I joined FoundersCard May 20th of 2010, almost 15 years ago at a Charter Member price of $95 a year. I’ve continued giving them around $1330, a relative steal considering the value I’ve gotten. In 2011, I wrote about my experience back when you needed an invite to join.
FoundersCard has informed me I’m one of the first members because I joined before 99% of members has joined. It’s weird math but my membership precedes 99.89% of all FoundersCard Members. There must be very few Charter members remaining. I wonder if Andrew Mager (who invited me in 2010) is still a member.
Since then, I’d say my experience has been decent but not great because, like most coupon-book programs, you need to spend money to save money. Some people get into a situation of buying something they didn’t need in order to save money which isn’t saving money. Saving is never spending at all and so FoundersCard worked for me in a few small but memorable ways one the years such as status at various travel companies such as Hilton, Marriot, American Airlines and United without spending money for said status. I also enjoyed some perks such as discounts on flights, stays, taxi services and more. There are also a lot of business discounts with FedEx, Wine Library, Moo Cards, Apple and more. Over all, I’ve probably gotten my money back but, as a $95 a year Charter member, that’s pretty easy. Many people over the years have emailed me asking if it’s worth it and at that price, it is! At $300 a year, I’d have to travel much more to justify the cost. If you are a road warrior staying at nicer hotels, it is worth it. Most road warriors are staying at a Fairfield Inn, not a Waldorf and it’s always been funny to me that a card marketed to Founders (which, back in my day were broke and putting all of their money into the company) and most of the perks are for $500 a night hotels. A founder in the traditional sense wants a discount at Motel 6, not the Ritz.
Also, over the years, FoundersCard has been pushing Elite, their $1000 a year program on me and I have scoffed because there’s no way it offers 10x the value I have at my current tier. I don’t like how they’ve positioned this higher tier. FoundersCard should have one membership tier and their job should be member retention by offering better programs over time. Instead, they’ve locked away their improved offerings to “elite founders” which again, is just funny to type.
FoundersCard is publicly a $595 a year program or $995 for their Elite Tier which is laughably expensive. It looks like people I invite get a reduced price by using my link – https://founderscard.com/membership?code=FCADAM305 but that may not be a perk by the time someone finds this blog post years from now.
I think FoundersCard should be $200 a year and one tier. That feels about right. FoundersCard isn’t offering any cash back sort of programs like most credit cards are meaning if you spend $50, you get $10 back. They’re just % off what you spend and while there are now thousands of hotels and hundreds of business partnerships, you need to A) remember to check FoundersCard before you make a purchase and B) only buy what you need so I was happy to see NameCheap has a discount (I use them as my registrar and host) but I already renewed for another year so I didn’t know that was an offering. It can be hard to remember that I have a perk from a service I’m already paying for.
New for 2025 is a very enticing offer:
It would appear that Charter Members are being aggressively pushed to take that next level and they have my attention. $95 in 2025 is not what it was in 2010 and I’m sort of amazed that they’e never increased the price in 15 years. Inflation adjusted, it should be about $140 a year now but yet I’m locked in to that price. They’re promising the same lock in with Elite at $199 a year in addition to granting my wife a companion pass to her own membership which was always an extra charge. Essentially we both get elite for less than it cost to add her as a companion back in the day.
Of those elite perks, I’d probably most benefit from Hertz, Wynn and some elevated discounts. I would be willing to try some of the other offers but the only catch is they charge $100 no then $199 at renewal but my renewal is in a month so I’m going to reach out to them and see if they’ll let me upgrade in a month instead.
For anyone wondering, I’ll continue being a member long term. I just don’t know if it’s worth it unless you’re a wealthy individual at the current public rates. I say wealthy and frequent traveler. Those two combined make this a great offer but it’s hard to navigate all of the offers so you’ll be best off having a personal assistant navigate all of the deals for you to make it work. I also wish FoundersCard tracked usage so you can see how much you save each year like many credit cards do.
I probably will upgrade to Elite to earn some more travel perks and give my spouse access. If you’re a charter member, check your page and see if you have the same offer because it’s quite impressive to lock in Elite for $199 for life which isn’t much more than an inflation adjusted $95 we’re all paying since 2010 or so.