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John Lewis Partnership Credit Card
AndrewBEx
Posts: 5 Forumite
Your advice would be appreciated.
My partner and I applied for a John Lewis Partnership Credit Card recently. My partner filled in the application providing our bank account details on the application in the belief that she setting up payment to be made via Direct Debit.
Nothing in the application process, 'Important Information'/terms and conditions indicated that the bank account details provided were for any other purpose other than for setting up a payment and by asking for these bank details it was regarded as a requirement of the card agreement that payment would be taken from our bank account, as this is always the preferred payment option for financial service in our experience.
We have no communication from John Lewis other than notification of the next bill amount until being told we had missed the payment, a £12 fee and a black mark on an otherwise perfect credit history.
So on contacted them to find out what had happened to our payment they informed us that although we had completed our application online we could not have possibility setup a Direct Debit as John Lewis Partnership can’t setup Direct Debits online and there was another step in the application process which is not detailed anywhere on the application, that we had to ring them to setup this up. They also have only just been able to do this over the telephone (not sure if congratulations was required), rather than what obviously was until a few months ago conducted by carrier pigeon or smoke signal.
The operator was very unhelpful stating it was our responsibility to ensure payment and why had we not checked our account, well Direct Debits don’t show until they are used, and that we should have know that they could not setup payment from our bank account on the application (where our contract was formed) and the bank account details were for some other purpose (unspecified), unlike every other credit company I have every experienced how like to make the payment mandate a priority.
Is it just that John Lewis like processing all the cheques and manual payments.
I have images of small children running around clutching paper notes, while a room full of Dickensian characters sitting at towering wooden desks, scratching numbers into ledger books with a quill by candle light, chuckling manically for every £12 fee entered.
Are John Lewis in the dark ages?
So back to reality, we make the full payment of the balance for the card this morning by BACS and the amount are £14.55 different on our bank and the credit card statement, what is going on with this company? Not a massive difference but does it not ring alarm bells that the amounts are not identical?
The warning signs started when John Lewis processed the payment, the last message said we can’t be sure your payment will go onto your account so you need to call us.
Also, secure messages on the app have not been answered and we had to call.
How do we ensure no black mark is recorded on our credit file and how do we get the £12 fee refunded?
My partner and I applied for a John Lewis Partnership Credit Card recently. My partner filled in the application providing our bank account details on the application in the belief that she setting up payment to be made via Direct Debit.
Nothing in the application process, 'Important Information'/terms and conditions indicated that the bank account details provided were for any other purpose other than for setting up a payment and by asking for these bank details it was regarded as a requirement of the card agreement that payment would be taken from our bank account, as this is always the preferred payment option for financial service in our experience.
We have no communication from John Lewis other than notification of the next bill amount until being told we had missed the payment, a £12 fee and a black mark on an otherwise perfect credit history.
So on contacted them to find out what had happened to our payment they informed us that although we had completed our application online we could not have possibility setup a Direct Debit as John Lewis Partnership can’t setup Direct Debits online and there was another step in the application process which is not detailed anywhere on the application, that we had to ring them to setup this up. They also have only just been able to do this over the telephone (not sure if congratulations was required), rather than what obviously was until a few months ago conducted by carrier pigeon or smoke signal.
The operator was very unhelpful stating it was our responsibility to ensure payment and why had we not checked our account, well Direct Debits don’t show until they are used, and that we should have know that they could not setup payment from our bank account on the application (where our contract was formed) and the bank account details were for some other purpose (unspecified), unlike every other credit company I have every experienced how like to make the payment mandate a priority.
Is it just that John Lewis like processing all the cheques and manual payments.
I have images of small children running around clutching paper notes, while a room full of Dickensian characters sitting at towering wooden desks, scratching numbers into ledger books with a quill by candle light, chuckling manically for every £12 fee entered.
Are John Lewis in the dark ages?
So back to reality, we make the full payment of the balance for the card this morning by BACS and the amount are £14.55 different on our bank and the credit card statement, what is going on with this company? Not a massive difference but does it not ring alarm bells that the amounts are not identical?
The warning signs started when John Lewis processed the payment, the last message said we can’t be sure your payment will go onto your account so you need to call us.
Also, secure messages on the app have not been answered and we had to call.
How do we ensure no black mark is recorded on our credit file and how do we get the £12 fee refunded?
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Comments
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You could ask them nicely and rely on their goodwill. But beyond that, you will just need to live with it.
A request to set up DD is always very obvious, so it should have been apparent that you hadn't requested on. It will also always say on the statement if the payment is being collected by DD.
