FoundersCard Review: Is It Worth It? [2025]

Key Takeaways

• FoundersCard offers exclusive benefits and discounts on travel, business services, and lifestyle brands, including hotel and airline discounts.
• The annual fee for the FoundersCard is $595 per year, with a $95 initiation fee.
• The annual membership fee is offset by substantial savings and benefits for frequent travelers and business users, making the cost worth it for those who can utilize the perks.

FoundersCard is a very interesting idea. In a world of credit cards, points, and miles, the FoundersCard can seem a little strange. It isn’t a credit card, you can’t use it to pay for things, and you don’t earn any rewards points by having it — meaning it’s not getting you closer to your next award redemption for a hotel stay or flight. That said, it has a number of interesting benefits that may make it worthwhile to the savvy traveler.

FoundersCard markets itself as a lifestyle card for small businesses. It charges a big annual fee while providing multiple benefits, including hotel elite status, airline ticket discounts, and even savings on cell phone plans.

In this post, we’ll cover all the different perks you receive as a FoundersCard member to see whether it’s worth the expensive annual fee.

What Is the FoundersCard?

The FoundersCard is a membership card that provides elite statuses, discounts, and even a few freebies. It’s certainly unique among points-and-miles cards. Though it offers some of the benefits granted via premium travel credit cards, it isn’t a credit card.

That’s not to say that it can’t offer value — especially for those who don’t want more credit cards. Rather than you opening a new premium credit card, the FoundersCard can give you some of the same benefits in exchange for an annual membership fee without affecting your credit.

FoundersCard membership isn’t guaranteed. You need to apply for it, and approval isn’t instant. It can take up to 2 business days for your application to be reviewed and receive a response.

How Much Does the FoundersCard Cost?

The on-paper price is one thing. Whether it costs more than it brings value is another, and for that there’s not a definitive answer. The official annual fee for the FoundersCard is $595 per year, with a $95 initiation fee. However, if you take advantage of the benefits of the FoundersCard, it can more than make up for that outlay.

What Benefits Does the FoundersCard Offer?

The FoundersCard offers numerous different benefits, though many of them aren’t visible if you aren’t already a member. That can make evaluating the value difficult.

The best way to get an idea of what FoundersCard offers — and whether the perks make sense for you — is to sign up for a preview, after which FoundersCard sends you an email with a link to its benefits page.

That’s a lot of effort just to see if you’re interested, so we’ve collated all of the benefits we think are most useful, broken down by category.

Hotel Benefits

Most cardholders probably find their true value in the FoundersCard’s excellent benefits for hotels:

• Hilton Honors Gold status: You get free breakfast or a food and beverage credit, increased points earnings, room upgrades, early check-in, late checkout, and complimentary premium internet.
• IHG One Rewards Gold Elite status: This tier offers 40% bonus points on spending at hotels, late checkout, free internet, and access to exclusive promotions.
• Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status challenge: You get free breakfast, room upgrades, increased bonus points, early check-in, and late checkout, among other perks, but only if you earn the status after 15 paid nights in a 90-day period.
• Omni Select Guest Champion status: Get perks like bonus earning rates, room upgrades, early check-in and late checkout, complimentary bottled water, complimentary laundry services, and more.
• Sonesta Travel Pass Platinum status challenge: Members receive complimentary Gold status on enrollment but can move up to Platinum after 3 paid nights within 3 months of enrollment.
• Wynn Rewards Platinum status: Enjoy perks like 20% bonus earnings on slots, priority access to special events, priority seating at the buffet, complimentary self-parking, spa and birthday dinner credits, and more.
• Hotel chain partnerships: These partnerships provide discounts and special privileges like free breakfast at certain properties:

So are the benefits highlighted above are actually better than what you get with other credit cards or elite status in a hotel program? Possibly.

Here’s a hypothetical involving the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas. Here’s the standard member rate:

Spending $1,275 for 3 nights is pretty steep. And you don’t receive any additional benefits unless you’re a Hilton Honors elite member.

