FoundersCard Review, Overview & Is It Worth It in 2021?
FoundersCard is a membership club (complete with fancy metal card) that provides discounts and networking opportunities to over 25,000 entrepreneurs. Designed for business executives, this membership can also be valuable to those who love to travel. This FoundersCard Review & guide to membership is designed to provide an overview of FoundersCard to help you decide if getting a membership is the right move for you and if the program is worth it. We also have an exclusive membership offer to help you save money as well.
I have been a FoundersCard member for the past five years and am happy to announce we have partnered with them to provide an exclusive Founderscard discount code and offer for Miles to Memories readers. FoundersCard membership normally comes with an annual fee of $595, but we can get you about half off.
The MtM exclusive FoundersCard promo code FCMTM295 (already embedded in the link above) should get you the discounted rate of $395 $295 per year plus the $95 FoundersCard initiation fee is waived as well. If the MtM FoundersCard promo code FCMTM295 isn’t filled in, simply input it. Now let’s take a look at the many discounts and benefits of FoundersCard membership so you can determine whether it is worth it for you.
Note: You can also preview a FoundersCard Membership before signing up for this offer if you need any more information about specific benefits.
FoundersCard Review – Member Benefits for 2021
FoundersCard breaks their benefits down into sections described as: “Hotels”, “Lifestyle”, “Travel” and “Business”. I’ll take a look at each of these categories separately and describe what I think are the best benefits of each. I will also dedicate a section entirely to Caesars Rewards Diamond status, because for me it is probably the most valuable FoundersCard benefit and pays for my membership all by itself.
FoundersCard Review – Hotel Benefits 2021
FoundersCard has negotiated discounted rates and extra property specific benefits for its members at hundreds of hotels around the world for 2021. While I try to use hotel points as much as possible to save, discount programs like this one and Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts definitely help when there is no choice other than paying cash.
FoundersCard has partnered with select properties from the following brands for 2021:
- Mandarin Oriental
- Park Hyatt
- Rosewood Hotel Group
- Omni Hotels & Resorts
- Ritz Carlton
- Peninsula Hotels
- Four Seasons
- W Hotels
In addition to the brands above, a number of other brands plus independent properties are included as well. Once you have your membership you’ll be able to filter by city to find which discounts are available for your upcoming hotel stays.
FoundersCard Review – Travel Benefits 2021
FoundersCard provides some great travel benefits to their members. From elite status to various discounts, you’ll find plenty to be excited about if you travel a lot.
FoundersCard elite status benefits for 2021:
- Avis Preferred Plus status (Upgrades, bonus points)
- Sixt Rent a Car Platinum status (Discount, free addtl driver in U.S., upgrades)
- Hilton Honors Gold status (Free breakfast & room upgrades at most Hilton properties)
- Cathay Pacific Airways Marco Polo Club Silver status trial (Lounge access on Cathay, priority check-in & boarding and more)
- Caesars Rewards Diamond status (See Caesars section below)
FoundersCard also runs very good status match opportunities for members as well. For example, in the past they have had status challenges for United Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue. A recent status challenge for American Airlines ended late last year, so hopefully they’ll bring it back soon. I know a lot of readers took advantage of it!
FoundersCard Travel Discounts for 2021
In addition to elite status, FoundersCard has negotiated discounts and promo codes with a number of travel providers. Among the FoundersCard travel discounts are:
- Car rental discounts with: Hertz, Avis, Silvercar, Zipcar and Sixt
- Airline discounts with: United Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Surf Air & British Airways
- Hotel discounts: See hotels section above
Other Travel Benefits/Discounts
Besides what has been mentioned above, FoundersCard has a couple of other interesting travel benefits worth mentioning. There are even more perks than what I am including here as well so make sure to fully check out their benefits to see if they help make Founderscard worth it.
- 1 year of free TripIt Pro membership and a discounted $39 annual rate after that – I use this to organize all of my travel plans and it works incredibly well.
- 15% off EmpireCLS car and chauffer service
- 3 months of XO Rise private jet membership + flight credit & discounts on Surf Air!
FoundersCard Review – Lifestyle Benefits 2021
The FoundersCard also has some niche benefits designed to enhance your life as well. While I won’t cover all of the 60+ lifestyle benefits here, I will cover some of the highlights. Keep in mind that some of these discounts are location dependent, but there are a ton of cool perks for every member.
