Oh, the Internet. Isn’t it awesome how, if you browse a page or conduct a search, you’ll end up seeing ads for related items everywhere you go? Well, as my credit card enthusiasm grew, I started to see an increasing number of ads for something called FoundersCard. Cut to several months later and I did sign up for a free trial of the service to get a closer look at what it offers and see whether the annual fee made sense for me.
If you too have encountered FoundersCard, are wondering what the free trial entails, or just want to know more about the service, stay tuned as we dive into a few things to know about the membership and its benefits.
- Discounts from dozens of brands
- Complimentary status perks from select brands
- Expensive annual cost
- Several perks not available as part of free trial
What is the FoundersCard and What Does It Offer
About FoundersCard
First of all, FoundersCard is not a credit card. Instead, it is a membership that offers exclusive perks and benefits to cardholders — including travel perks, discounts on business services, lifestyle privileges, etc. Secondly, despite the name, you do not need to be a founder to apply. If you’re an entrepreneur, self-employed worker, or just about anyone else, you can apply.
According to their site, FounderCard members have access to more than 500 benefits. So, next, let’s take a look at some of those along with how much the membership costs.
FoundersCard Pricing and Benefits
Here’s the thing about FoundersCard: if you go to their site, you won’t exactly find a list of benefits or pricing info. Instead, to get more details, you’ll need to provide some basic info about yourself, including your email address. Once you do this, you’ll get an email with a link to their benefits page. And while this particular BENEFITS page is technically publicly accessible, I won’t share the link so as to not upset them. But, if you’re clever and know where to go, you might be able to find it. Of course, if you are hoping to get invited to a free trial, then you’ll want to give up your email anyway.
The other thing about FoundersCard is that, even after you do reach that benefits page, you may notice that the list of perks looks really long. Well, in reality, this is partially because they start repeating benefits by drilling down. For example, since one of the perks is for Hilton, you’ll eventually see listings for individual Hilton-owned properties as if that benefit wasn’t already covered. This isn’t so much sneaky as it is kind of annoying.
In any case, here are some of the benefits that FoundersCard members can enjoy:
- Hertz: Save up to 20% and automatic Elite Status
- Dell: Preferred pricing
- Lenovo: Save up to 65%
- Bang & Olufsen: Save up to 15%
- Dropbox: Save up to 40%
- Marriott Bonvoy: Status challenge – complete at least 15 paid nights in 3 months to earn Platinum Elite status for up to one year.
- United Airlines: Preferred Business Fares
- Hilton Honors: Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold Status
- Stripe: $500 in credits to offset fees for Stripe Payments, Connect, Billing, and more.
- AT&T Wireless: Save up to 20%
- Virgin Atlantic: Receive Flying Club Silver Status + Fast Track to Gold
- UPS: Save up to 47% on shipping
- FedEx: Up to 50% off
- MOO Inc.: Save 20% on business cards and stationery products
- John Varvatos: Save 20%
- Herman Miller: Save 25%
- Sixt Rent a Car: Platinum Status and up to 15% off rentals
- Avis Rent A Car: Complimentary status + up to 35% off
- HubSpot: Save 30% on email marketing plans
- FIJI Water: Save 15% on orders and 30% on subscriptions
- Entrepreneur Magazine: Receive a complimentary one-year subscription
- Office Depot: Save up to 55% on office products
- Virgin Atlantic: Earn Flying Club Silver status after completing one eligible round-trip flight
- Alaska Airlines: 5% off eligible flights
- Apple: Preferred pricing on select products
- Square: $10K in fee‑free payments for new customers of Square
- IHG: Complimentary status (Gold for FoundersCard Charter Members, Platinum for Elite)
- Omni: Complimentary Omni Select Guest Champion Status (Elite only)
- Wynn Rewards: Complimentary upgrade to Wynn Rewards Platinum Tier (Elite only)
- BetterHelp: 30% off the first 6 months of therapy
- And more
Again, this isn’t a complete list of benefits, but it gives you an idea of what the card has to offer.
