The Founders Card
 

The card below isn't technically a credit card, but it behaves somewhat like a premium card and I have no other place to discuss it, so here goes. :D

I received this email from JP Morgan Wealth Management

Radonc1, welcome to your complimentary FoundersCard membership

I have (or had) no idea what in the world a "Founders Card" was, so I looked up a review of it on line.

FoundersCard Review – Is It Worth It? [2021]


My take away: It is not a credit card, but a discount card. Chase is willing to give me the first year ($595 + but reading between the lines, it may cost less).
Many of the benefits are duplicated by my Amex Plat card and my other credit cards (Hilton) or by my lifetime status in programs. Furthermore, with Covid basically eliminating my international travel for the foreseeable future, why have a card whose benefits are limited? But that is why we have FT

I could just take the deal. The problem is that renewal is $395/year and I have no idea what type of hoops I would have to jump through to cancel the program (maybe none).

I am looking to see if anyone has experience with this non-credit card card and opinions. The reviewer did a good job of hashing out the pluses and minuses, but other travelers opinions would be most useful, especially those who have had or have the card itself.

As an aside, the "great" deal with Cesar's is no longer true, from what I have read about it. ;)

I hate deals where I have to cancel proactively to stop the process.:eek:

Previous discussions on Flyertalk are scattered, and dated. Sorry, this is an image, you cannot click through to read, but they are easy to find:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c3dd0549c1.png

Award Wallet and TripIt have run similar offers. The most recent Award Wallet was in May, 2021:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4882c12f8b.png

My wife and I had the card all 2021. We used some of the benefits and probably got good value for the low introductory pricing.

I was waiting to cancel as the full price to us isn’t worth it as our travel has slowed.

instead I got a $995 charge on my card out of the Blue.

I emailed to get a refund but received a barrage of retention offers.

I’ve made it clear that the benefits don’t fit my lifestyle. Hopefully I’ll see the refund else I’ll have to dispute it.

Ive used this for only going to Vegas. This alone saves me a lot more than the membership fee.


If you travel a lot then you will save a small fortune. If like me you goto Vegas once a year then again you will still get a lot more in return. For me its a no brainer.

Pretty much same here.... the Caesars Diamond Status perk is pretty huge in that it gets the ridiculous resort fees comped. Add in $100 annual dining credit, parking at Caesars properties, priority casino cage lines and priority check-in and I get more than my annual membership just with this single perk. The UPS shipping thing is how I justify paying for it with my business but I'm never sure if/how much of a discount I'm actually getting.

Does anyone have details of the full list of benefits they could share here?

I'd rather not go through the whole inquiry process, to then find out it's of no benefit to me.

At this point the full list is pretty lengthy and would be somewhat difficult to screenshot/paste as a list. I’ll say that I’ve gotten great value out of FoundersCard over the years.

if there are specific benefits you are curious about/interested in, I’m happy to log onto the portal and share some details.

I'm mostly interested in airline lounge access. Does it give any benefits over say an Amex Platinum?

Was just reading around on this some more, and it does seem that you can also get Caesars Diamond Status via the $99 Wyndham credit card if anyone wanted a cheaper route into that.

Great info.... thanks!! I actually just sold the business I referenced and really don't have much use for The Founders Card other than Caesars so I'll definitely look into that.

Took a look and nope, no benefits around airline lounge access that I saw.

Thanks for checking.

If it came with say AA/United lounge access or status, or something like that, it might be worth it for me, but from what I can see I'd have very little use for it.

One more data point. Accepted a free 12 month trial of the lower tier Founders Card.

Cancelled already. Useless if you have an Amex Platinum. No benefits of note that I don't already have either via the Amex or existing airline status.

Endless litany of "upgrade" offers in order to get any real benefit from the card. Hard pass for me.

No benefits if free, just constant upsells for a mediocre program
 

So I accepted a "free 12 month" membership to this card via CLEAR.

Wow, I got accepted and look forward to the benefits.
So I create my password and ... first thing they do before I see diddly squat is they try to "upgrade" me for $295. So much for "free" ... Of course a big huge button to upgrade, a tiny little "sorry, I am not ready yet" ... this presages the entire experience.

Benefits are blah, but even to access any of them, you need to upgrade and pay $295.
For hotels, this means a wimpy Gold tier in IHG, Hilton, Omni, etc., You get this and more with a basic credit card! E.g. Chase IHG card gives you Platinum. But for $295 you can unlock Gold LOL. Or for Marriott, a complimentary Platinum "status challenge" anyone can get.
For car rentals it means Avis or Hertz President status, which we all get comped.
Some "discounts" on hotels, cruises, "experiences" that fail to impress. I can't check most of them because they are locked ... only a handful of hotels are unlocked. So I spot checked the few that weren't locked, and the special rate is same or worse as my AAA, corporate, senior or FF member rate. Amex FHR gives a better deal with the added benefits. Completely unimpressed.

I've seen their incessant marketing and just wasted 30 minutes of my life being completely underwhelmed.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cb1d5b8241.png


So basically this is all a con to get you to buy this dog's breakfast of benefits for $295 every 6 months .. $590 a year. LOL.

Useless unless you don't have status anywhere and don't have travel credit cards.

Very lukewarm.

I fail to see thw