Write a review

Go to business site

John Lewis: Partnership Card reviews

Name: Partnership Card
Rating: 1.86 (894 reviews)

View other John Lewis products

1.86

Based on 894 reviews, last reviewed 30th Apr 2026

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

700% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

88%

Latest highest rating:

4

High interest although you gain points using your cr... High interest although you gain points using your credit card whilst shopping in John Lewis Reviewed on: 17th April 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

Zero TRUST, and HONESTY Customer service is shocking. A distinct lack of ANY rewards for points earned. You call to say you have recieved zero vouchers depite clocking up ove... Read more Reviewed on: 30th April 2026

Read all reviews See your review

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.

Smart Money People is the UK's leading financial services review and insight hub. Together, we can make financial services work better for everyone.

John Lewis Partnership Card reviews (894)

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

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

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

Do you have a different John Lewis product?

Share your experiences with products to help others make smarter financial decisions and learn more about different products available. Write a review

Are you a business? Get insights, reply to reviews, invite customers and understand their needs

Alternative products

Flexicard
from Halifax 3.70 from 7 reviews
Chrome Card
from Vanquis 4.08 from 8 reviews
Select Credit Card
from Nationwide 3.94 from 12 reviews

Want to see more from John Lewis?

Travel Insurance
from John Lewis 4.15 from 3 reviews
Breakdown Insurance
from John Lewis 4.03 from 1 reviews
Car insurance
from John Lewis 2.80 from 33 reviews

View all products

Join Smart Money People

Keep up to date on ratings of your favourite businesses. Find out about our awards and write new reviews with ease

Create an account

News, guides and insight from our team

View resource hub