 Use of Purchasing cards has seen a dramatic rise in recent years with many government organizations now using them to remove “red tape” and reduce costs.For example, In 2001 the Department of Defense (DOD) had 230,000 card holders with an annual spend of $6.1 Billion.Organizations typically use purchasing cards to target low value goods and services, as it offers a mechanism to do these transactions at a significantly lower cost than traditional methods.