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John Lewis suspends applications for its Partnership credit card

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Whilst it doesn’t earn miles or points, we have occasionally mentioned the John Lewis / Waitrose Partnership Card in the past.

Until the launch of the new Barclaycard Avios credit cards, the Partnership Card was one of the better options – although still a weak one – for getting rewards from a Visa or Mastercard. You got 1.25% back on your spending in John Lewis and Waitrose and 0.25% back elsewhere.

Applications for the card closed yesterday. John Lewis is planning to move it from HSBC to NewDay.

There is an interesting comment in the press release on the announcement. NewDay said that:

our proprietary credit decisioning capabilities allow us to responsibly say ‘yes’ to more customers, which will enable even more John Lewis customers to enjoy the much-loved Partnership Card rewards.

This sounds, to me, as if John Lewis and HSBC may have fallen out over the acceptance rate for the card, albeit you would expect the John Lewis / Waitrose customer base to be good credit risks.

However, it is also the case that NewDay has just lost the contract to run the Amazon Platinum Mastercard. NewDay’s private equity owners are believed to be planning to float the business in the medium term and will need a ‘good news’ story to convince investors that it is still a growth business.

What isn’t clear is what happens to existing cardholders. John Lewis says that:

There’s no immediate change for current customers, who can continue to use their card and collect points as normal, and we’ll write to them this summer about the change.

There are two possible scenarios. One is that NewDay buys the existing ‘book’ off HSBC and customers get a fairly seamless transition. The alternative is that HSBC switches Partnership Card customers to a generic HSBC card and they are forced to make a fresh application for the NewDay product.

If you have one of these cards, you should be seriously considering dropping it for the free Barclaycard Avios card. Even if you have no interest in Avios, you can convert the points into Nectar and get a 0.8% return on your spending – more than 3x the 0.25% return you get from the John Lewis card.

You can find out more on the John Lewis website here.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (58)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • conspicuous-capybara says:

    Even the first phase of Crossrail will make it much easier for many people to get to Heathrow by virtue of it being easier to get to Paddington!

    Currently I get the train to London Bridge, switch to the Jubilee line (a >5 minute walk platform to platform) to Baker Street, then Bakerloo to Paddington. Can’t wait to replace that with a DLR to Canary Wharf then Crossrail to Paddington. Will probably only save 5 minutes or so in the first stage, but it’ll be a much easier journey.

    • Rhys says:

      Yes, it’s going to make my life very easy. Can’t wait for it to run through to Heathrow.

      • ChrisC says:

        Yes I’ll be getting the Thameslink from Brighton to Farrindgon and catching it there either to LHR or to LCY via Canary Wharf

  • BA-Flyer says:

    I was a victim of ID theft involving NewDay. The fraudulent application spelt my name wrong and had the wrong day in my DOB, but the application was still accepted. My complaint was upheld and compensation provided, as it was clear zero checks had been done.

    • david says:

      out of curiosity. what was the comp?

      • BA-Flyer says:

        £90. Not sure why they didn’t round it up to £100, but as I haven’t actually suffered financial loss myself, I didn’t push it further. I also got the standard 1 year membership to CIFAS.

    • Nick N says:

      Your view on this not and ID theft but a data breach? I subscribed to telegraph Newspaper, however last Nov I decided to cancel as I was not getting time to read it properly. In April this year I realise that they are still charging me. They do not have customer services so by just random dialling I got someone who wanted to help. Turns out not only had they been taking my non existent subscription but had also taken money from my account in the name of someone I have never heard of. They have been ‘investigating’ for a month. A salutory lesson to me, ‘go over my statements from Amex with a fine toothcomb’. I have told them I want compensating when it is finalised, they offered 6 months free subscription I near said ” **** off” but declined their offer with expletives

      • A says:

        Another reason why it’s bonkers to pay for the dt. So much easier to use your library login and not have to deal with these useless morons.

  • Anonymous says:

    Barclaycard Avios card looks like great deal with sign up bonus of 60,000 avios points. I signed up to it of course, considering this is one of the best sign up deal.

    However, the physical card has not been delivered for a month and a half, and customer service team cannot do anything, apparently due to “supply chain issue of physical cards printer” and charged me 20 pounds for two months.

