Table of Contents
Surprisingly, I pay an annual charge for one card that’s not a bank card: FoundersCard.
It’s a membership neighborhood providing reductions and advantages in many various life-style classes. This card has many advantages, reductions and facilities that make journey simpler and improve my life-style.
You may get these advantages with out having to use for a bank card, however is the cardboard definitely worth the membership charge? Let’s dig in.
The knowledge for the FoundersCard bank card has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
What’s FoundersCard?
FoundersCard is a membership program that gives elite standing, journey reductions, complimentary subscriptions and particular pricing with life-style manufacturers. It’s not a bank card, and you’ll’t make any purchases with it.
Regardless of the title, you don’t should be a “founder” or entrepreneur to have this card; anybody is welcome to apply. The appliance course of is brief, and a call is often given inside two days.
How a lot does a FoundersCard membership price?
There are two membership tiers:
- Commonplace: $595 a yr
- All Entry Elite: $995 a yr
You should pay a further $95 initiation charge.
Often, discounted membership presents can be found. I’ve seen the usual membership go for as little as $295 a yr for all times. In reality, I used to be in a position to safe that fee. On condition that the cardboard supplies me with outsize worth, I’ll proceed to resume my membership every year.
Listed below are the variations between the 2 membership tiers:
The usual membership is greater than sufficient for my wants. All the advantages, credit and reductions I obtain greater than cowl the annual membership charge.
It’s price noting that lots of the FoundersCard advantages overlap with advantages I obtain from my Enterprise Platinum Card® from American Categorical, corresponding to Hilton Honors Gold standing and Hertz 5 Star standing*, however there are distinct advantages I take advantage of which are solely obtainable with FoundersCard.
*Enrollment within the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Program is required
Associated: A brand new luxurious membership card guarantees elite perks. Is it definitely worth the charge?
Advantages of FoundersCard
FoundersCard has over 500 advantages which are damaged into classes corresponding to journey, procuring subscriptions and enterprise companies. Membership offers you elite standing and advantages just like these provided by premium journey rewards bank cards with out including one other bank card to your pockets. A few of these advantages embrace:
- Advantages for companies: Save as much as 35% on enterprise companies like Amazon Internet Companies, co-working areas, Shopify, Sq. and UPS.
- Automotive reductions: Obtain reductions for Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Jeep.
- Cellphone reductions: Save as much as 15% in your AT&T invoice.
- Lodge standing and companion partnerships: Take pleasure in Hilton Honors Gold standing and a standing problem for Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite standing. Moreover, FoundersCard has resort partnerships via which members obtain particular charges and different elitelike advantages. These luxurious lodges are in cities like Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Tokyo and embrace Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt and The Ritz-Carlton.
- Rental automotive standing and reductions: Obtain Hertz 5 Star standing and reductions and standing with Sixt and Avis.
- Procuring reductions: Save as much as 30% at shops like Adidas, Mr. Porter and Reebok. The low cost may be stacked and used with procuring portals, so you may earn factors and miles and get monetary savings. I take advantage of the 30% low cost at Adidas incessantly to purchase health club attire.
Pairing FoundersCard with bank cards is the place you may actually get excellent worth.
Airline reductions
FoundersCard has a number of airfare reductions with many airways around the globe, together with:
- Alaska Airways: 5% off base fares
- British Airways: As much as 10% off most round-trip fares originating from the U.S. and Canada
- Delta Air Strains: 10% off
- Etihad Airways: As much as 10% off choose fares
- Qantas: As much as 15% off Qantas fares between the U.S. and Australia or New Zealand (should buy within the U.S.)
- Qatar Airways: As much as 10% off flights originating from the U.S.
- Singapore Airways: As much as 15% off choose flights originating from the U.S.
- United Airways: As much as 16% off
You may e-book any cabin for these airways and obtain a reduction.
United is my most popular airline to fly, and I maintain United MileagePlus Premier Gold standing with the service. Each time I’ve used this low cost, it has given me precisely 16% off.
It’s vital to notice that with these reductions, you’ll nonetheless earn miles and spending qualifiers towards elite standing with the airline. In case you incessantly fly one in every of these airways and e-book costly fares, you might simply save the price of the FoundersCard membership with only one flight buy.
