Using the effective center model of QCD we test series expansions for finite chemical potential µ. In particular we study two variants of Taylor expansion as well as the fugacity series. The effective center model has a dual representation where the sign problem is absent and reliable Monte Carlo simulations are possible at arbitrary µ. We use the results from the dual simulation as reference data to assess the Taylor-and fugacity series approaches. We find that for most of parameter space fugacity expansion is the best (but also numerically most expensive) choice for reproducing the dual simulation results, while conventional Taylor expansion is reliable only for very small µ. We also discuss the results of a modified Taylor expansion in e ±µ − 1 which at the same numerical effort clearly outperforms the conventional Taylor series.

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