John Lewis Partnership Card

Marchitiello

wendineill said:

… She is furious at her treatment from JL as they aren’t even transferring her account to their new provider.  An you help?

As explained early in this thread can you explain to your mum that JL had nothing to do with the credit facility issued to your mum under the JLP branding and that as such they did not own the credit linked nor the debt portfolio, so any other provider of such facility (that did not actually but the account and debt portfolio) would need to make their own financial decision before accepting new customers.

MollyR

Also, the balance on the old card cannot be automatically transferred to the new card (although it can be paid off at the usual rate).  She could do a 0% balance transfer, but there would be a percentage fee for doing so.

WillPS

Cardea said:

WillPS said:

Cardea said:

I liked the vouchers to spend at John Lewis or Waitrose  but I feel that this shouldn't be at the expense of security.  I'd like to know what others think.   I'm seriously thinking of cancelling this card but will it affect my (so far excellent) rating on Experian (etc). ? 

The previous JLFS platform was based on HSBC's full banking platform, which is more secure by design as there is far greater damage one can do with access to somebody's savings, investments, current accounts etc. A credit card portal is of far less use to a hacker or scammer because you need the actual card to do anything other than basic admin, and presumably NewDay will alert you if an address change or new card request was put in. Ultimately if NewDay's security measures fail then that's their problem, so long as it's not as a result of negligence on your part.

You can do much better than the Partnership Card in terms of rewards; even if you're extremely loyal to John Lewis and spend a lot in John Lewis/Waitrose. That should be your reason for telling them to do one, if you do.

Don't be too guided by arbitrary numbers offered by LastPass and Experian.

This is very helpful information WillPS.   Thank you.    I am still going to investigate alternatives, however.  I don't feel that I have any strong allegiance to JLP these days.   I might have done pre-Brexit/Covid/War but I need the best value for money now. 

But - could you please give me justification for your allegations that LastPass and Experian are offering "arbitrary" numbers?   I would have thought that this would have got them into deep doo-doo? 

No problem. 

The credit score Experian show you can only be seen by them and yourself only. Nobody else who legitimately searches your credit record will see it, leave alone be able to assess your credit worthiness on it. It's a number they've cooked up as a way of trying to sell the dream to consumers that there is such a thing as a 'perfect' client when the truth is that there isn't - some lenders will prefer customers who clear their debts reliably, others will prefer customers who look as though they might generate them revenue in the form of interest or fees. The score is based on what they can see from the credit record they hold and what they consider to be good things and bad things. 

Similarly the LastPass score is based on what they can see on a web page, all it sees it what is being submitted through a web page - it doesn't know how elaborate the fraud detection is on the server end and it might not even understand that one of the numbers you've provided is a two factor authentication challenge - it might be misinterpreting those numbers/codes as very weak passwords, and trying to help you 'improve' those codes. I don't know, but again it's a dangerous notion to think that seeing 100 or whatever on an app means something is unbreakable/completely secure.

artyboy

Marchitiello said:

wendineill said:

… She is furious at her treatment from JL as they aren’t even transferring her account to their new provider.  An you help?

As explained early in this thread can you explain to your mum that JL had nothing to do with the credit facility issued to your mum under the JLP branding and that as such they did not own the credit linked nor the debt portfolio, so any other provider of such facility (that did not actually but the account and debt portfolio) would need to make their own financial decision before accepting new customers.

But of course it will never be that simple - once JL allowed their name to be associated the the branding of that credit facility, they became at least somewhat responsible in the eyes of their customers. Especially the ones that have had a JL card for many years thinking that it was a brand they could trust!

WillPS

artyboy said:

Marchitiello said:

wendineill said:

… She is furious at her treatment from JL as they aren’t even transferring her account to their new provider.  An you help?

As explained early in this thread can you explain to your mum that JL had nothing to do with the credit facility issued to your mum under the JLP branding and that as such they did not own the credit linked nor the debt portfolio, so any other provider of such facility (that did not actually but the account and debt portfolio) would need to make their own financial decision before accepting new customers.

But of course it will never be that simple - once JL allowed their name to be associated the the branding of that credit facility, they became at least somewhat responsible in the eyes of their customers. Especially the ones that have had a JL card for many years thinking that it was a brand they could trust!

In which case my advice would be complain to John Lewis (but don't expect much) and recalibrate ones expectations to be more in line with reality moving forwards.

QwertType

Our situation is ‘early retired’ a couple of years before our pension payments income kicks in using healthy savings to bridge the gap. So no employment /pension regular ‘income’ at this stage. MSE eligibility checker gives a 0% chance of approval on the major credit card providers.