But this hotel also happens to be listed among Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts. This program is for holders of Amex’s premium cards, including the Platinum Card^® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

Hot Tip: Apply and find out if you’re eligible for a welcome bonus offer of as high as 175,000 points with the Amex Platinum. Welcome offers may vary and you may not be eligible for an offer.

Users like this program for the room upgrades, early check-in, late checkout, and property amenity (usually a $100 credit for food and beverages or the spa). Here it’s a $125 property credit. 

Here’s the same stay on Amex’s website:

As you can see, you pay slightly more via Amex but also get a $100 property credit tacked onto your stay, effectively reducing your cost somewhat.

Now let’s take a look at the rate for FoundersCard members:

Notice that the price is exactly the same as what Hilton was offering.

Note that this rate is bookable via Hilton’s website, meaning it’s eligible for all elite night credits and bonus point earnings. The hotel will also recognize your Hilton Honors elite status, which entitles gets you free breakfast, room upgrades, and so on. That’s important to note, as booking through third-party sites like Hotels.com or Expedia doesn’t provide Hilton-related status benefits. FoundersCard does.

This is the case with any hotel chain partnered with FoundersCard. Staying at a Ritz-Carlton? You earn Marriott Bonvoy points. Spending the night at a Park Hyatt? You earn World of Hyatt points, and so on. If you’re chasing elite status with a hotel chain, using FoundersCard could be a lucrative strategy.

Booking Hotels Using Shopping Portals

Here’s another great benefit to booking hotels using the FoundersCard rate: You book directly on the hotel website, meaning you can click through a cash-back portal to earn extra rewards on your purchases.

A good website to check on the best current websites with rewards is CashBack Monitor, which can also show you increased bonuses for holidays or other occasions. If it’s available, Rakuten is great because it lets you earn American Express Membership Rewards rather than just cash-back, effectively doubling the value of your return (we value Amex points at 2.2 cents each).

For example, as we write this, Rakuten is offering 1.5% cash-back or 1.5x points on hotels booked with Marriott Bonvoy.

Since FoundersCard provides Platinum Elite status with Marriott and discounts at 2 Marriott brands — Ritz-Carlton and W — you can earn bonus rewards while also enjoying savings.

Hot Tip:

The FoundersCard no longer comes with Caesar’s Diamond status.

Airline Benefits

FoundersCard benefits may also weigh in for your flying needs, depending on how often you travel by air. For the most part, they consist of small discounts on airlines, though you now also get 2 different elite statuses.

FoundersCard regularly offers status challenges with different airlines, which gets you elite status more quickly. FoundersCard and American Airlines held a status match challenge for cardholders recently.

Airline Discounts

• Air France: 10% off fares
• Air New Zealand: Up to 11% off fares
• Alaska Airlines: 5% off fares
• Blade: Save up to $200
• Etihad Airways: Up to 5% off fares
• FXAIR: Get preferred pricing
• KLM: 10% off fares
• La Compagnie: 10% off fares
• Qantas: Up to 20% off fares
• Qatar Airways: Up to 7% off fares
• Singapore Airlines: Up to 15% off fares
• Surf Air: Save up to 15% off on-demand flights
• Turkish Airlines: 10% off fares
• United Airlines: Up to 20% off fares

Airline Elite Status

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Silver Status: After 1 flight with a fast-track option to Gold status

Rental Car Benefits

Rental car companies are a mixed bag when it comes to renting directly. FoundersCard may get you a discount over the standard rate, but websites such as Autoslash may get you even better discounts. Sure, you won’t get a free upgrade or bonus points with these websites, but you often save enough that it’s still a better value.

• Avis Car Rental: Free upgrade and a 15% discount
• Budget Rent A Car: Up to 35% off
• Go Rentals: $500 credit and preferred pricing
• Hertz: Complimentary elite status and up to a 20% discount
• SIXT Rent a Car: Platinum status and a 15% discount
• Zipcar for Business: Up to 20% discount

Hot Tip:

Pay for your car with a credit card with rental car insurance to save a bunch of money.