- Car Discounts: Audi, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar
- Clothing Discounts: Adidas, Cole Haan, Tommy John, Reebok, PUMA, Todd Snyder, Kendra Scott & more
- Fitness/Health Discounts: Equinox, Bliss Spa, Crunch Fitness, Pure Yoga, Soul Cycle, Spafinder Wellness, obé fitness & more
- Food/Wine Discounts: Wine Library, Wine Access, Vosges Haut-Chocolate, Stock Yards, Mouth.com, Sakara, Harry & David, FIJI Water & more
FoundersCard Review – Business Benefits 2021
FoundersCard membership is for entrepreneurs so it makes sense that they offer a wide range of discounts and other benefits for business. Additionally, many FoundersCard members offer discounts at their own businesses through FoundersCard. These business discounts can really make FoundersCard worth the cost of membership.
Here are some of the more notable FoundersCard business benefits you can expect to get when joining:
- Telecommunications Discounts: 15% off AT&T Wireless, 1 year of Phone.com, RingCentral
- Technology Discounts: Lenovo, Dell, Office Depot, Rackspace, Microsoft Office, Salesforce and more
- Business Essentials Discounts: Office 365, Shopify, Constant Contact, MOO Inc, Zoom, 99Designs, DocuSign, Stripe, UPS & more
Other Notable Business Benefits
- Stripe is offering $20,000 in fee-free payments from customers to FoundersCard members. That can be a significant savings on swipe fees.
- 99designs offers a complimentary Power Pack upgrade.
FoundersCard Review – Caesars Rewards Benefits – Now Extended!
I can’t write a FoundersCard review and not talk about my overall favorite benefit, Caesars Rewards Diamond status. It has now been extended through January, 2022 making it even better. Even though I don’t gamble, I get a ton of value out of this casino loyalty status and so do many of my readers and Vegas YouTube subscribers. For many this benefit alone makes the entire FoundersCard membership worth it.
Among the best perks of Caesars Rewards Diamond status are:
- No resort fees
- $100 celebration dinner dining credit each year
- A free show from a select list each calendar month (subject to availability)
- Free parking & priority valet plus skip the lines at buffets and more!
Shortly after receiving my upgrade to Diamond status a couple of years ago I received some nice room comp offers as well. Those dried up after awhile of me not gambling, but added to the overall value. While the Laurel Lounge benefit was recently taken away unless you gamble a lot, I still think most people can save a ton with Caesars Diamond status even if they only occasionally visit Las Vegas.
Caesars Diamond Waived Resort Fees = Crazy Value
With resort fees at most Caesars properties approaching $40 per night or more, the waived resort fees alone can make FoundersCard membership worth it for casino lovers. For example, you are paying $295 for a year of membership while also receiving $100 in free dining. Add in the savings on resort fees and the math may just work out for you to join. While I can’t speak to your circumstances, the Caesars Diamond status alone makes FoundersCard membership worth the cost for me.
FoundersCard Review – Social Events
FoundersCard is a membership club for executives and in the past a large part of having this membership has been the ability to network by attending social events held in various cities throughout the year. Due to current events these functions are not happening right now, but hopefully FoundersCard will be able to bring them back when things become more normal.
FoundersCard Review, Promo Code & Bottom Line
A few years ago I locked in a $295 per year rate, but at that time I had to commit to two years. I’ve gladly paid the membership fee each year since, because I think I get more value out of the membership than I pay in. Right now that same $295/yr rate is available without a 2 year commitment or initiation fee, so it could be a good time to give FoundersCard a try.
I don’t think FoundersCard is for everyone, but if you own a business and like to travel it’s definitely worth a look.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
I’m sorry didn’t the guy who did fire festival already realized this was a terrible idea?
[…] know much about it aside from the fact that it’s designed for executives and business owners. Miles to Memories blog has a special partnership that allows you to get it for $295 per year (not sure if the deal is still valid as the post was written in 2021). It’s not a credit […]
[…] also typically includes elite status in a number of programs and/or fast tracks to elite status (Miles to Memories has a full review of benefits, including those newly-added in 2021 like Virgin Atlantic silver status after a single flight). […]
Hey Shawn, Thanks for all you videos and for doing this. You do a great job. I signed up on Founders on your link on 3/31 🙂
Awesome Jason and thanks for using the link. Hope you are able to use your new status in Vegas soon 🙂
Do you have to be a business owner to purchase the Founders Card?
