This secret McDonald’s perk takes “lovin’ it” to a new level.
The restaurant chain’s McGold Card is a highly coveted and rare pass that grants holders — including notable billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates — a lifetime of free meals.
It’s one of the more ambiguous secrets of the McDonald’s lore, but rumors and stories of the card have been circulating for at least four decades, according to information posted by the franchise itself on Reddit.
The terms of the physical card with a metallic gold finish vary based on certain factors, including who gifted the McGold Card — whether it was McDonald’s corporate or a franchisee, since most franchise locations are owned and operated by individual owners.
The few pass holders in the world get the complimentary perk for a set time — sometimes for life, sometimes for 50 years, sometimes for another time frame — or within certain geographic limits.
While the holders of McDonald’s McGold Cards are an exclusive bunch and tend to be billionaires, the fast-food chain used interest in the freebie in a 2022 promotion.
“Our fans have been fascinated by the lore of the McGold Card and if it really exists,” Tariq Hassan, McDonald’s USA chief marketing and customer experience officer, said at the time.
“And now, we’ll make this McDonald’s legend a reality for our fans by giving them the ultimate holiday gift – a chance to win a card and then share access to it with three of their family or friends.”
Those McGold Cards, however, granted two free meals a week for 50 years — rather than unlimited Mickey D’s for life.
It’s not known exactly how many McGold Cards offering free McDonald’s are currently out there, but it’s certainly an elite and exclusive group of people who have their hands on them. There are four known people part of that group: Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, actor Rob Lowe and the late talk-show host Regis Philbin.
Buffett, 94, revealed his card-carrying status in a 2007 interview with CNBC titled “What’s in Warren Buffett’s Wallet?”
“Here we have my McDonald’s card, which lets me eat free at any McDonald’s in Omaha for the rest of my life. So that’s why the Buffett family has Christmas dinner at McDonald’s,” the billionaire investor and philanthropist said with a laugh.
Buffett is in the category of McGold Card-holders who have a geographic limitation: He can get fast food for free in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, for the rest of his life.
He also revealed Gates’ status as a McGold holder, revealing that “there’s just a few of them. Bill Gates has one. His is good throughout the world, I guess. Mine is only good in Omaha, but I never leave Omaha, so mine is just as good as his.”
Gates, 69, recently confirmed this himself in a video posted to TikTok by content creator and chef Nick Digiovanni.
Revealing the shiny gold card that reads “BE OUR GUEST,” the Microsoft co-founder shared that they sent it to him a few months after Buffett received his.
“I tend not to use it since I can afford to buy the food,” Gates said, noting that his is valid for life anywhere in the world.
In 2015, actor Rob Lowe revealed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he, too, possessed a McGold Card — but his expired a year later on October 16, 2016.
Lowe, 61, was able to use it at any location across Santa Barbara and Goleta, California — and it was gifted to him by David Peterson, son of Herb Peterson, inventor of an iconic McDonald’s menu item.
“My buddy’s dad invented the Egg McMuffin … which, to me, is like the greatest human achievement,” he said on Kimmel’s talk show at the time.
Philbin, the late talk-show host who died in July 2020 at age 88, was also the proud holder of a McGold Card, his son-in-law Mike Schur, co-creator of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Parks and Recreation,” revealed in 2022.
“So, he did an ad, I think, sometime in the early ’90s for McDonald’s,” Shur said on “The Dan LeBatard Show.”
“And as part of the thanks for this, he was given, like, a gold — not real gold — like, gold-colored credit card thing that said, ‘This card entitles Regis Philbin free McDonald’s for life.’”
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