Small Business Benefits

As FoundersCard is targeted at small-business owners, it’s heavy on the business-focused benefits. Some of these are:

• Save up to 65% with Lenovo.
• Save up to 50% with FedEx.
• Get preferred pricing with Dell.
• Receive 40% off select plans with Dropbox.
• Save 20% on Google Workspace plans.
• Save up to 55% at Office Depot.
• $500 in credits with Stripe
• $10,000 in fee-free payments with Square
• Up to 15% discount with AT&T
• Up to 47% off with UPS
• 30% off Slack
• $300 in Sponsored Job credits with Indeed
• 25% off select subscriptions with Shutterstock

Miscellaneous Benefits

Lifestyle benefits make up the rest of the perks, including free fitness classes and retail discounts. Here are a few of the best:

• Savings on purchase or lease of BMW or Mini
• Up to $7,500 off with Mercedes-Benz
• Member pricing at Audi
• Preferred pricing at Jeep
• 30% off at Adidas
• 20% off at 1-800-Flowers
• Preferred pricing at Crunch Fitness
• Complimentary Soul Cycle class with a purchase
• 20% off memberships at Core Power Yoga
• Up to 20% off at Barry’s
• Up to 15% off at Bose
• 10% off at Bang & Olufsen
• Preferred pricing at Apple
• Up to 45% off at Medjet
• 15% off plans at Global Rescue Travel Protection
• Up to 20% off estate planning services at Trust & Will

FoundersCard Elite

There’s another level of membership, the FoundersCard Elite card, which offers additional benefits that could justify an upgrade. Pricing varies from person to person but is generally $295 to $995 annually.

This level of membership includes:

• Elite status upgrades with Avis, Hertz, SIXT, Hilton, Omni, IHG, and Marriott
• 24/7 priority support for concierge services
• Unlimited access to luxury hotels
• Increased airline discounts, up to 20% with many carriers
• Increased credits with Stripe and Square
• $350 Google Cloud credit for new members
• Complimentary companion membership

For us what stands out most is the free companion card, letting you gift a full membership with valuable benefits to someone else. This membership includes all the elite perks listed above.

However, you must wait until renewal of your Elite membership to be able to gift a membership to someone.

You can also skip the FoundersCard Elite companion membership and instead pay $495 for a lifetime significant other membership. This is a one-time fee and gives your Player 2 a free FoundersCard as long as you hold yours.

Is the FoundersCard Worth It?

We’ve just gone over the biggest benefits here, and the FoundersCard has more. But that’s not very important if you can’t use the available benefits.

Those who already travel with and spend money with the brands available could enjoy valuable perks and savings. However, those who don’t frequent these brands or hold premium credit cards that offer similar perks may struggle to justify the membership fee.

You need to carefully evaluate the perks and how they match with your travel, lifestyle, and business habits to see what value you’d get.

FoundersCard Alternatives

Iffy about the FoundersCard? You can get these kinds of hotel and rental car benefits with more traditional cards:

• Amex Platinum card and Amex Business Platinum card: These offer complimentary Marriott Gold Elite and Hilton Gold elite status, Hertz President’s Circle, Avis Preferred membership, and National Emerald Club Executive status (not to mention that the Platinum cards are also the best card for airport lounge access) — all available for enrollment.
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: You get complimentary Hilton Gold elite status.

Final Thoughts

As you can probably tell, the FoundersCard isn’t for everyone, and that’s by design.

So why anyone would pay for a card that doesn’t earn points and miles? That’s a valid question. The answer is that those who can use even a few of the FoundersCard benefits can easily recoup the membership fee year after year.

If you’re in it for free room upgrades, airline discounts, or fee-free payments for your business, FoundersCard is a one-stop shop. Just remember that membership isn’t free.

The information regarding the FoundersCard was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.