AMEX cardholders: Enjoy a free 6 or 12 month FoundersCard membership

For a limited time, selected American Express cardholders can enjoy a complimentary 6 or 12 month FoundersCard membership. I first learned about this while exploring the benefits of the newly-launched UOB Absolute Cashback Card, although it’s available to anyone who has a bank-issued American Express card. 

FoundersCard Benefits

This discovery sparked quite a bit of excitement, at least initially. FoundersCard membership comes with a whole range of perks, including Hilton Gold (free breakfast), Marco Polo Club Silver (free lounge access) and Sixt Platinum (free car upgrades), as well as various discounts for travel and business expenses. 

But, and this is a big but, the complimentary membership is an extremely stripped-down version of FoundersCard. It certainly doesn’t hurt to sign up (provided you remember to cancel before your trial expires) as you might find the odd saving here and there, but you should probably temper your expectations. 

Getting your free FoundersCard membership

FoundersCard membership officially costs US$595 a year, although it’s possible to find numerous US$395 offers floating around on various blogs. 

Those with selected American Express cards can visit this link to activate their 6-12 month free FoundersCard membership. 

This offer is only valid for bank-issued AMEX cards (though for some strange reason, the DBS Altitude AMEX doesn’t work). You won’t be able to enjoy it with cards issued by American Express itself.

After verifying your card, you’ll be redirected to a screen to fill up your personal details…

…and then another to enter your payment information. No payment is taken upfront, but remember to cancel your membership before the trial period is up, or else you’ll be billed a “preferred” annual rate of US$395. 

By the way, there’s a further BIN verification at the check-out screen. If you try using any card other than the approved list, you’ll get an error message when you click submit. 

In other words, giving your friends the vipamex6 code to use won’t work, unless you’re also willing to give them your card number. Likewise, the vipamex12 code that gives 12 months free membership won’t work unless you actually have a card which BIN range is tied to the code. From what I know, only the DBS Treasures AMEX has access to the 12 month offer.

Applications are not approved immediately. Instead, you get a generic thank you message, plus an email that says:

Our Application Review Board will review your application shortly. If you’re approved, you will receive an email within the next 1-3 business days with a link to activate your Membership. If we need any additional information, we will contact you directly. 

Application review board- what is this, Harvard? It sounds pretentious, but anyway my application was approved within 12 hours. 

I doubt you’ll receive the personalised metal card until you convert to a paid membership, but you will get full access to the members’ area where you can explore the perks and discounts.

What benefits can you use?

Here’s where it starts to get tricky.

FoundersCard is targeted at small business owners and entrepreneurs, though any frequent traveler is likely to find the benefits useful. The problem is, it’s designed with US residents in mind, and that’s reflected in the choice of partnerships and T&Cs.

For example, many of the airline discounts only apply to flights originating from the US. Likewise some of the complimentary elite status is only available to those with a US mailing address:

• Avis Preferred Plus (requires US mailing address)
• Caesar’s Rewards Diamond
• Hertz Five Star (requires US mailing address)
• Hilton Honors Gold
• Marco Polo Club Silver (requires US mailing address)
• Sixt Platinum
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Silver 

In any case it’s a moot point, because Caesar’s Rewards Diamond, Hilton Honors Gold, Sixt Platinum and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Silver aren’t available with complimentary memberships. You’ll need to upgrade to a paid membership to unlock these. 

Here’s the perks that Singapore residents might find useful:

• 40% off Dropbox Business or Plus annual subscription
• 40% off 1Password Teams
• 30% off Slack plans
• 20% off Squarespace website plans
• 30% off Typeform Professional and Premium annual plans
• 20% off Zoom plans (min. 10 business licenses)
• 20% off Shutterstock image & footage subscription plans
• Complimentary TripIt Pro membership
• Waived Fiverr Business Platform Membership fees for 2 years, 20% off first project and 30% off Fiverr Learn courses

However, do note that many of these codes are only available to new customers, which limits their usefulness. I’d have loved to save 40% off my US$119.88 Dropbox Plus annual subscription, but I’m not eligible for the offer since I’m an existing user.

So what does that leave us with? Perhaps the hotel discounts. FoundersCard has negotiated special rates with numerous hotel chains worldwide, and from a handful of searches it does seem to be cheaper than the lowest public rate. For example, I can book the Rosewood Hong Kong for 20% less with the FoundersCard offer.

Likewise, the FoundersCard rate at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok seems quite competitive- almost half the public price (I’m searching for dates in December- if you stayed right now the discount would be less spectacular as the hotel is heavily discounting itself for staycations). 

Conclusion

If I sound less than enthused about this, it’s because I am. My initial excitement (omg this means there’s no excuse not to have Hilton Gold status) gave way to meh-ness once I realised the limitations of the complimentary membership. 

I certainly don’t think that anyone in Singapore should be paying for a FoundersCard membership, but since it’s free, it doesn’t hurt to poke around the offers and see if you can save a little here or there. 

Any other FoundersCard benefits that might be useful to Singapore residents?