    I am cancelling this credit card, as I am not really in the mood to spend 40 pounds for no reason.

    • Rob says:

      There was a blip in the first couple of weeks (early March) but those were resolved before we launched our special offer and I don’t know of anyone from that batch who hasn’t received one.

      Indeed, many people who got the card during our 30k promotion have already triggered their sign-up bonus, and all got the extra 5k last week.

      • Flamingpenguin says:

        I’ve not had my 5k bonus Rob – What should I do?

        • Rob says:

          Step 1 – check your BA account
          Step 2 – ensure that Avios from normal Barclaycard spend have posted so you know the accounts are linked (no claims will be looked at unless you have earned standard Avios)
          Step 3 – if you got the free card, check that the 5k standard bonus showing is not actually our bonus (lots of people have 5k and think it is the standard bonus they earned, but it’s not – that will come later and it is our bonus that has arrived)
          Step 4 – email me and we’ll give you an address at Barclaycard. They will pull up your Consumer Credit Agreement to see if it mentions HfP. If it does, you’ll get credit. If it doesn’t, you used the wrong link.

    • Max says:

      Phone them up and report your card as lost. I did this and the replacement card arrived within 3 days. The original card never arrived…

    • Ian says:

      Dealing with Barclaycard’s so-called “Customer Service” is an absolute nightmare and I am still trying to get the card which I unwisely applied for cancelled. If you can get through to them, they’re polite and say they’ll do something but nothing happens. My advice would be: don’t be seduced by the Avios offer, have nothing to do with Barclaycard.

    • SteveJ says:

      60k points?

      • Ian says:

        No, just not worth all the hassle.

        • SteveJ says:

          No I’m referencing the original post, there was never a 60k sign up offer, so not sure what that’s all about.

          • JDB says:

            A few people have used the 60k figure here. I assume they mean a couple applying and each getting 25k Avios + the 5k HfP bonus.

    • NICK says:

      I queried my card not being sent in a meaningful time frame, they refunded £15 of my £20 first month charge

    • Dubious says:

      I wonder if they are printing them in Singapore before shipping to the UK and then posting them. It always surprises me how so many of the cards must be airflown from the other side of the world but still arrive fairly quickly in the regular post.

      Does anyone with the Barclaycard Avios card see a “Gemalto SGP” printed on the back?

      • Symon says:

        Has ‘THALES SHA’ on the back, which Google tells me is Gemalto, so yes.

  • Rui N. says:

    What was an Aqua gold? I have a regular Aqua that gives 0.5% on all purchases, up to £100 per year (pays for 2/3 of the Curve Metal yearly fee by itself)

    • Roger that says:

      Aqua gold is just a marketing thing with no extra benefits. A waiter in Cape Town did comment that the design was cool!

  • Andrew. says:

    Definitely need a bit more info. My JLP MasterCard is the oldest card that appears on my credit report.

    If it stays with HSBC, fine. If it migrates, and resets to a year zero card it’s pointless.

    I don’t particularly want to return to NewDay. I got a nice amount of compensation from them before, but having to raise a complaint with the FOS in order for them to recognise the authority of the ICO in a complaint was tiresome.

  • ADS says:

    Speaking of transferring points to Nectar …

    Does anybody with the dreaded 7135JSO block have a resolution from Nectar yet ?

    • Mark M says:

      A very good question! All I get from them is BS, claiming my “ISP is overseas”, or my “VPN is blocking it”, etc. Both complete nonsense, as it occurs from any browser and any device inc mobile phone. AND different cards within my family too.
      But I can log in OK with my mobile with 2 of our 3 cards – very weird. I’ve given up bothering – as long as the points still come through that is…
      Does anyone have any ideas?

  • KS says:

    Off topic I know, but….

    Received two emails from BA today. First confirmed that they couldn’t apply my FTV to the booking I’d requested it be applied to as the booking wasn’t eligible (t&c duly quoted). Second, one minute later, from a different member of staff confirmed they’d refunded the original payment card with the full FTV value. Odd.

    Now waiting to see what appears on the Amex statement…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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