I’m fuming !

BTW it is a comfort to see I am not the only one who has been declined.
Thank you, Gransnet folk for being here! As usual, I'm a bit late joining the discussion, but it is a help just to share what has happened.
John Lewis/Waitrose has lost its soul.

My application was declined with the information my income was under 5k a year, and my address was invalid. After going through the complaints procedure, I was notified in a telephone call that my address did not match the one recorded on the credit record agency. They have underestimated my income as I presume the 5k was simply pensions. They didn't ask about savings. After the telephone call with the complaints team (who were very nice), I received a very long letter saying my case had been reviewed, NewDay had been correct (or words to that effect) and I would not be issued a new card. There was, however, a long ditty on how to appeal to the ombudsman. How much time will this take? And will I need an extra dose of blood pressure tablets to cope?
As I have been a loyal customer for many years and never been in debt. I was quite hurt when my card was suddenly stopped. At that point I had had no warning.
But maybe the reason I am being treated as an outcast is they don't make much money out of me. I guess this is one of the ways the new CE, Dame Sharon White is 'turning the company round'.
I'm tempted to just give up, do more shopping in Tesco's and hope they will not decline my application for a credit card.
But somehow this seems so unjust.

I hate the site and the card, having spent 20 minutes activating my new card. It seems really amateurish and is a very clumsy site so I have cancelled the card without using it. I shall stick with my bank cc. Horrible retrograde step taken by john lewis

How does that work NotAGran?

Thank you for that tip.

I’m not going to apply until September in order to take advantage of the 90 day triple points in December.

I think the first thing I will do is trawl through a year's staements to check whether I have any regular payments on the card, then my shopping sites to see if I have registered the card with any of them. It is something I usually consciously avoid, but I know it is on my ebay and PayPal accounts.

When that is sorted I will apply for the new card.

Before applying online I phoned JL to ask, as I had not received an invitation to apply for the new card, should I assume my application would be rejected. I was told I would receive an invitation (I didn’t), but to go ahead & apply online, which I did.

The implication was that invitations would go out in due course.

The online application was surprisingly simple and straightforward. I have never applied for financial services online before.

I think the email advising people of the date on which the Partnership card was to close was worrying, giving the impression that if you hadn’t received an invitation to apply for the new account, you had been rejected. Communication could have been much better, but if you phone you’ll find help is at hand.

Thank you for the heads-up to be quick NanKate ?

On a positive note, it is good that the site does time-out for security reasons.

NotaGran have a look at my explanation at 03.39 (l know I shouldn’t have been awake then). Maybe I made a bit of a meal about doing it, I was just trying to make sure I read everything and completed everything correctly and I was annoyed when it timed out.

Think I will stick with my M&S card!

My favourite spreadsheet is my utilities ?

NotAGran55 I am a slave to spread sheets. I prefer drawing up my own to any personal accounts package. However my JL card is my personal account card, rather than a family one, and once I have taken my Waitrose bill off each month, not much is left.

Now the household credit card........., but, of course, I have a spread sheet for that!

Oh I see Monica that explains it then.
I have not had any emails about it either but knew it was coming from an announcement on my account a few weeks ago.

(I like the excel version of the statement as I like to shuffle it into different categories to keep tabs on our spending.
We use the card as a charge card for almost all expenditure)

NotAGran55 I do not think I have ever opened an online partnership card account. On the exceedingly rare occasions I need to contact them, I ring them up.

Nannarose and Monica
If you log onto your partnership card account your invitation to apply should be there? Mine is.

I haven’t applied yet but I’m interested in knowing what is so difficult about the process please?

I’m glad it worked easily for you Delila I think our problem was that we went through it slowly as we wanted to make sure we did everything correctly and then when they downloaded 3 or 4 documents we started printing them off to read later. Then one of the documents was 23 pages long so we saved that and all this took time. The problem with the E-signature would have been overcome if there had been an explanation that just a simple tick would be sufficient.

I eventually got a phone number for the Financial Services, but no email, I can post it here if anyone wants it. They don’t make it easy to contact them. I emailed John Lewis first of all and they came back saying they couldn’t deal with my complaint and they gave me the number.

My new card arrived today. I didn’t receive an invitation to apply, but I went ahead anyway, and the online application process was very straightforward (just over a week ago). The new card is very ugly!
I suspect that’s the easy part over with, now to make the transition.

One thing John Lewis has done well - a few weeks ago I had my wallet stolen. One of the things I lost was the partner discount card that I inherited from my late husband. I rang their helpline and a new card was organised for me in 10 minutes. I had also lost my M&S discount card so I rang M&S and four days and numerous phone calls and emails later it was more or less sorted although I am still having problems.

I have posted on their Facebook page asking what is happening. I tried to find a phone number or email address but couldn't.

I think that John Lewis have handled this very badly. The first thing they should have done is contact all account holders telling them what is happening, a day ahead of the announcement to the media. This telling some but not others is no recommendation for how the new system will run.

Someone I know who spends a huge amount of money with JL, using the credit card, hasn't even been notified of the change of bank for the JL credit card. I don't think people are being contacted by using the alphabet. This lady has a name beginning with B. I've already been invited and accepted for the new card and my name is nearer the end of the alphabet. Oh, and I don't spend anything like as much as she does.

I completed my application form online yesterday. My new JL credit card will be sent to me in the next few days.

I’m glad it worked for you karmalady. I too had all the info requested but they never asked for my updated bank details.

I managed after a couple of emails to get a number to phone to complain how I was treated on the phone and the difficulties I had experienced.

The second operator was great I gave her the whole story and at the end she said she had typed it all up ! She would pass it higher up and apologised profusely for the problems I had had.

We will wait to see what ‘higher up’ come up with.

For those of you not approached yet possibly they are contacting people alphabetically and my surname starts with B.

I decided to go for another credit card - JL have cut down so dramatically on their reward vouchers that instead of getting about £75 each time, as I have for several years now, the last offering was £25.

btw I also had my phone handy, charged up and ready to use in case there was a verification text