Investing Caffeine

Membership Privileges: Cheese Tubs & Space Travel

May 21, 2010 at 12:41 am Leave a comment

With Senate proposals pushing to cap debit card fees earned by the credit card companies (Visa Inc. [V] and MasterCard Inc. [MA]), you better hurry up and take advantage of underappreciated membership privileges while you still can. The card companies are not too happy, but maybe they deserve some legitimate sympathy. I mean, supporting banks that gouge customers at rates reaching upwards of 20% can be challenging for any card network oligopoly to handle. So before Congress strips away the card companies’ God-given right to siphon away fees from millions of Americans, you have the obligation to utilize the membership privileges of your credit card – even if those benefits include using Visa’s concierge services for purchasing a giant tub of nacho cheese or booking a space travel trip. Unfortunately, many cardholders are unaware they carry the power of a personal servant in their wallet or purse. Tim Ferriss, creator of Experiments in Life Design, on the other hand chose to repeatedly use his personal servant to handle some of the most mission critical responsibilities you could imagine…for example:

1)      Punch Bowl Tub of Cheese: Ferriss didn’t make his request for a tub of cheese completely uncompromising, but rather he was flexible in his demands. When the Visa concierge, David, asked Ferris what size cheese container he wanted, Ferriss reasonably responded, “Can, jar, tub, I don’t care. I just want liquid cheese, and a lot of it.”

2)      Crossword Magicians: Why get flustered with a USA Today crossword clue (“Blue Grotto Locale”) when you can simply ring Maurice, your trusty Visa crossword concierge to solve the puzzle? Ferris used this approach and found the method much classier than using a computer or phone to find the answer. The answer to 62 across: ISLE OF CAPRI.

3)      Feeling Blue? No problem, daily affirmations are just a few keypad strokes away from your fingertips. Getting told he was “good enough” by Jamie the concierge was a little ambitious, but Ferriss was satisfied by receiving a third party affirmation service along with a gratuitous note from Jamie letting him know what a good person he was.

4)      Going Galactic: Now that he was getting warmed up, Ferriss had loftier goals (no pun intended). Specifically he requested the concierge to “book a trip to space.” Ferriss was not let down – the Visa Signature concierge came through with a $200,000 price quote from Virgin Galactic.

5)      Looking at Limitations: Overall, the concierge service delivered on its mission of fielding random requests and answering questions. Nonetheless, Visa Signature needed a  little more time to complete a self assessment of the services Visa could NOT perform (e.g., plan a wedding, call a friend, or write an article). Eventually Ferriss received an adequate response and went on to complete his prank-a-thon.

 Believe it or not, some financial institutions provide services to you without charging you an arm and a leg. Maybe the card companies already have enough arms and legs to keep themselves content, but given political pressure on Visa and MasterCard, you better book that space flight and place that cheese tub order ASAP.

Read Full Tim Ferriss Article on Concierge Services  (post was originally published on Credit Card Chaser)

Wade W. Slome, CFA, CFP®

Plan. Invest. Prosper. 

*DISCLOSURE: Sidoxia Capital Management (SCM) and some of its clients own certain exchange traded funds, but at the time of publishing SCM had no direct positions in V, MA, Virgin,  or any other security referenced in this article. No information accessed through the Investing Caffeine (IC) website constitutes investment, financial, legal, tax or other advice nor is to be relied on in making an investment or other decision. Please read disclosure language on IC “Contact” page.

Entry filed under: Banking. Tags: credit cards, debit cards, Experiments in Life Design, fees, MasterCard, nacho cheese, Senate, space, Tim Ferriss, Visa.