John Lewis Partnership Card

dunstonh

Marmaduke123 said:

dunstonh said:

Received my invite yesterday to change over.    The process was smooth enough, and the questions are not intrusive.  However, it gave me a ridiculously low limit of £2900.      I pay the bill in full each month, with the balance frequently getting to £6k before the direct debit date.  This was well within the old credit limit.

Now I have a card that is no longer suitable for my needs.

Yes, I'm worried about this happening to me too. I have a couple of expensive holidays booked for next year, and will need my current limit if I am to pay for them on my credit card as I would prefer. For clarity, I would repay in full on the direct debit date.

I also forgot to say that using the card could hurt your future credit worthiness.   One of the measures used by most lenders is credit card limit utilisation.  That is a good thing if you utilise under 25% of your credit limit every month.   It is less good under 50%, and if you get over 75% it starts being classed as a negative.

So, those with higher limits on the old card but moving to lower limits with the new one will see their utilisation go up, and their credit worthiness go down.

Marmaduke123

WillPS said:

Marmaduke123 said:

dunstonh said:

Received my invite yesterday to change over.    The process was smooth enough, and the questions are not intrusive.  However, it gave me a ridiculously low limit of £2900.      I pay the bill in full each month, with the balance frequently getting to £6k before the direct debit date.  This was well within the old credit limit.

Now I have a card that is no longer suitable for my needs.

Yes, I'm worried about this happening to me too. I have a couple of expensive holidays booked for next year, and will need my current limit if I am to pay for them on my credit card as I would prefer. For clarity, I would repay in full on the direct debit date.

Presumably if they're booked already you can pay the balance in installments?

I could, but I'd rather keep the money earning interest as long as possible.

Grumpy_chap

dunstonh said:

I also forgot to say that using the card could hurt your future credit worthiness.   One of the measures used by most lenders is credit card limit utilisation.  That is a good thing if you utilise under 25% of your credit limit every month.   It is less good under 50%, and if you get over 75% it starts being classed as a negative.

This is exactly one of the metrics used by the online credit-score sites and one they always tell me is a bad feature of my CC use.

To what extent is this a factor if the card is spent to the limit but paid in full each month?

Is this a parameter that has changed in how it is applied over the years?  In the past, I would spend to the limit and clear the balance in full for successive months as the sure-fire way to get credit limit increases.  That does not seem to be working in the same way with my current cards.

What is the best behaviour to secure an uplift in facility?

rhassaine

Will this stupid process of closing and opening account affect my credit score ??????

WillPS

Grumpy_chap said:

dunstonh said:

I also forgot to say that using the card could hurt your future credit worthiness.   One of the measures used by most lenders is credit card limit utilisation.  That is a good thing if you utilise under 25% of your credit limit every month.   It is less good under 50%, and if you get over 75% it starts being classed as a negative.

This is exactly one of the metrics used by the online credit-score sites and one they always tell me is a bad feature of my CC use.

To what extent is this a factor if the card is spent to the limit but paid in full each month?

Is this a parameter that has changed in how it is applied over the years?  In the past, I would spend to the limit and clear the balance in full for successive months as the sure-fire way to get credit limit increases.  That does not seem to be working in the same way with my current cards.

What is the best behaviour to secure an uplift in facility?

There is no one answer, and each lender will assess this stuff differently. My advice would be to not try and game it, and instead try and just have a sensible amount of credit available. (That's your own definition of what's sensible, not some magic formula.)

WillPS

rhassaine said:

Will this stupid process of closing and opening account affect my credit score ??????

Yes but any change at all to your credit record will affect them. The good news is it's a made up number which no lender will see.

In terms of will it affect your ability to get credit in future - probably not, but be mindful that every application has a temporary cost so many sure the Partnership Card is actually a product you want to continue with before you apply for it. It's a great opportunity to switch to a better product instead, such as the Barclaycard Avios card which earns effectively 1.6 Nectar points per £ (0.8p to spend at Sainsburys, Argos or Ebay) on all spend.

dunstonh

to what extent is this a factor if the card is spent to the limit but paid in full each month?

it will depend on the when the snapshot is viewed.  If you spend £2500 a month.    It will be almost 2 months before you pay it.  So, your balance could be close to £5000 before the monthly payment goes through.    So, your credit report will appear to be using more of its available credit at certain points than reflects the reality of the situation.

Different lenders may use different percentages of credit utilisation.

What is the best behaviour to secure an uplift in facility?

Time and keep paying it monthly in full.

daveyjp

With reports of significant reductions in credit limits on the new card I was hesitant about applying and was looking at other options.

However during the application process it does give an indication of the credit limit likely to be approved.  In my case it was significantly higher than my existing Partnership card limit so no issue with me taking up the new offer and the process went smoothly.

lr1277

As mentioned before I am losing the Partnership card. I have an existing FD card. As I have not yet received the invitation to apply for the new Partnership card, I thought I would start using my FD credit card, just in case I don't get approved for the new card.

Now when I spend on the Partnership card, I get a text 75% of the time with the name of the retailer and the amount spent. Within 30 mins, the transaction is showing as Pending in the John Lewis app, usually.

I have the FD card but don't really use it, except for a few internet transactions every month. Definitely don't use it in retail settings. Until a few days ago, I had long forgotten my PIN. Anyways I had a PIN sent to me.

So I used the FD card in Tesco yesterday in a chip and pin transaction. This was between 1pm and 2pm.

No Pending transaction showing in the FD app before I went to bed.

No Pending transaction showing this morning in the FD app.

So I called FD and they told me it was a Pending transaction and something about waiting for Tesco to claim the money. I will admit I didn't understand that part of the conversation. Apparently the transaction will appear in the app later today or tomorrow.

The notification and the transaction appearing in the John Lewis app gave me a level of comfort.

Anyone who has the new Partnership card care to comment on transaction notification and timeliness of the notification? Also how soon does the transaction appear in the app?

TIA

WillPS

lr1277 said:

As mentioned before I am losing the Partnership card. I have an existing FD card. As I have not yet received the invitation to apply for the new Partnership card, I thought I would start using my FD credit card, just in case I don't get approved for the new card.

Now when I spend on the Partnership card, I get a text 75% of the time with the name of the retailer and the amount spent. Within 30 mins, the transaction is showing as Pending in the John Lewis app, usually.

I have the FD card but don't really use it, except for a few internet transactions every month. Definitely don't use it in retail settings. Until a few days ago, I had long forgotten my PIN. Anyways I had a PIN sent to me.

So I used the FD card in Tesco yesterday in a chip and pin transaction. This was between 1pm and 2pm.

No Pending transaction showing in the FD app before I went to bed.

No Pending transaction showing this morning in the FD app.

So I called FD and they told me it was a Pending transaction and something about waiting for Tesco to claim the money. I will admit I didn't understand that part of the conversation. Apparently the transaction will appear in the app later today or tomorrow.

The notification and the transaction appearing in the John Lewis app gave me a level of comfort.

Anyone who has the new Partnership card care to comment on transaction notification and timeliness of the notification? Also how soon does the transaction appear in the app?

TIA

I'm surprised the FD card functions differently as it'll be running on HSBC's platform just as your JLFS card does. Can you log in to the settings on both apps and check the notification settings are the same? I suspect it might be an app setting.

Or did you have your JLFS card set up in Google/Apple Pay which sent you notifications? If so, just set up your FD card in the same way and you'll get notifications again.

What the agent said is true - typically using your card results in a pending transaction which either drops off or is confirmed later on - that doesn't stop you getting a notification for your pending transaction though.