In America fans of the Atlanta Hawks have been testing specially adapted Nokia handsets linked to their Visa CARDS to enter their local stadium and to buy refreshments.
The economies of the areas that were hit still remain fragile and are likely to take a lot longer to recover, according to fresh data from credit card firm Visa International.
MasterCard and Visa charge hundreds of different rates - called interchange fees - for every type of card that runs through their networks; mileage CARDS tend to charge higher fees, for example.