John Lewis Partnership Card

vandelayindustries

Apologies - I meant to post as a reply to existing discussion on John Lewis Partnership Card (where I've not also posted this. No obvious way to delete this discussion - though maybe blame me the newbie!

MallyGirl

I have requested this be merged with the ongoing discussion

born_again

vandelayindustries said:

Same as many others here and on Trustpilot: held a JL Partnership Card for over a decade with large credit limit, spent a lot on it and paid off automatically monthly. Credit record is spotless. Haven't moved (very standard) address for years. Above average earnings. Invited to transfer from HSBC to NewDay; enter the code and application declined. No reason given. Cannot try again.

Call them up and pleasant chap on the phone says that he can't tell me why I was declined - or what their scoring criteria are. Says that NewDay won't tell anyone generally. Says that I can apply as a general new customer later, but the rule set and process will be the same (so presumably will fail again). And to be honest, my nose is put of joint now, so why would I bother?

Presumably John Lewis themselves will realise this IT system and/or credit scoring criteria blunder when they see how few of their highest spending customers don't transfer. The scoring policy is likely set by NewDay (the bear the credit risk) but John Lewis are the ones who will lose as a lot of very annoyed loyal customers will take other cards and due to not receiving JLP vouchers will be more likely to buy elsewhere. Very short sighted by a company already in major trouble.

Newday will be basing any approval on their internal scoring. 
If you had a high credit limit with JL. They may not want to take that risk on. At the end of the day JL can not force them to take you on with that limit. As they are themselves not the lender. They have exclusive arrangements with selected lenders in relation to the credit products offered by John Lewis Finance.
Any limits will be based on their internal risk appetite & your current income to credit ratio.
Newday would simply fall foul of the FCA responsible lending rules if they did not do this.

lr1277

Speculating here. I wonder if New Day know how much you spent in John Lewis/Waitrose and used that figure as part of their scoring? This information would be easy enough to get from John Lewis.
May explain why some people are accepted and others not. May also explain why of those accepted some get large limits; sometimes bigger than on their JLFS provided card.
I know their will be outliers which disprove my thought.

As has been said this is about encouraging spending across the John Lewis group and the credit limit offered could be a tool to achieve that aim. Does John Lewis like giving rewards for spend outside the group?
Like I said speculation on my part.

Edited to delete reference to other John Lewis thread.

lr1277

Speculating further purely as an exercise in data analysis. (I really am thinking about this too much).

Say New Day have the data for each spend and the amount spent.
They could calculate something akin to the Bradford score used by HR departments.
So total number of visits squared multiplied by total spend across all purchases from the group.

So say you made 100 visits a year to Waitrose and spent £5000 across those hundred visits. Roughly £50 twice a week.
That would lead to 100 squared which is 10000. Now multiply this by 5000 and you get a JL score of 50000000.

Alternatively you go to John Lewis 12x a year and say spend a total of 12000 across those visits. Your JL score would be 1728000.

This is less than the score for the Waitrose shopper even though you have spent more than double that of the Waitrose shopper. So from JL’s point of view, the Waitrose shopper is more desirable.

And if you have a loyalty card from either JL or Waitrose, they will know how much you spent with a JL card or with another card. For instance you may be building up points on Amex to fund a trip. This info could also be used for the scoring.

Lowtrawler

I have had a couple of experiences with Newday. The first was with the old Asda cashback credit card. I was very pleased with the card and service. I received an appropriate credit limit and used it as my daily driver. The app was basic but worked well and I had no real problems. My 2nd experience was with the Amazon Credit Card. They provided me with a laughably low credit limit - about enough for 2 weeks average spend. You have to wait 6 months to apply for an increase and even then, the request is limited to an extra £2k. They turned my request for an increase down. I have a perfect credit history, own my own home and a 6 figure salary. Now Amazon are closing the account, I will end my relationship with Newday and actively avoid dealing with them again.

Missus_Hyde

We've had the old JL Partnership card for a few years ( husband is the prime card holder, I'm the additional, although I do all the applying and setting up etc.) I seem to remember it was a hell of a performance getting the card in the first place, but we do shop at John Lewis quite a lot and have found the cards quite useful.

I applied for the new card for my husband with very little problem and he was accepted with a slightly higher credit limit than on the old card (despite being a "retiree"😉) However, like a couple of other posters on this thread, I couldn't set up the online account, due to a similar error message ( even after receiving his card) and eventually had to ring the customer services where it transpired that they had sent the wrong code on the email.🙄 

The chappie I spoke to at Newday was very helpful and we were able to sort it out fairly easily. I have to say that my experience of Newday has always been very positive; I've had an Aqua card with them for quite a long time and had no problem with them at all ( which these days is quite refreshing!😉)

artyboy

I used to joke with Mrs Arty that we needed to downsize our house before our local JL store closed down, as it would affect house prices far more than the local schools would.

Starting to think that it's time to order the tea crates...

WillPS

Lowtrawler said:

I have had a couple of experiences with Newday. The first was with the old Asda cashback credit card. I was very pleased with the card and service. I received an appropriate credit limit and used it as my daily driver. The app was basic but worked well and I had no real problems. My 2nd experience was with the Amazon Credit Card. They provided me with a laughably low credit limit - about enough for 2 weeks average spend. You have to wait 6 months to apply for an increase and even then, the request is limited to an extra £2k. They turned my request for an increase down. I have a perfect credit history, own my own home and a 6 figure salary. Now Amazon are closing the account, I will end my relationship with Newday and actively avoid dealing with them again.

NewDay have never issued an Asda credit card, to my knowledge. The current one is issed by Jaja and the previous ones were issued by Creation.

Despite what you might think of yourself, you may in fact not be a particularly attractive credit card customer. I've seen lots of stories recently of people in your position struggling to open credit cards, and not just with NewDay but other mainstream lenders like Tesco Bank and Barclaycard too. Like it or not all lenders have finite amounts of credit they can dish out, and 'how likely it is that the customer will stick to the terms of their credit agreement' is only one part of determining lending criteria.

startsavingnow

I have also just been refused after receiving a text message saying I would receive a code - which never arrived.  
No problem at all.  I think lot of people are disappointed under the impression they had some sort of recognition of "loyalty" from John Lewis.    People should remember that the credit card is just a money making instrument and if you are not likely to defer payment and owe them interest then there is nothing in it for them.  It is all about giving you the impression that you "deserve" to be "associated" with the John Lewis brand.