FoundersCard Review: Is It Worth It? (2024)

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You've probably heard a thing or two about the FoundersCard, which offers travel and lifestyle benefits in exchange for an annual fee. These range from fee-free payment processing via Swipe to complimentary hotel elite status. The program isn't static, either; new benefits are regularly introduced while old ones are transitioned out.

For those who can take advantage of it, FoundersCard can offer strong benefits for the fee it charges, but you'll really need to make sure you're maximizing your benefits or the annual costs just aren't worth it. Is FoundersCard right for you? Let's take a look.

What Is FoundersCard?

Firstly, FoundersCard is NOT a credit card. While it delivers many credit card-like benefits, FoundersCard is a membership service designed to benefit entrepreneurs and business owners. However, it's popular with travelers because many of the benefits of a FoundersCard membership are travel-oriented, including:

• Airline elite status
• Hotel elite status
• Travel discounts
• Rental car company partnerships

Credit: FoundersCard

And those are just the beginning. In fact, the sheer number of member benefits is pretty overwhelming when first previewing a membership. When you sign up for a FoundersCard membership, you're buying access to these benefits. You just need to decide whether the benefits justify the price.

Is FoundersCard Worth the Price?

To decide whether FoundersCard is worth the price, we need to take a look at the benefits. More specifically, we need to ask ourselves:

• Do the benefits interest me?
• If you could put a value on every benefit, would the overall value be greater than the annual fee?
• Does FoundersCard provide enough savings for your endeavors to compensate for the price?

FoundersCard Membership Benefits

FoundersCard categorizes its full suite of benefits into four categories:

1. Business: Services and vendors frequented by businesses
2. Lifestyle: Experiences, premium retail, wellness, and food/wine
3. Hotels: Discounts, upgrades, credits, and more resulting from FoundersCard's numerous hotel partnerships
4. Travel: Airline, rental car, trip services, and other loyalty program benefits

Each of these categories contains offerings too numerous to count. We've rounded up some of the most interesting below. To view all of them, simply request a membership benefit preview (preferably through our link). There's no cost associated with this, and you'll gain access to the full suite of FoundersCard benefits.

Let's go over FoundersCard's most relevant benefits.

Virgin Atlantic elite status benefit

Eligible members are entitled to Virgin Atlantic Elite status. This benefit comes in two phases:

1. FoundersCard members earn complimentary Flying Club Silver Elite status after completing just one Virgin Atlantic flight.
2. Members can then fast track to Flying Club top-tier Gold Elite status after earning just 500 tier points within six months.

Credit: FoundersCard

This is pretty exciting for anyone who flies Virgin Atlantic regularly (on award bookings or otherwise). That's because Flying Club elite status offers a host of perks while traveling:

Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Flying Club Silver Elite status typically requires members to accrue 400 Tier Points in a year. Virgin Atlantic's cheapest flights only earn 25 Tier Points, so the ability to earn Silver Elite status in just one flight is incredible!

Flying Club Gold Elite status (Virgin's top-tier status) usually requires 1,000 Tier Points in a 12-month period. The FoundersCard fast track lets you earn this elite status in half the number of Tier Points — although you must do so in half the amount of time.

Making the deal even sweeter is that Flying Club membersearn Tier Points on award flights! Translation: FoundersCard members can lock in Flying Club status without booking a single cash fare.

FoundersCard Travel Benefits

FounderCard's travel benefits can be broken into four separate groups: airline discounts, hotel elite status, rental car perks, and other travel perks like discounts on lounges and car services.

Airline discounts

FoundersCard members can take advantage of discounts with partnered airlines, including:

• United: Up to 16% off
• Delta Air Lines: Up to 10% off
• Alaska: Up to 5% off
• British Airways: Up to 10% off
• Etihad Airways: Up to 10% off
• Qantas: Up to 25% off
• Qatar Airways: Up to 10% off
• Singapore Airlines: Up to 15% off
• Surf Air: Up to 15% off
• Aero: Up to 15% off

All of these discounts come with route restrictions, so review those terms before getting too excited.