Hi,
I saw your latest You Tube video regarding the Caesars benefits that are available with the Founders Card. Are you sure about the two free show tickets? I had Diamond Status via a match a couple of years ago and got the show tickets but that benefit has now been removed from Caesar’s chart of Diamond Benefits. Is it still available and just not listed?
I’ll reach out and see if it is just down since shows are not open right now.
[…] from Miles to Memory has an exclusive $295 sign up offer. Its regular price is $595 plus the “initiation” fee, but it’s always been offered for a $395 […]
$295 is an awful rate. When you signup for a free account now, they instantly offer you a $99 membership. I get it, you want to get the referral commissions, but it’s just a bad offer your readers.
We have written about that deal in the past
https://milestomemories.com/limited-time-offer-join-founderscard-for-only-99/
It is supposed to be targeted at entrepreneurs though so not everyone will be targeted for that offer. If you can get it then for sure take it.
Hi, all the benefits are targetted towards business ppl in the US – fair enough..I was interested in the flight discounts with BA, QF, CX and most importantly the T&C’s eg must originate in the US, etc? Do you have a URL link so I can find out more pls? Thanks from Oz
If you own a business and accept credit cards, the $20,000 fee-free Stripe benefit is worth $600 alone, which is why I signed up when they offered me a $99/year deal earlier this year. But I agree with the others who say that the other benefits are weak at best. I certainly won’t renew once that Stripe benefit is over.
How did I get a year for $99? I was on their mailing list, I guess, and they e-mailed it to me as an offer. I wonder if they would offer that to others if you contacted them…?
Based on your recommendations, I am planning to get a Founders card so I can get the Caesars Diamond status on my account.
Do you know if you have live in the US to buy the Founders Card? Also how do you then get Caesars account upgraded to Diamond?
Are they doing any membership extensions due to the COVID situation?
Thanks Shawn for the review. I already have Gold Hilton butI’m surely tempted by the Marriott Platinum status but it reads trial; what dos this mean. Is is 3 months or 6 months? Thanks.
That one is a challenge. Here is how it works. “Stay for 15 paid nights within 3 months of enrollment, and enjoy Platinum Elite status for up to one year”
I think the value of this is nebulous without a pandemic and travel woes. You are paying a pretty high price for those benefits. Nobody pays 595.00. They have discounted this in all the business groups I am in. Certainly now nowbody is willing to pay 595. A few years ago I think they had a few more benefits of value and it still was not worth it. If you have an AMEX plat card for example and FHR you can match all of those supposed hotel deals etc.
I will say for years I thought I wouldn’t get the value out of FC and then I was able to lock in the $295 fee and I gave it a try to discover I was getting a lot of benefit. I will say I obviously get the benefit from Caesars Diamond which has been available through matches as well, so that is a consideration.
Two other things. In the post I say that I don’t think this is for everyone. It definitely isn’t. Also, as for the price, the public price is $595 but the standard referral is $395 with an initiation fee. Sometimes they have run $395 with a $100 Amex card in the past or $295 for 2 years or they waive the fee, but this is $295 with only a one year commitment and no fee. I did my best to bring the best deal I could to readers who might be interested.
People should definitely do the calculus to determine if it makes sense to them, especially given the current conditions. I know a lot of business owners (the target of FC) are getting back to normal out of necessity and travel is ramping back up, so it could be some people will get great use out of those benefits. Again, not for everyone, but I do believe there are people who receive benefit from FC.
I would be very careful with this card and company. Doing a quick google search and a TON of negative reviews from the Founders Card. Many of these benefits are going to be very difficult to use and a lot of loopholes that work against the consumer.
Hey Brian. Care to go into any detail? I personally know dozens of members and as I say in the post have been a member for 4 years and have never had a single issue redeeming a benefit. I’d love some specifics.
Feels like a more real version of Magnesis..
FYI, not quite as elite, but valuable nonetheless and free, are the Mlife and Total Rewards military/veteran/spouse benefits:
Mlife MVP (“Military and Veterans Program”) membership confers Mlife Pearl status
https://www.mgmresorts.com/en/offers/military.html#/MVP%20M%20life%20Rewards%20card%20
Total Rewards Salute membership confers TR Platinum status
https://totalrewards.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2412/~/total-rewards—salute-card
Thanks for the tip
Thanks for the review of benefits. As I thought when I was considering applying and doing research, this card is not for me. None of the benefits are useful for me.