If you madea full balance for the card, that will generally be different from the statement balance, if there has been further spending.0 -
No we are talking about the amount going out of our account and into the credit card account, not the balance.
So when the important information talks about making payment by direct debit and you fill in an online application, you think it is acceptable to not actually be able use that feature without taking an extra step, by calling someone, which you are never told about or never mentioned even deep in the small print?
I am sorry but if someone asks me for my account information, credit or bank, any reasonable person would regard that as relating to a payment transaction, unless told otherwise?0 -
No. I think it would be entirely unacceptable of them to use your details to set up a DD without telling you that's what they're doing.So when the important information talks about making payment by direct debit and you fill in an online application, you think it is acceptable to not actually be able use that feature without taking an extra step, by calling someone, which you are never told about or never mentioned even deep in the small print?I am sorry but if someone asks me for my account information, credit or bank, any reasonable person would regard that as relating to a payment transaction, unless told otherwise?
No. Any reasonable person would assume that if they were setting up a DD mandate, they would need to complete a DD mandate.0 -
Fully agree with ZX81, I too would not be happy with a DD being set up without a mandate being completed.
It is also good practice to check that on the first statement, it says that any payment will be collected by direct debit.0 -
Yes, I totally agree, they should be clear why they are collection your bank details.
A mandate is simply an agreement it is not necessarily a document to complete, as this can be done other the telephone. The term and conditions provided online with the application detailed making payment by direct debit and a DD guarantee statement.
As you obviously agree, having this information in a contract document and then not actually making this option available to anyone, when entering into the financial contract, would be not be legal, and collecting all the details required and not telling you for what purpose is misleading.0 -
i have to say jlp cc and first direct are at the top.of my list of 'financial.institutions that remind me of life on mars tv series...'0
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I applied for a John Lewis Partnership Card back in March but still no nearer being granted a card. They phoned me to clarify some information regarding the electoral roll that I explained, then silence. I tried checking the status online but just received a bland "your application is being considered" type response. I eventually phoned and they said they'd written to me but nothing ha been received so they send the letter again.
They asked for the standard proof of address and proof of identity. These days most utility bills etc are delivered electronically but fortunately I had a paper copy of a Council Tax bill to provide to them. For the proof of identity I asked a friend who's a chartered engineer to countersign it. They rejected this and demanded I use one of a limited number of professions on their list (solicitor, GP etc - most of whom charge for this service). I asked them why some professions were on the list but others weren't but they ignored it and just re-stated their position. I pointed out that if I have to pay say 50 pounds for a signature then that will outweigh any incremental benefits of using their card in one of their stores compared to using my existing card.
I also asked them why they don't recognize the same professions as does the Passport Office, for example, and HSBC. Guess what, this JL financial service is an HSBC subsidiary so probably just a front or shell in the same way as many insurance companies belong to just 2-3 parent companies.
I've received several holding letters saying they are investigating my complaint so presume these are computer generated. Five months and counting.0 -
I applied for a John Lewis Partnership Card back in March but still no nearer being granted a card. They phoned me to clarify some information regarding the electoral roll that I explained, then silence. I tried checking the status online but just received a bland "your application is being considered" type response. I eventually phoned and they said they'd written to me but nothing ha been received so they send the letter again.
They asked for the standard proof of address and proof of identity. These days most utility bills etc are delivered electronically but fortunately I had a paper copy of a Council Tax bill to provide to them. For the proof of identity I asked a friend who's a chartered engineer to countersign it. They rejected this and demanded I use one of a limited number of professions on their list (solicitor, GP etc - most of whom charge for this service). I asked them why some professions were on the list but others weren't but they ignored it and just re-stated their position. I pointed out that if I have to pay say 50 pounds for a signature then that will outweigh any incremental benefits of using their card in one of their stores compared to using my existing card.
I also asked them why they don't recognize the same professions as does the Passport Office, for example, and HSBC. Guess what, this JL financial service is an HSBC subsidiary so probably just a front or shell in the same way as many insurance companies belong to just 2-3 parent companies.
I've received several holding letters saying they are investigating my complaint so presume these are computer generated. Five months and counting.
Take it to the FOS if you want to progress it via another means0 -
[FONT="]Update: JLF wrote to me asking me to phone them on 0345 603 4319 “so that we can help you complete your application.” When I got through, they said they needed to check something with another department. After being on hold for nearly 10 minutes the operator came back to say that their system was down and that I would need to re-apply from scratch after 16 September 2019. She asked if I wanted to raise (another) complaint so I said that I did. I've just submitted a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman too.[/FONT]0
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