You may additional maximize the worth of this low cost by utilizing a cobranded airline bank card to earn miles.
Associated: Finest United Airways bank cards
Caesars Diamond standing
Word that this profit could have disappeared as of February 2024, as per Miles to Reminiscences. If so, this vastly reduces the worth of a FoundersCard membership.
Caesars Diamond is a really precious standing to have should you incessantly journey to Las Vegas or Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey.
You used to have the ability to standing match into Wyndham Rewards after which to Ceasars. Now, you may solely standing match from Wyndham Rewards to Caesars should you earned Wyndham standing via stays or by having a Wyndham bank card.
Some highlights of Caesars Diamond standing embrace:
- Free or discounted resort stays (this is dependent upon how a lot you gamble, as Caesars will ship you presents to entice you again to a property)
- Early check-in and late checkout
- No resort charges, saving you as much as $45 plus tax per day
- Complimentary valet and self-service parking, saving you as much as $50 plus tax per day
- Complimentary keep at Atlantis, Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas
- $100 celebration dinner, which is an annual eating credit score that can be utilized at eating places in Caesars properties
The most important promoting level of Caesars Diamond standing is the complimentary keep at Atlantis, Paradise Island. The worth of this alone covers the price of the FoundersCard membership. You get 4 nights free and should purchase further nights at $100 per evening. Nevertheless, you may’t use the free nights throughout March, April or July. This isn’t a difficulty for me, as I can use the perk throughout colder months to flee the chilly Pacific Northwest winters.
Final yr, I used the $100 celebration dinner credit score at Mr. Chow’s in Caesars Palace; it was a really simple course of, because the restaurant simply took $100 off my complete invoice.
Associated: 15 finest lodges in Las Vegas for a Sin Metropolis getaway
Different helpful advantages
- Dell enterprise low cost price as much as 40%: I stack this low cost with the Amex Enterprise Platinum card’s as much as $400 annual Dell credit score. Saving 40% allowed me to get an additional monitor final yr with my annual credit.
- Late checkout at IHG properties: That is helpful to me, as I don’t incessantly keep at IHG properties or maintain an IHG bank card to have IHG One Rewards standing, however once I do go to an IHG resort, having a 2 p.m. late checkout time is an added perk.
- Sonesta Journey Go Gold standing: I’ve stayed at just a few Sonesta lodges, however I don’t keep incessantly, so having some additional perks for these one-off stays is an additional advantage for me.
- Most well-liked pricing on Equinox: I was a member of Equinox, and this most popular pricing saved me round $100 off my month-to-month membership. If in case you have The Platinum Card® from American Categorical, you might pair this low cost with as much as $300 annual Equinox credit score (topic to auto-renewal).
- Complimentary TripIt Professional membership: A really helpful app for planning a visit and conserving your itinerary multi function place, this flight-tracking function turns out to be useful for frequent flyers like me.
Downsides of FoundersCard
Regardless of FoundersCard having many nice perks and advantages, there are some downsides, together with:
- Full listing of advantages isn’t viewable earlier than membership: You’ve got to join membership and pay earlier than you will get the total listing of advantages and options, so it may be robust to find out how a lot worth you’ll get from every profit.
- Steep annual charge: The cardboard has an annual charge just like that of premium bank cards.
- Presents many advantages that bank cards supply: If in case you have premium journey playing cards just like the Amex Platinum, you would possibly discover that a few of the advantages overlap. FoundersCard additionally just isn’t a bank card, so you may’t make purchases or earn any miles and nonetheless should pay an annual charge.
FoundersCard is finest paired with a journey rewards card to maximise the reductions and earn factors and miles.
Backside line
Many advantages with FoundersCard may be accessed with premium bank cards just like the Amex Platinum or the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Nevertheless, many life-style and journey advantages present me with outsize worth definitely worth the $295 I pay yearly.
I feel this card is price making use of for if you will get a fee beneath the usual membership price. You might also discover nice worth in having the cardboard should you run a enterprise and may benefit from the assorted enterprise reductions and advantages.
For charges and costs of the Amex Platinum Card, click on right here.
For charges and costs of the Enterprise Amex Platinum Card, click on right here.
