John Lewis bins HSBC for NewDay to relaunch consumer credit card

Legendary UK brand John Lewis has struck a deal with consumer credit business NewDay to assess the “next evolution” in the retailer’s consumer credit offering – a process that will see John Lewis relaunch its popular Partnership Card.  

HSBC will cease to be the provider of the rewards-based credit card, which was launched by John Lewis in 2004, and will be replaced by NewDay upon the relaunch in the summer. The company will be closing applications for new customers on the current card from Monday 9 May to later reopen applications once the new features have been added.

“Our Partnership Card has been our flagship product for many years and is loved by so many of our customers," said Amir Goshtai, director of John Lewis Financial Services. "That’s why we’re investing in relaunching it with new digital services to help customers in the moments that matter.” 

Goshtai added that NewDay’s track record in delivering credit solutions gave them confidence that John Lewis's service would continue to be “first class”.

A John Lewis spokesperson told AltFi: "HSBC UK have been a great partner since 2004, when we launched our Partnership Card, but our strategic business goals and theirs have changed, so we’ve mutually agreed that this is the right time for us to change credit provider."

Meanwhile, there will be no immediate changes for John Lewis's existing Partnership Card customers, who can continue to use its services as usual, according to the company. It says will be in contact with users this summer to explain the changes and share details of the new services.

The partnership is the latest in a series of high-profile merchant partnerships for NewDay, whose partners now include Currys, AO.com and Argos on a range of white labelled credit solutions.

NewDay uses real-time credit information to analyse customer behaviours and create a complete credit picture that can be used to undertake affordability checks and extend credit services to more customers. The company says it now serves almost five million customers across the UK.

“We believe the combination of our fully FCA-regulated product set, proprietary technology and two decades of underwriting experience mean we are ideally placed to help John Lewis deliver meaningful business growth through the use of responsible, accessible consumer credit,” said John Hourican, CEO of NewDay.

John Lewis simultaneously announced that it plans to invest over £50m into its consumer finance capabilities to expand its offering of financial products and services to clients. The firm said it is recruiting to increase the size of the John Lewis Finance team by a third; creating new products and services; and promoting its existing products, which span insurance, the Partnership Card, point of sale credit, travel, money and investments.

The retailer has been making other efforts to expand its financial services offering in recent years, partnering with digital wealth manager Nutmeg last year to embed investment products for clients.