In the past, people bartered for household objects that they needed in order to survive. In other words, they traded objects and items for other objects and items that they needed. Later during the course of human history, people started to use cash money to pay for everything that they needed. During this period of human history, merchants preferred gold and silver coins to paper money. They did not trust the government which promised to reimburse the people who held the paper monies with gold and silver coins; they believed that the government would not reimburse the coins. They also worried that the government would collapse, rendering the paper certificates as worthless pieces of paper. The merchants preferred gold and silver because they planned to melt them down into solid gold and silver if the government collapsed.
Today, however, electronic money has largely replaced paper and gold money. Very few individuals carry paper money anymore. Most carry debit cards and credit cards which automatically deduct money from the individual’s bank account or add a charge to his credit that must be repaid within a certain time span.
Over the course of the last fifty years, credit cards have become a big business. Hundreds (if not thousands) of online credit card processing companies, online merchant services, and pci compliance companies have sprouted up which are accepting credit card payments and processing credit cards for their customers. Many of these companies are processing credit cards for private individuals. (Many of these individuals who work with companies that are processing credit cards hold anywhere between four and eight credit cards.)
However, these companies that are processing credit cards do not restrict themselves to private individuals. Many of these credit card companies are processing credit cards for businesses which need company credit cards to pay for business trips and other expenses. Most of these companies are large multinational companies, but some are smaller pop and mom shops which need credit cards to finance large renovations to their shops.