Hotel elite statuses

• Marriott Bonvoy: Exclusive Platinum Elite status challenge: register and complete 15 paid nights within three months and enjoy Marriott Platinum Elite status for up to one year.
• Hilton Honors: Receive a complimentary upgrade to Hilton Honors Gold status through January 31, 2025 with no stay requirements.
• IHG One Rewards: Register by December 31, 2024 to get IHG Gold Elite status.
• Sonesta Travel Pass: FoundersCard members can enroll to receive Sonesta Travel Pass Gold status for one year.
• Caesars Rewards: Complimentary Diamond status.

Related:

Credit: Ishan @seefromthesky/Unsplash

Rental cars

• Hertz: All FoundersCard members can receive complimentary Hertz Five Star status. Plus, all members get up to 20% off all daily, weekend, weekly, and monthly rates.
• Avis: Get up to 25% off rentals and complimentary Avis Preferred Plus membership.
• Sixt: Receive 15% off rental bookings and complimentary Platinum Sixt Card membership.
• Zipcar for Business: Receive up to a 20% discount on reservations.
• Go Rentals: 30% off luxury car rentals.
• The Out (U.K.): 20% off Jaguar and Land Rover rentals.

Related: How To Get Rental Car Elite Status for Free

Other travel perks

• TripIt: Complimentary TripIt Pro membership for a year
• Carey: Up to 15% off standard rates on Carey chauffeur service
• No1 Lounge: Up to 20% off bookings
• Plaza Premium: 20% off airport lounge bookings
• The Club: 20% off airport lounge bookings
• Porsche Drive: Waived activation fees and 10% off
• Empire CLS: 15$ off chauffeur services
• Seabourn Cruises: Members receive up to 40% off sailings
• Virgin Voyages: Up to 55% discount on cruises
• The Oberoi Zahra Luxury Nile Cruise: 20% off and complimentary Wi-Fi
• MedJet: Up to 45% off
• Tiquets: 10% off attraction tickets
• Global Rescue Travel Protection: 15% discount on insurance plans
• United Airlines Signature Service: 10% off

FoundersCard hotel benefits

Members who book partnered hotels with FoundersCard can take advantage of directly negotiated rates, flexible cancellation policies, and specialty benefits. Tons of hotels participate in the program, so you'll want to comb through the directory yourself to see if any pique your interest.

In this regard, it's somewhat similar to the Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts program. However, discounts tied to FoundersCard hotel bookings can be even more significant.

For example, the rate you'll pay for the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas in a City View room ranges from $220 to $325, depending on demand. This even applies during expensive periods, when room rates soar above $700 per night.

Note that this rate includes the resort fee. Credit: Hilton

FoundersCard members are also entitled to a $6 daily discount on the resort fee plus a $25 daily food and beverage credit. Even better, since you're booking directly with Hilton, you'll also be entitled to all the benefits of your Hilton Honors status. This includes room upgrades and a $25 per person daily food and beverage credit — in addition to what the FoundersCard rate gives you.

FoundersCard business benefits

As we mentioned above, FoundersCard's benefits are always changing. However, here are some of the best:

• Dell: Up to 40% off the everyday price of Dell-branded products.
• Stripe: Up to $20,000 in fee-free payments.
• UPS: Up to 47% off UPS air, international, and ground shipping.
• Office Depot: Up to 55% in discounts on products.
• Slack: 30% off on plan upgrades for the first 12 months.
• Fiverr: Waived membership fees for two years on Fiverr's Business Platform Membership, plus 20% off your first purchase of Logo Maker.
• Dropbox: 40% off a Dropbox Business or Plus annual subscription.

