In the landscape of credit cards, points, and miles, FoundersCard stands out as a unique offering. It is not a credit card that earns points and miles. Still, it positions itself as a lifestyle card offering similar benefits as a premium credit card, in addition to exclusive discounts and perks.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll examine the various benefits that FoundersCard members can enjoy and whether a FoundersCard membership is worth it for you.
How Much Does FoundersCard Cost?
The standard cost of a FoundersCard membership is $595 per year, but with my referral link, you get a preferred rate of $495 with a $0 initiation fee.
FoundersCard also runs several promotions with other annual fees, such as paying two years in advance and locking in a $395 rate, or as low as $295 during special sales.
Additionally, a tip I learned is that if you subscribe for a year and decide not to renew, they will typically offer you a really good rate and potentially extra perks. After my membership lapsed for a month, I was able to negotiate a $295 lifetime rate and a free membership for my wife.
FoundersCard Benefits
FoundersCard doesn’t publish a list of benefits because of contractual reasons with their partners, but I’ve compiled a full list of these benefits so you don’t have to preview their membership to see all the benefits.
Airline and Airport Benefits
Here are all the airline discounts that FoundersCard offers:
- Alaska Airlines: 5% off base fare levels on alaskaair.com.
- Delta Air Lines: Receive up to 10% off flights.
- United: 16% off business & personal flights booked on United.com, including those operated by Air Canada and Lufthansa.
- British Airways: 10% off most roundtrip airfares originating from the US and Canada to the UK.
- Etihad Airways: Receive up to 10% off fares.
- Qantas: Up to 15% off Qantas fares between the United States and Australia or New Zealand (if purchased in the US).
- Qatar Airways: Receive up to 10% off flights originating from the US.
- Singapore Airlines: Receive up to 15% off select US-originating flights.
- Virgin Atlantic: Complimentary Flying Club Silver Elite Status upgrade after completing one round trip flight, and Fast Track to Gold Status when you earn 500 Tier Points within 6 months.
FoundersCard also offers discounts for airport lounges:
- Plaza Premium Lounges: 20% off Plaza Premium-operated lounges.
- No1 Airport Lounges: Receive 15% off at lounges in Atlanta, New Orleans, Orlando Terminal A and Las Vegas Terminal 3, and 20% off London Heathrow Terminals 3 & 5, London Gatwick (North+South), London Luton and Birmingham Airport.
Hotel Benefits
Here are the benefits at hotel chains that FoundersCard offers:
- Caesars: Complimentary Diamond Caesars Rewards Status through January 31, 2025. (This benefit disappeared briefly at the start of 2024.)
- Hilton: Complimentary Hilton Gold elite status.
- Hyatt: Receive up to 15% off the Standard Rate for qualifying stays at Hyatt properties worldwide.
- Marriott: Receive Platinum Elite status when you complete 15 paid nights within 3 months of enrollment.
- IHG: Complimentary IHG One Rewards Gold Elite status, and special rates at participating properties.
- Sonesta: Complimentary upgrade to Sonesta Travel Pass Gold Member Status.
- Graduate Hotels: 20% off Best Available Rate.
FoundersCard also offers discounts at 100+ hotels. Here are the most popular offers:
- The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas: Up to 25% off prevailing rate and VIP Check-in via the Autograph Lounge.
- Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas: Exclusive rates starting at $220 per night, $25 Daily Food and Beverage credit, and a reduced resort fee of $39 ($6 savings).
- Park Hyatt New York: Exclusive rates start at $640 per night and 20% off spa treatments.
- Mandarin Oriental London: 20% off Best Available Rate.
- Park Hyatt Tokyo: 15% off Standard Rate.
- The Ritz Carlton, Half Moon Bay: 15% off Flexible Standard Rate.
Rental Car Benefits
FoundersCard offers benefits at these rental car companies:
- Avis: Complimentary Avis Preferred® Plus Membership and up to 25% off rentals.
