John Lewis Partnership Card

dera2005

Hello All,

I got a letter over the weekend advising that my Partnership card is essentially going to be shutdown since John Lewis is moving away from the HSBC offering to a new Credit Provider called New Day.I have had this card for many years and I liked the fact that you got John Lewis Gift Vouchers on the money you spend each month and vouchers are sent out around 3 times a year for your total accumulated spend. My concern is my current limit with John Lewis is sitting at £10500. My concern is according to letter they will write to me later on in the summer to advise how to apply for the new new day card.  I used to be an Egg customer and when Egg transitioned to Barclaycard it was automatic. I myself didn't have to apply to Barclaycard. Further more when i spoke to John Lewis about this change. They advised that they are transitioning to New Day since the acceptance criteria for a card is lower with New Day than it is against HSBC"s lending criteria. New Day sounds to me that it is a subprime card and all John Lewis want to do is attract more customers who are less favourable / higher risk thus the credit limits will be lower and the APR higher. They state that HSBC will be in touch about the existing card. Does this mean that i will just get to keep the current card under HSBC or will they advise that they will close it?


Seems a shame to loose the vouchers and have to apply for a new card just to keep that perk - when us the customer have done nothing wrong or asked for this change.  However the vouchers are less of a concern. The greater concern is if the account gets closed then it will have a negative impact on my credit history - since it's a long standing account with a decent limit and APR. 

Anyone have any thoughts or insider knowledge as to what the plan is. It would be a shame just to have the account shut down through no fault of my own. 

   

[Deleted User]

Most likely is that the vouchers will expire on the existing card, and you'll start from scratch with the NewDay card - hence the need for a new application. They'll also want to minimise wastage from migrating customers who don't want to have a card associated with NewDay.

NewDay is traditionally a subprime lender, but it increasingly operates mainstream cards.

Your existing card will be shut down, but if you have a well managed file, it will have minimal impact on your credit history and risk. Lots of card portfolios get shut down, through no fault of the customer.

[Deleted User]

Sub prime and prime cards make no difference to anyone except your opinion of things, if you get the same deal, what is the issue?

APR is surely irrelevant as you pay the card back in full every time? 

I would check with JL to ensure that you do have to apply for a new card and if so, what the benefits are as it might be better to look at another card e.g. a cashback or points card instead 

born_again

NewDay provide cards to a lot of companies 

NewDay Ltd provide credit and store cards for retail partners: Amazon, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Laura Ashley, Topshop, Topman, Burton, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Dorothy Perkins, Outfit and TUI. NewDay Ltd's consumer brands include the aqua, marbles, opus and fluid branded range of credit cards.

NewDay also provide Buy Now Pay Later credit for AO and Argos.

lr1277

If you are not aware, there was a press release about this in May. Google ‘John Lewis Newday’.

According to the release JL are increasing the staff in their credit card department so I assume that meant they will continue providing CS for the card. I think they also said the vouchers would continue.

However at that time they made no mention of reapplying for the card.

I used to have a Post Office card which was taken over by Jaja. There was no reapplication required. Also the direct debit moved over seamlessly so I never missed out on paying a statement/bill.
In anticipation of this move to Newday, I changed my direct debit to pay the full amount, hoping the changeover would be just as seamless. But reapplication makes that action unnecessary.
I haven’t received the letter yet so will look out for it over the next few days.

typeo

There are some FAQ's covered on the JL website. I've not posted enough so can't put the link here, however if you go to the main JL card page there is a section and  link about the "New Partnership".

WillPS

The nub of the issue is that John Lewis don't own the book, HSBC do - and either HSBC won't transfer that away or their new partner won't take them or a price cannot be agreed.

mrswoo57

I have a question about using my existing card to pay for something (flights) that happen after the change. In case of, for instance, cancellation what happens about a refund if the card I paid with doesn't exist any more?

[Deleted User]

It would go into a holding account and sent on to you.

Marmaduke123

WillPS said:

The nub of the issue is that John Lewis don't own the book, HSBC do - and either HSBC won't transfer that away or their new partner won't take them or a price cannot be agreed.

I seem to remember (I may be wrong) that the letter from John Lewis said that HSBC may contact me, as well as the new provider. I should have thought the John Lewis book would be quite desirable!

Muffet1

Quite a few of my own concerns about the changes to JL card here.  I won’t be applying for the Newday card, what will happen to the 40+ years of good credit history that I’ve accrued?