As for the price, there are currently two tiers of service: FounderCard and FoundersCard Elite. While the price you encounter may vary, the generally discussed new member price is $595 per year for FoundersCard and $995 per year for FoundersCard Elite. The latter includes some more exclusive or enhanced benefits when compared to the lower tier.
Chrome Extension
Rather than have to go to the FoundersCard site to see if you have a valid perk for a certain business, members have the option to install a useful Chrome browser extension instead. Akin to the Rakuten extension or others, this tool will pop up a notice when you land on a site where your benefits might apply. Whether you’re a full-fledged member or someone on a trial (more on that in a moment), I think this could definitely come in handy and help you get the most value out of your membership.
FCPoints
Beyond the perks, as a FoundersCard member, you’ll also be able to earn and redeem FCPoints. You’ll rack up points for adding a significant other to your membership, referring others to the card, and more. As for what you can use these points for, there are a variety of gift card options, including Apple, Amazon, Amex, and more. Plus, there’s currently an option for a year of United Club membership for 100,000.
While this could be a nice bonus, you’ll need to get a few people on board before you’ll be able to cash in, as you’ll only earn 20,000 FCPoints per successful referral and redemptions start at 50,000 points. But, considering that the minimum value for that 50,000 point redemption is $200, it’s not a bad reward if you do have friends who are interested in the product.
My FoundersCard Free Trial
As I mentioned at the top, after seeing numerous ads for FoundersCard and getting several emails from them, I was offered the chance to sign up for a free trial of the service. Since I was curious, following a few weeks of resistance, I eventually took them up on the offer.
True to their word, I was able to join without paying anything — although a credit card was required, as it will be charged should I fail to cancel before my year is up. In the meantime, if I did want to upgrade to a full-fledged membership, I then had the option to get a standard membership for $395 a year or Elite membership for $595 the first year followed by $995 a year after that (although, when I first started the trial, I could have opted for a year of Elite for $295 followed by the $995 renewal).
As you might expect, seeing as this is a free trial, some of the card’s benefits were not available. Unfortunately, this means that many of the most attractive perks are excluded. Here are some examples of benefits not available to free trial members. At the time, this list included the following (note: some of these have since been discontinued altogether):
- Mr. Porter credit
- Bang & Olufsen discount
- Caesars Rewards Diamond status
- John Varvatos discount
- Hilton Honors Gold status
- Virgin Atlantic status
- UPS discount
- And more.
While I completely understand why many of these need to be exempted from the free trial, the irony is that it makes it harder to know whether the card would be worth paying full price for. For example, as someone who already had Caesars Diamond status at the time, I knew the value of being able to book rooms without paying resort fees. Alas, without real-world experience of what that can equate to, it can be difficult to truly assess the value of that perk or the FounderCard as a whole.
So, as you can probably guess, I decided not to upgrade to a paid FoundersCard membership once my trial expired. Actually, I temporarily did upgrade myself by accident! Once, while looking at the site, I clicked an upgrade button, thinking it would show me what the perks were — or at least confirm the transaction. Instead, it immediately charged me the full fee. After this, I reached out to FoundersCard to voice my displeasure, demanding that they refund me. To their credit, they did… but that was the last straw.
Going back to the card itself, while there are some interesting perks, I really don’t think I can justify the cost. Plus, some of the perks — such as Hilton Honors Gold Status — I already enjoy via my American Express Platinum card. As a result, while I’m thankful that I got to take a closer look at the card and its offerings, I now know that it’s not for me.
Is FoundersCard Worth It? (Final Thoughts)
Personally, as I’ve determined thanks to my free trial, the FoundersCard is not worth it for someone like me. That said, I imagine that it could be beneficial for others who already utilize some of the key services, such as UPS, Office Depot, and Stripe for their business — although I can’t exactly speak to how good these discounts and offerings really are. On top of that, the various statuses provided by the card could be beneficial. Then again, I’d advise you to take a close look at the card’s status benefits as some are for complementary status while others are simply for status challenges.
All in all, even though the FoundersCard is open to a wider group of people than just founders, I suspect that the original target market will still be best served by the product. As for self-employed writers like me who don’t shop at John Varvatos, drink copious amounts of Fiji, or even rent many cars, they may be better off with travel or business credit cards with broader benefits.
