AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
CLEAR Plus members are receiving emails with an offer for a complimentary one-year trial membership to FoundersCard, a membership program that provides travel, business, and lifestyle benefits. This offer grants a free year of FoundersCard, which typically costs $595 annually (or $495 with a referral code), presenting significant savings.
What is FoundersCard, and how do you enroll for the free 12 months of it? Read on.
Free FoundersCard for a Year for CLEAR Plus Members
CLEAR Plus members can activate their one-year free trial of FoundersCard through this dedicated link. According to the terms, the membership will automatically renew at a discounted rate of $395 per year unless it is canceled before the trial ends. If you aren't interested in continuing at that price, ensure you cancel your membership before the one-year mark — or within 60 days of the renewal charge.
Here's where we get into a few quirks of this offer. You'll need to enter standard personal information, including your name, email address, and date of birth. However, you must also enter a Company Name and Professional Title to proceed.
On the final page, you must enter a credit card and acknowledge the terms — including the $395 renewal rate. Also note the condition that “Some benefits are not available during the complimentary period.”
Approval isn't automatic. The confirmation message says approval and enrollment can take up to two business days. The email confirmation says FoundersCard may reach out with additional information if needed.
Terms and conditions
- Apply for a one-year trial here.
- Must provide a credit card at the time of application; this will be used to charge for your membership after automatic enrollment when the trial ends.
- Members will be automatically enrolled for a paid membership at a preferred price of $395 per year.
- Free trial lasts for 12 months.
- Offer valid for new FoundersCard accounts only.
- Offer does not mention being targeted to those who receive the email, but it is intended for CLEAR Plus members.
- Some benefits may not be available during the trial period.
- Applications are subject to review and approval by FoundersCard.
- You can cancel your membership at any time during the free trial period.
- This offer doesn't have an ending date listed on the landing page.
Notice that some benefits might not be available. This free trial is likely similar to the three-month free trial for AwardWallet members, in which certain elite status perks and the biggest travel discounts aren't included.
Our Take
CLEAR Plus members can enroll for a free one-year trial of FoundersCard, providing travel discounts, rental car perks, business service discounts, and more. Wondering if it's worth it? Our FoundersCard review can help you figure out the answer.
While the promotion page is public and there's no requirement to prove you have a CLEAR Plus membership during the application phase, the terms say all applications are reviewed. That may include verifying your CLEAR Plus membership. If that's you and you've never had a FoundersCard membership before, right now could be a great time to take it for a one-year test drive at no cost.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
If you’ve ever had FC before, you’ll just get no response at all. They have no use for us to join again at any price other than the non-discounted fee that no one actually pays.
Most of the features are disabled for this free year. They try to get you to pay 395 to upgrade so it’s basically worthless unfortunately
FC should be ashamed of this weak bait and switch. Anything of note that you would want (e.g. Caesars Diamond) takes you to an upgrade screen for $295!
Instead of being upfront and explaining what the “limited” benefits were before people signed up, they did a shady practice of getting a bunch of new signups with their limited info. Award Wallet should post about people’s experience here and should be in touch with FC management about using you guys like this. I get not wanting to give everything away for free that people pay for, just be upfront about what we were getting. I wouldn’t have signed up and that’s why they were shady about it.
I wonder . . . How often does Founders Card host Signature Events (member only networking events), which I thought was originally intended years ago as a core benefit of Founders Card?
Hi Stephen, FoundersCard said they had paused events during the pandemic but had their first event after restarting in April 2023 in NYC, plus another last week in NYC. 3 more dates for this year will be announced at some point, plus a more expansive networking program in 2024 at some point. The rep did say FC doesn’t consider this a “core” benefit since we had sent your comment word for word.
Ryan, thank you for finding out. I remember clearly Founders networking events were the headliner when FoundersCard first came out. Then they added all the discounts and elite statuses . . . sounds like the latter have become the main draw now. Cheers. Stephen.
“Some benefits may not be available during the trial period”
The big question is what benefits are and aren’t available in this trial. How can we find out?
We asked just those questions when FoundersCard reached out to offer AwardWallet members a 3-month free trial. Here are the benefits that we were able to confirm for that trial — which could be different than this one: https://awardwallet.com/blog/founderscard-free-trial/
Its not clear, but with trial membership you dont get any status. Just measly discount hotel rates on selective properties and airlines about 10-15% on pricy hotel rooms and international airlines. Elite upgrade is worth if you are chasing status with hotels, otherwise everything is available one way or the other.
This is bait and switch and they are not clear on what is offered, plus they dont explain it well either on their site, links etc.
Yup, this is all smoke and mirrors. The Clear offer has no real benfits. I am beginning to think that this is way to get people’s info and credit card numbers…
Thanks for posting this. I would have missed the email as it went to my spam folder…
Some of the great benefits are status matches. And, if your business pays credit card merchant fees you can get 0% on the first $20,000 of revenue through Stripe. If your merchant fee is 3% that’s a $600 savings per year.
I noticed Founders Club Elite (the $900+ option with AwardWallet’s promo code instead of Clear’s) gives 0% on the first . . . $50,000 of revenue through Stripe, at 3% is $1,500 savings per year.