The Founders Card is a membership card popular with some travelers and is often touted by other bloggers and travel sites. It was time to find out if Founders, American Express Cards are comparable.
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What Is The Founders Card?
The Founders Card is a paid membership (between $395-595 annual fee depending on where the offer is found) that delivers premium benefits aimed at the upwardly mobile or small business owners. It promotes networking among small business owners in major cities. It is not a credit card, but has benefits similar to premium credit products.
To cater to members that are on their way to “made it” in life, Founders Card offers members a variety of travel benefits and shopping discounts at premium vendors. If you already shop at those stores frequently, Founders Card might pay for itself. Business Insider (who receive a commission for new member signups) detailed the benefits, here are some brief highlights:
- Cathay Pacific Silver status
- American Airlines Platinum status challenge (fee waived)
- Discounts from 5% for many international carriers in coach, up to 25% for full-freight first-class tickets
- Up to 50% off at Dell, 20% at John Varvatos, 15% at Bang & Olufson, other retailers
- Various hotel benefits or statuses
Why Would Anyone With An American Express Platinum Ever Get One?
Either American Express Platinum card (business or personal) are better than the Founders Card. The card includes a bunch of real statuses that deliver value for cardholders like Hilton and Marriott Gold status, included TSA Pre or Global Entry, car rental status, and discounts on hotels (Fine Hotels & Resorts) and retailers through AMEX offers. The AMEX Platinum business card also gives a membership to WeWork which holds meetups in addition to offering co-working space.
I hold the American Express Platinum cards and would keep them for the benefits but I also tried the Founders Card on a free trial from AwardWallet and couldn’t find a benefit worth anywhere close to the cost of keeping the membership. If one had to book a full fare first class ticket on Singapore, a case could be made but it’s pretty narrow. Consider too, that AMEX Platinum cardholders receive 5x points on first and business class tickets or a disocunt of up to 35% if using your points to pay. These both could offset the cost.
The one case for getting the Founders Card would be if one didn’t have the credit score or didn’t want to add a credit line.
AwardWallet Misrepresented Founders Card Offer
I love AwardWallet – without it, managing award accounts would be chaos. If you want to sign up for it to manage your accounts, here’s my referral link, I don’t get paid if you sign up – just get free upgrades.
AwardWallet has become more aggressive with affiliate links. Live and Let’s Fly doesn’t offer credit card sign-ups but we understand why others do as it is crucial to our hobby and keeps blogs alive with the affiliate commissions.
I think that AwardWallet is well-intentioned but that their Founders Card offer is dubiously positioned for a few reasons. For example, in this email AwardWallet has stated that trial members get Gold and Platinum statuses in the headline of the email: “NEW FoundersCard Members get Gold and Platinum Status.” In truth, they have access to status challenges and that’s not the same thing as holding status.
Conclusion
The Founders Card is not for me, and frankly, not for any American Express Platinum cardholder. If a member wanted to status challenge for American Airlines Platinum during the free trial offered from AwardWallet, that would be worth signing up but not as a paid member (the challenge is available to the public for just $200.)
Have you tried Founders Card? Is there a reason to keep it I have not mentioned?
Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone. Neither the Founders Card nor American Express Company have reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed this work nor have an impact how and where products are placed on this page. We have not accepted any direct endorsement to write for or against credit card companies, charge cards or any of the products appearing on this site.
The AwardWallet email does NOT state that trial members get status. It explicitly states that they get status CHALLENGES.
@Aztec: I draw your attention to the title of the email. It clearly states “get Gold and Platinum status.” Then once you open the email, in the body it tells you that you receive challenges.
I have made edited the post to make this clearer by calling out the title. Thanks for identifying that it wasn’t as obvious as the body of the email. As it sits attractively in your inbox, the message is that you get those statuses until you open it up and find that to be false.
Totally agreed. NOT WORTH IT
@Kyle, I didn’t see the title of the email. I agree with your point and would go even further and call it kind of sleazy.
I hold a ton of premium cards, AND I have FC. The TripIt Pro discount, the Clear discount (before Dl/UA had it), various other discounts (domain names, phone service, etc) and ESPECIALLY the hotel discounts (they have negotiated pricing at MANY hotels that really is good) makes FC a must have for this business traveler.
Clear is widely available (they have sales throughout the year) at $80 without status. Are the hotel deals really that much better than what’s on the open market or already included in AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts? If it is, maybe I will take another look. What is your best hotel deal? Does it offset the $500 considerably?
Yes some of the hotel deals are insane. The main one for me is Caesars diamond status which has saved my company tons of money (we do conferences in Vegas multiple times a year). For regular travel I’d say every major city now has an FC hotel agreement for a flat rate and you can double dip at for example at the W hotel in SAN Fran I can also use my spg card on top of the discount and my status on top of the discount.
Clear wasn’t available when this was out there. TripIt is nice to have, and some of the hotel discounts are amazing, and NOT CAPACITY CONTROLLED!
I Disagree, The Total Rewards Diamond status alone makes the cost worth it. Annual 4 night trip the Atlantis, hotel comp in Vegas, free shows and $100 celebration dinner
Kyle, it may be worth it for those who are looking to get Gold Status with United.
Receive MileagePlus® Premier® Gold status from September 1 – November 30, 2019, and keep it through January 31, 2021 by:
Enrolling in this Challenge by August 26, 2019
Being enrolled in the MileagePlus® and PerksPlus programs (enrollment links provided)
Earning 15,000 Premier qualifying miles (PQM) or 20 Premier qualifying segments (PQS), and $2,500 Premier qualifying dollars (PQD) during the challenge period.
…if they hold no other status with any carrier AND they value a Gold challenge at $500. That seems really expensive to me, in fact, American only charges $200-250 for their Platinum challenge (equal rank). I did my status challenge with United for free (though I had status to match): http://bit.ly/2sOqmrQ
founders card is THE SCAM. Virtually all of their discounts & benefits can be obtained without paying them $500. Stay away from founders card.
I have FoundersCard locked in at $295 a year plus my “companion” is locked in for free for life at no charge. We both value caesars rewards (previously total rewards) Diamond status for the perks in Las Vegas and other gambling properties. I also hold the caesars rewards visa and ms it for more points to save on hotel, dining, and diamond lounge access. For approximately $150 a year, I do believe it is worth it, for me. Ymmv.
At $150, you may be right. At $500, not so much.
You forgot to mention Caesars Total Rewards Diamond Status, which is complementary with FoundersCard. Perks include free 4 night stay at Atlantis in The Bahamas, comped hotels/free shows in Vegas, and $100 celebration dinner. This perk alone makes FoundersCard worth it!