Value in Founderscard?
 

I couldn't find a thread relating to Founderscard (FoundersCard.com) other than specific mentions in a couple of airline forums so I thought I'd ask here.

I am a member but with a couple of limited exceptions, every time I try to use the benefits I find them to be virtually useless. My latest example is with Dell. They advertise savings of up to 40% but when I look at Dell's public website those very same savings are available to all against the published prices. I contacted Founderscard and they said those benefits were only available using their code. I've gone back to them assuring them they are available to all. No response yet.

Does anyone else have any experience?

Thanks in advance.

I've heard the name before, but not much.

I just looked at the website, but it doesn't say much about actual benefits. To be honest, I'm not surprised that their discount codes aren't better than what you can get through a bit of search online. The reason is that usually a large merchant such a Dell will not offer significant discounts to partners (above market rate) unless the partner can significantly drive volume and not dilute their overall revenues. Foundercard just don't have that type of scale to influence the economics that much.

Curious - what is the annual fee on the card?

I paid $300 per year for 2 years about 18 months ago. In my case I make that all back and a bit more through the savings on our VOIP system (RingCentral). I also use the discounts on airline tickets which are sometimes - not always - useful. I've not used any of the other stuff. The hotels are little use to me as I already have higher status with the chains I use than they offer. The Dell promotion looked useful but in practice looks worthless given that the exact same discounts are available on the public site. Happy to be persuaded by others though.

I've had FC for about a year and will probably renew. For me the biggest benefit is discounted UPS shipping. My company does a few thousand a year shipping equipment to be calibrated and I save enough to pay for my +/- $300 FC membership.

With specific vendors for buying computers and whatnot I found the same thing.... that their codes are pretty much worthless. For me it was with Lenovo. Using the FC code got me the same thing as the never ending sale on Lenovo's website.

Aside from shipping, my biggest savings is getting Diamond status as Caesars properties in Vegas. That saves on resort fees ($40-$50/night), gets me express check-in (can save hours at times) and $100 dining credit/year. I'm usually in Vegas 2-3X a year for conferences or fun so the perks with the FC can really add up.

In the end I think the value just depends on if/how much you will use it.