no response except to receive this month’s statement complete with late payment fee of £12 and £9.03 interest. I’m not surprised at the lack of an immediate reply; there must be thousands of unhappy customers who have had their stress levels increased by the rejected payments and unfair imposition of financial penalties, and their blood pressures raised by time wasted hanging on the phone line. Meanwhile the “improved” statement is only better if you want huge print which means what would previously have fitted on a single side of A4 now stretches to five. On the last of these was a “Default sum notice” which claims that there has been “a breach of the credit agreement by you”. When the dust settles, it will be interesting to have a measured, independent view on who was actually at fault here. (Well done on your Blog summary, by the way.) So far, JLP has apologised only for the delays caused by “high call volumes” on its phone (note that, very revealingly, it’s the customers who are blamed for ringing up in such numbers, not JLP for having such hopelessly inadequate provision to answer the calls generated by their own bungling). My current feeling is that, even if JLP had responded to me apologetically rather than punitively, I couldn’t continue as a customer of an organisation which is so extraordinarily inept. Reviewed on: 23rd October 2016

New website for John Lewis Partnership Card - Disaster

After having been made to re-register to a new on-line account servicing system I have found the new system to be a big step backwards. As someone who works in IT I would have lost my job if I had deployed a "new approved system" that lacks a lot of the functionality of the old system and with parts of the new system not working. Looks like a new credit card for me after many years of loyal custom Reviewed on: 23rd October 2016

Re-registration for JLP finance/website.

I'm appalled at the complete disregard for customers shown by John Lewis over their new financial website. I have tried for 2 weeks to re-register and all to no avail. Endless phone calls to their call centre, only one of which was answered by a 'human', have been a waste of time as the queue of irate customers has meant that the system has been overloaded. What a disappointment for a great British Institution. How could JLP not have anticipated this? Reviewed on: 23rd October 2016

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