This reminds me of the old Seinfeld episode where Elaine wants the guy to "switch teams" or at least bat both ways.
Let's be clear on something: The idea that credit card companies don't read this site and the blogs is pretty silly, so put that to bed. Rick even mentioned the one company reads his blog daily. It is the companies right to do so and Rick's right to run a business. If you don't want something public, it should not be in a blog or this public forum. Like some say, more PM's and less posts is the way to go. Many of us have our own "mints" we simply don't post about and people like Rick, even though they know, also don't post about. And, zombie links are nowhere near "secret" considering they are often on here and on the blogs. Darius keeps a running list for cripes sake.
The heart of the question is what do the credit card companies really want out of Rick and others? Is it more people to sign up and use their cards which generate more money to Rick? Yes, but only to a degree. They want a long term relationship with the customer, and the bloggers, particularly Rick and Miler, are experts on how to "milk" max value out of a card for minimum spending. What am I getting at? THAT isn't what the company is looking for. I am sure the companies struggle with paying the bloggers, even though they bring in lots of folks, I am sure many of them, like me, aren't very profitable.
So, the companies are bringing them in to pick their brain to figure out how to get that long term relationship. They want those merchant fees, and when I don't do many 1X transactions, it is killing them. If I was working for the bank, I can't think of better folks to ask for advice to achieve that goal and I hope they paid the bloggers for their time in providing it. I think the Sapphire Preferred is a good example of a bank "getting it" as I do plan on keeping that card and do more profitable charges for Chase on that card than many others. They were also clever keeping a big sign on to get me on board. If this is what comes out of meetings with bloggers, I am all for them.
I am pretty new, so I am sure it WAS more fun around here when less folks were doing this, but many of us never even knew about the world without Rick and others. I will always support private business owner trying to make a living and it what makes America great.