- Hertz: Complimentary Five Star status and 20% off rates.
- Sixt: Complimentary Platinum Sixt status and up to 15% off rental bookings.
- Zipcar for Business: Waived application fee ($25 savings), waived setup fee ($75 savings), $35 Annual membership fee ($35 annual savings, normally $70), and $50 driving credit.
Other Travel Benefits
Here are the other travel benefits you can take advantage of:
- TripIt Pro: Complimentary year of TripIt Pro (online service and app to help you track your travel reservations).
- Virgin Voyages: 55% off select voyages.
- Seabourn Cruises: Up to 40% off on select Seabourn sailings.
- EmpireCLS (Chauffeur): 15% off EmpireCLS services globally.
- Go Rentals (luxury cars): Receive 30% off.
- Surfair (private jets): 12% off On Demand flights.
- Aero (private jets): Receive 10% off all flights.
- Blacklane: 15% off standard rates on global chauffeur service (maximum 5 rides).
- Medjet: Save 30% to 45% on Medjet Memberships.
Shopping Benefits
FoundersCard offers numerous benefits at lots of major retailers:
- Dell: Up to 40% off the everyday price of Dell-branded products. (In my experience, I have found this discount is not as great as it sounds.)
- Bose: Receive 15% off at Bose.com.
- AT&T: 15% off the monthly service charge of qualified personal wireless plans, including the AT&T 4GB Plan, and $10 off per line per month on the AT&T Unlimited PremiumSM plan.
- Office Depot: Preferred pricing of up to 55% off on various items in-store and online and free Next-Day Shipping on orders of $20.
- 1-800-Flowers.com: Receive 20% off most orders from 1-800-Flowers and 1-800-Baskets.
- Teleflora: Discount of 25% off orders.
- Kiehl’s: Receive 15% off online.
- Adidas: Ongoing discount of 30% on adidas.com.
- Lenovo: Up to 65% off select Think and Lenovo products.
- Sonos: Receive 15% off on Sonos.com.
- Tommy John: Receive an ongoing 20% off all orders.
- Equinox: New Equinox Members have access to a 3-day Open House trial to any club of their choice, waived initiation fee for new Equinox members, and preferred pricing for new and existing Equinox members on select memberships.
- SoulCycle: FoundersCard Members in US and UK receive one free class when you purchase a 10-class pack.
- Mr. Porter: $200 off of $600+ first online order.
- Bang & Olufsen: 10% off on purchases.
- John Varvatos: 20% off in-store purchases.
- Herman Miller: 15% off product purchases via the online store.
- Apple: Preferred pricing on select Apple products online.
- BMW: Up to $3,000 off a new BMW and up to $500 off a new MINI.
- Audi: 6% off MSRP.
- Mercedes-Benz USA: Up to $4,500 off the purchase/lease of a new Mercedes-Benz vehicle.
- illy Caffè: 20% off online purchases.
- Harry & David: 20% off most orders.
- Jonathan Adler: 20% off all online and in-store purchases.
- Fiji: 30% off subscriptions and 15% off one-time orders.
- Swarovski: 20% off orders placed via Founderscard.
- Diptyque: 20% off discount.
- Molton Brown: Receive 25% off online.
- Moo (online printing): Receive 20% off.
- Boarding Pass (bags): Discount of 30% off online and in-store.
- Phone.com: Receive one year complimentary of Phone.com’s Basic Users Plan (worth $152).
- Entrepreneur Magazine: A complimentary one-year (6-issue) subscription.
- Porsche Drive: Waived Activation Fees on Porsche Drive Subscriptions ($595 savings) and 10% off Porsche Drive Rentals (3 per member).
- SpaFinder Wellness 365: 15% off all gift certificate purchases.
- Swag.com: Receive 10% off.
Small Business Benefits
FoundersCard offers several special discounts designed for small businesses:
- Dropbox: 40% off new annual Dropbox Plus, Essentials, Business, or Business Plus plans.
