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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

Appalling service

I settle my Partnership Card balance every month but although my October payment left my bank account on 6 October it did not appear on my JohnLewis statement until 20 October. In between I made several attempts to phone, tried emailing and finally sent letter by recorded delivery. In the meantime I have been charged £12 late payment fee plus interest charges. Yesterday I received a letter stating that I had defaulted on my Credit Card Agreement with John Lewis because I had failed to make a payment on time. I have contacted my bank, HSBC, who also happen to be John Lewis's bank too! They assured me that John Lewis had my payment as soon as it left my account so where it went for fourteen days I don't know. The bank gave me a unique reference number that proves my payment was sent on 6 October. Words fail me with the amount of incompetence shown by this company who I have always supported. Well John Lewis, guess what? This loyal customer of many years is leaving and no amount of apologies or compensation will change my mind. The stress and anxiety this is causing me is unbelievable. People, vote with your feet - leave this company, they don't deserve our custom! Reviewed on: 23rd October 2016

appalling cust experience - card deactivated because JLFS unable to accept payment

my bank advised me payment was unable to be made to JLFS. I rang the bank and they tried again. Not possible. Rang JLFS and was advised they had an issue, I should wait until next bill and deduct any interest or other charges that might have automatically been added. 10 days later my & my wife's cards are inactivated. Rang JLFS and was told i was misinformed earlier and that card was inactive due to non payment. Payment taken over phone but cards 'can only be reactivated 48hrs later'. Not much use to travelling wife. Goodbye JLFS. Reviewed on: 22nd October 2016

Credit card Shambles as payment rejected and card locked

Went shopping this morning only to have my JL partnership card rejected. Wasted journey and disappointed family. Contacted call centre and waited nearly an hour for a response to be told that my payment hadn't been received. Turned out that it had been returned by their system. No credit until Monday as payment cannot be made until. Basically we are very sorry and no mention of compensation. I will be looking for a new credit card provider as soon as I get a chance. Such poor service. Reviewed on: 22nd October 2016

New Website launch is embarrassing

new credit card website, launched, can't log in and pay my bill. I'm told I have to re-register. So what's happened to by details? have they been lost in the upgrade, in which case how secure is this application, it's feels like it's been carried out by some third party in haste, to meet a contract. I'm not using this card any more, you don't get two chances with on-line finance. Reviewed on: 20th October 2016

A mess of their own making

JLP card has undergone a disastrous revamp which makes it no longer recommendable. Like others here, my monthly payment for 12th October was rejected by JLP but I was not informed that this had happened - I found out on the following Sunday in a routine check of my current account. Two attempts to pay manually while online were rejected with messages to contact the recipient. I then discovered that the website was closed and all I received was an error message 6006 telling me to contact Customer Services by phone immediately. After a total of over an hour that night and next morning listening to a recording asking me to hold the line, I rang my bank. Fortunately, they answered immediately and were very helpful. Having registered with JLP's new "improved" site, I find that I still cannot send them a message, but that I have been charged a flat fee for late payment and interest on the outstanding balance. JLP should not have made alterations to their system for accepting payments without warning their customers; they should have in place a way of notifying people whose payments have been rejected; they should not close down their website without warning; but if nevertheless they think it's a great idea to do all of this all at once they should at least ensure that they have a telephone service capable of handling the predictably huge number of calls. It's astonishing that a company which prides itself on serving its customers well (and spending megabucks on sentimental Christmas adverts) should have made so many basic mistakes which employing a reasonably competent IT specialist could have prevented . Reviewed on: 19th October 2016

Absolutely no acknowledgement of problem

My full payment made before due date on 12th oct bounced back, and did;t realise for a couple of days by which time £12 late payment charge and £19 interest had been added to my total. Didn't know there was problem, tried to pay again, bounced back again. Spent practically all of Monday 17th on phone - no joy. No message on phone saying they're aware of problems. So have written letter to them, to be signed for. Await their response. Reviewed on: 18th October 2016

very poor communication

over a week now since the disastrous upgrade and still unable to access my account and absolutely no indication of when the problems will be sorted.Call centre is overwhelmed so do not bother to try and contact Reviewed on: 17th October 2016

New website but little quality control

Logged into the John Lewis Partnership card website to review current status of my transactions and was surprised to find that they had launched a new site and I had to re-register. My first reaction was that, as I had not been notified of the change, was I somehow being redirected to a dodgy site by a scammer. On establishing that this was not the case I created a login and entered the new site. Not particularly impressed with the results, can see little that has changed which is beneficial and my first major concern is that when reviewing current transactions the total amount has disappeared. So you need to have a calculator to hand to identify what is your current total owed this statement period. Now there is a backward step. So, fairly quickly two major concerns on how this release was managed.... Communication and testing. With any new product there must be communication in advance with the target audience to explain what is changing, why it is changing and what the benefits are (otherwise why change it). Any new functionality needs rigorous testing before being released into the outside world. Having been an IT Manager for over 20 years I would have been slated for something like this with by a client base of hundreds, JL have a potential base of millions. Having read the other reviews on difficulties with registering and logging in I believe that they need a thorough review of their processes or risk losing customers. Reviewed on: 16th October 2016

What's happening John Lewis? You are losing loyal customers fast. Woeful service today!

25 minutes to get through to the first person. Then passed on to another person which took another 10 minute. Couldn't process my payment so ended up having a block put on my card. Now spending my afternoon trying to get it unblocked by my bank (12 on hold so far...) so I can try to make a payment online to avoid having to call JL again... Reviewed on: 15th October 2016

Online site

I have rung 5 times since Monday October 10th. The total time I have been on hold is more than 3 hours. That means that I've heard the message, "Unfortunately, all our advisors are dealing with other customers at present. Please hold the line and your call will be answered as soon as possible," about 400 times! Between this repeated announcement I hear discordant, dreadful 'music'. My problem is still unresolved after 6 days and I can't log on. Reviewed on: 15th October 2016

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