FoundersCard lifestyle benefits

Beyond travel and business, FoundersCard also offers select lifestyle benefits. Here are some of the best:

• Mr. Porter: $200 off a $600+ purchase
• BMW: Up to $3,000 off a new BMW or $500 off a new MINI in the U.S.
• Audi: 6% off MSRP on your purchase
• Adidas: 30% discount at Adidas.com
• Bang & Olufsen: Up to 15% off
• Wine Library: Up to 25% off on select wines
• Bose: 15% off at Bose.com

FoundersCard Elite Benefits

Beyond the standard FoundersCard membership, there's another, higher tier that offers even more benefits. This is called FoundersCard Elite, and its perks pack a punch:

• Access to all standard FoundersCard benefits.
• A complimentary companion FoundersCard (standard) membership.
• Access to the Elite concierge service for up to five complimentary task hours per month.
• Receive VIP upgrades and special amenities at FoundersCard hotels.
• Stripe:Receive up to $50,000 in fee-free payments (instead of the standard $20k).
• Avis:Get complimentary Avis President's Club status (as opposed to Avis Preferred Plus).
• Hertz:Get complimentary Hertz President's Circle status (as opposed to Hertz Five Star).
• Omni:Receive an upgrade to Onmi Select Guest Platinum Status.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS):Receive $5,000 in AWS Activate credits, which are valid for 2 years, plus 1 year of AWS Business Support.

Credit: Founderscard

The value of these upgraded benefits is entirely subjective, although the added companion FoundersCard membership adds a lot of value by itself. In the end, weighing the perks to the (not insignificant) cost may make the decision easier.

Speaking of the costs…

FoundersCard Costs

As you'd expect, this massive list of benefits comes at a price. In fact, it's the crux of my issue on whether or not to join myself.

Here's what a FoundersCard membership currently costs:

• Standard membership (no referral):$595 per year plus a one-time $95 activation fee
• Standard membership (via referral):$495 per year and a waived activation fee
• Elite membership: $995 per year; no activation fee when using the referral code FCELITE2021

Those prices probably deliver a bit of sticker shock. A standard membership costs almost $700 all-in without a referral.Thankfully, there's no reason for anyone to pay that. If you feel FoundersCard suits your business or lifestyle after reading this post, you're welcome to use our referral link. In addition to getting you a lower fee, this also helps support our blog.

That leaves us with just one question: Is FoundersCard worth $495 per year?

Is FoundersCard Worth It?

In the end, FoundersCard is only worth it for a select few. To figure out if you're one of them, look at the benefits before applying.

You don't have to use all of them to get your money's worth. In fact, you may only need to use one or two to justify the annual fee. For example, if you fly Virgin Atlantic a few times a year, Flying Club Elite status may justify the fee by itself So, if a few of the aforementioned benefits suit your needs, that could be all it takes.

And if you're the type of person who can make use of several of these benefits, you could save tons of money throughout the year. While Virgin Atlantic elite status can be nice, so too can be saving money on travel you were already going to book.

Here's an example of FoundersCard's new Virgin Voyages discount, which saves up to 55% on bookings. Note that the savings are only available on select routes, but the benefit is significant.

Without your FoundersCard discount, this five-day trip from Miami for two will run you about $2,600 (and that's on sale!).

Credit: Virgin Voyages

Meanwhile, those with a FoundersCard membership can save roughly $750 by applying their discount:

Credit: Virgin Voyages

So it's easy to make a case for FoundersCard if you're someone who can take advantage of its offerings. If not, then there's no sense in paying upwards of $500 per year for a membership card.

Who Is FoundersCard Right for?

FoundersCard provides an astounding number of benefits and partnerships to its members.

If you're just getting started with loyalty programs, you might not have any of the elite statuses mentioned here. And if that's the case, FoundersCard can add enormous value to your traveling life. It sets the perfect foundation of statuses (airline, hotel, and rental car) to get you started in program loyalty. Just the free checked bag benefits could save you a lot of money, depending on your situation.

With these things in mind, it's not hard to see how FoundersCard works so well for so many. It's perfect for anyone who's new to loyalty programs, travels regularly, and would utilize FoundersCard's business partnerships.

Final Thoughts

FoundersCard is a membership program designed for traveling entrepreneurs and business executives. Through its numerous partnerships, members can get a slew of travel perks. There are seemingly new benefits announced every month.

While FoundersCard isn't quite right for everyone, it could be perfect for you or your business. If any of the benefits strike your interest, take the time to preview a membership via our referral. That'll allow you to view all the benefits on offer while saving you almost $200 off the publicly available membership price if it makes sense for you to join after careful thought.