- Hellosign/Dropbox Sign: Save 30% on a new HelloSign Essentials or HelloSign Standard Plan account.
- Google Cloud: Up to $450 Google Cloud Credit for new customers.
- Slack: 30% off plan upgrades for the first 12 months.
- Airtable: Receive a $2,000 Airtable credit and access to Airtable for Startups (which includes exclusive office hours, content, and events).
- Stripe: $20,000 in fee-free payments to new and existing Stripe customers.
- Square: $20,000 in fee-free payments for new customers and $5,000 in fee-free payments for existing customers.
- Indeed: Up to a $200 Sponsored Job Credit.
- Namecheap: 20% off the current regular price of most Namecheap services.
- UPS: Up to 47% off UPS air, international, and ground shipping.
- HubSpot: 30% off HubSpot and 50% off Onboarding Packages.
- Constant Contact: Receive a 60-day free trial, then up to 40% off Constant Contact plans.
- Fiverr Pro: 20% off the first Fiverr Pro booking, 10% off the third subsequent booking, and a 20% discount on the first purchase of Fiverr Logo Maker.
- 99designs: $40 off the first design contest, free Power Pack promotional upgrade ($99 value), and Highlighted Listed & Privacy Upgrade ($59 value).
- Fancy Hands (personal assistants): 25% off monthly plans.
- BizFilings: Receive 25% off standard pricing.
- RingCentral: 15% off monthly fees for office products on contracts of 24 months or more.
- Steelcase: 15% off products purchased through the online store.
- DeskPass: 15% off ongoing individual conference room, office, and desk reservations, and $500 / £500 in free reservation credit for setting up a new Deskpass Teams account (Min. 5 users per team).
- Bond Collective (coworking): One Complimentary Day Pass and 25% off Hourly, Daily, and Monthly Plans.
- 1Password: 40% off 1Password Teams on an ongoing basis.
- Squarespace: Receive 20% off.
- Zendesk: Get 6 months free of Zendesk Support and Sales CRM, and 15% discount off your first annual subscription.
- Typeform: 30% off annual Professional and Premium Plans.
- Chargebee: Receive the first $500k in revenue for free on the Chargebee Launch Plan.
- Hive (project management): 30% off plans.
FoundersCard Elite Membership
FoundersCard also has a higher tier Elite membership that costs $995 per year. An elite membership comes with all the regular FoundersCard benefits listed above plus:
- Hertz: Complimentary President’s Circle elite status.
- Avis: Complimentary Avis President’s Club for FC ELITE Members
- Omni Hotels: Complimentary Omni Select Guest® Champion Status.
- Sonesta: Stay 3 paid nights within 3 months of enrollment to earn Platinum Member Status.
- Bang & Olufsen: 15% off on purchases.
- Amazon Web Services: $5,000 in AWS Activate Credits valid for 2 years and 1 year of AWS Business Support (up to $1,500).
Is FoundersCard Worth It?
FoundersCard can be worth it if you can use enough benefits to justify the annual fee. If you own a small business, you will likely see a lot more value from the membership than an individual because of all the discounts such as DropBox, UPS, Square, Strip, Slack, Google Cloud, Namecheap, etc.
I have been a member for the last four years and have broken even, but I also have a lower annual fee of $295. Many of my credit cards, such as American Express Platinum Card® and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express offer similar perks such as Hilton Gold elite status, Marriott Gold elite status, Hertz’s President Circle (better than FoundersCard), Avis Preferred, and National Emerald Club Executive status (plus free airport lounge access).
In my experience, the benefits I typically use each year are the airline discounts (yearly savings of $75-150), Caesar’s Diamond Status (worth to me about $100 to $200), TripitPro (yearly savings of $49), Hyatt and other hotel discounts (yearly savings of $50 to $200), Namecheap (yearly savings of $20), and various shopping discounts (yearly savings of $20 to $50).
