From time to time there’s a news report about a horrible traffic jam due to an accident that includes two or three vehicles. Aside from the overarching human concerns of the situation, think for a minute about how credit card processing gets involved in such a situation.
Suddenly someone needs a tow truck to take his vehicle away, and since he has no auto club plan, he needs to pay for it. The tow truck driver, fortunately, has a wireless credit card terminal that will process a transaction in 4-6 minutes.
Someone else has been tied up in traffic so long that now he has to stay in a motel for the night. The motel doesn’t take checks and the customer wasn’t planning this so he doesn’t have cash. Emergencies call for emergency funds, and that means credit cards.
