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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

Warning about new website

This is beyond a joke. How can they have allowed such a mess to happen? At least they've put some FAQs on the website because nobody can reach their rubbish call centre. John Lewis needs to review their relationship with the company that manages their cards as their brand has had some serious damage. I will cancel my card as soon as they accept my payment to pay it off. Payments will not be accepted. Am also now locked out of the website and have held for 45 minutes and then 30 minutes today with no response. Reviewed on: 14th October 2016

Rubbish website - not properly tested?

John Lewis have clearly not fully tested their new website before launching it. I'm finding it impossible to re-register my card because it won't accept the new PIN that is required. The obvious temporary fix would be to take down the online registration service and publish a notice advising customers when it will be fixed and when it can be used again. Then they wouldn't have so many phone calls to the call centre - I gave up after 30 mins. on the phone. Reviewed on: 14th October 2016

The worst.

I've been trying to pay off my credit card for a few days now with no success! Their new website is terrible! I've tried calling but after being on the phone for over 40 mins without speaking to anyone i've given up. If things don't change in the next few days then i'm going to get rid of this credit card and find another with better customer service and online service. Reviewed on: 14th October 2016

PARTNERSHIP CARD - NEW WEBSITE IS A JOKE

Absolutely shocking - the person who project managed the new website should be sacked. Diabolical. 30 minutes holding to try and get through. They've changed their details so my bank transfer payments have bounced back...a 'bug' in the system they say. I'm also trying to trace a payment that left my bank account on the 10th but is not showing up on their system. They are looking into it. This is such a joke and really poor for the John Lewis brand. Reviewed on: 14th October 2016

Shocking new website

JL asking all JLP card holders to re-register but the awful new website is making it impossible! Simply will not accept the pin number I'm trying to input. I will try & get through by phone tomorrow but hearing that's impossible too at the moment! What a mess! Reviewed on: 13th October 2016

New website is useless

Useless new website, where is the quality control!? This site should never have gone live. I can't re-register as it keeps complaining that m password (12 digit, Upper case/lower case/special character alpha-numeric) needs to be more than 8 digits!? So basically I can't do anything I need with my account - such as clear this months debit!! Shocking. New site looks great, but a Ferrari without an engine is not a Ferrari. Reviewed on: 12th October 2016

Website disaster

The new John Lewis partnership card website was out of action officially for several days in order to apply updates - but has now been out of action for several more, unofficially, with no notice given to customers as to when things will be up and running again and absolutely no answer on the helpline - I've rung four times and hung on for 20 minutes each time in order to unblock my account. The unblocking occurred when I tried to re-register my card - . Such a good card up until now. This experience is uining the positive John Lewis brand name for customer service. Reviewed on: 12th October 2016

New web site a DISASTER

John Lewis has just updated it's website and has gone from being a 10 star experience to a 2 - and only a 2 because of my previous experience with the company. I cannot now do anything online as the system crashes at every opportunity - WHY change for the sake of new, trendy type sets when you can't use the bloody site. VERY FRUSTRATING. I shall allow a week to sort this out and if no better will look elsewhere. Reviewed on: 11th October 2016

Constantly blocking my card

I've had this card for a few years but in recent months I am plagued by having the card blocked due to 'suspected fraud', currently on a twice-weekly basis. It is only online transactions affected, but that is mainly what I do! Often it's a transaction I make regularly too. Worst was when my online grocery shopping was cancelled due to the card block, meaning my groceries didn't turn up. They have never contacted me to alert me to the block, it's always up to me to chase it. I enjoy the John Lewis reward vouchers but the card is just becoming too unreliable to use. Reviewed on: 26th September 2016

Constantly refusing payment of certain periodic/common transactions

I pay for DropBox, Netflix, Amazon kindle ebooks, Google Drive space every single month throguh direct debit of my JL credit card and buy a number of Amazon e-books each week. John Lewis has stopped payments on each of these in the last 2 months. Never communicates that it has done this, and then says, when I call them up that these are targeted by fraudsters and so stopped through some default wider risk profile. John Lewis do not review your account to see if it is a monthly debit or to see if you buy e-books frequently and thus any action can be lifted. There seems no overview of my actual account activity and I have never made a fraud claim. It feels like you are being harassed and that JL's actual fraud controls are very unsophisticated and customer unfriendly. Reviewed on: 21st September 2016

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