Has anyone found a credit card issuer willing to take on such a customer?

Thanks for the various helpful posts explaining the system. On this basis We are not wanting to make applications that will be rejected with affect on credit score. We are settled home owners and have had the JLP card since it was launched, almost always paying off in full each month.

WillPS

QwertType said:

Our situation is ‘early retired’ a couple of years before our pension payments income kicks in using healthy savings to bridge the gap. So no employment /pension regular ‘income’ at this stage. MSE eligibility checker gives a 0% chance of approval on the major credit card providers.

Has anyone found a credit card issuer willing to take on such a customer?

Thanks for the various helpful posts explaining the system. On this basis We are not wanting to make applications that will be rejected with affect on credit score. We are settled home owners and have had the JLP card since it was launched, almost always paying off in full each month.

Try the card issuing companies' own eligibility checkers. Start with the banks you've used longest as they'll have more proprietary data about you which might help enhance your perceived affordability.

IanManc

QwertType said:

Our situation is ‘early retired’ a couple of years before our pension payments income kicks in using healthy savings to bridge the gap. So no employment /pension regular ‘income’ at this stage. MSE eligibility checker gives a 0% chance of approval on the major credit card providers.

Has anyone found a credit card issuer willing to take on such a customer?

Thanks for the various helpful posts explaining the system. On this basis We are not wanting to make applications that will be rejected with affect on credit score. We are settled home owners and have had the JLP card since it was launched, almost always paying off in full each month.

The MSE eligibility checker is useless. I'm in the same situation as you, and the checker said I had 0% chance of approval too.

Since then I've ditched my Santander credit card (simply because the Ant and Dec adverts really annoyed me) and I've acquired a Lloyds Cashback credit card for the cashback, a Halifax Clarity Mastercard credit card for fee free purchases abroad, and a Nationwide Member's Visa credit card with fee free purchases abroad just in case the Halifax Mastercard wasn't accepted somewhere while I was away.

I now have everything I need, yet the MSE checker said I wouldn't get any of them.

nbass

If you haven't got a computer - like my 85 year old mother + father (a decades-long JL Partner) - how do you apply?
Letter today from Partnership Card arrives today saying "Account Closed" - no clue given that you can apply for new card. Mother in a panic as they buy everything from JLP/Waitrose on their card. Ring the number on letter - "We are HSBC not the new provider so can't tell you anything".
Ring new provider, NewDay, after getting number from website - something my mother can't do of course. Their answer "Apply online or go into store and use the tablet there". I really pity the poor customer service person who has to try and teach my father how to use a tablet given he can't even work a Nokia 3310!

Absolutely terrible service and comms programme from JLP and not thought through from a customer experience stand point at all.  I know technically it isn't them but when the letter has JLP green branding and JLP typeface then I am afraid it is them in customer's mind.  This type of "no computer = no service" scenario is simply a form of indirect age discrimination and completely disenfranchises a chunk of their more mature customer base. A sad and common story these days and I am afraid JLP have just become the same as all the rest.

As for my own experience, I applied online for my card and got same £9k credit limit I had with old card but it took but 7 emails and 5 OTP texts to get me to precisely where I started in the first place.

safe_hands2

nbass said:

If you haven't got a computer - like my 85 year old mother + father (a decades-long JL Partner) - how do you apply?
Letter today from Partnership Card arrives today saying "Account Closed" - no clue given that you can apply for new card. Mother in a panic as they buy everything from JLP/Waitrose on their card. Ring the number on letter - "We are HSBC not the new provider so can't tell you anything".
Ring new provider, NewDay, after getting number from website - something my mother can't do of course. Their answer "Apply online or go into store and use the tablet there". I really pity the poor customer service person who has to try and teach my father how to use a tablet given he can't even work a Nokia 3310!

Absolutely terrible service and comms programme from JLP and not thought through from a customer experience stand point at all.  I know technically it isn't them but when the letter has JLP green branding and JLP typeface then I am afraid it is them in customer's mind.  This type of "no computer = no service" scenario is simply a form of indirect age discrimination and completely disenfranchises a chunk of their more mature customer base. A sad and common story these days and I am afraid JLP have just become the same as all the rest.

This is a bugbear of mine! We have an increasing digital divide where the assumption is that everyone is able or happy to use a smartphone/computer for banking, parking.....etc etc. 

It doesn't apply to me, but I don't like that people I know who are older than me are feeling increasingly adrift from this.