When John Garcia, assistant controller of Toyota Motor Insurance Services Inc. (TMIS), pays a local repair shop to replace a bad alternator on one of the cars his company insures, he uses a corporate purchasing card that is good only for that shop, only for the amount his claims people have agreed to pay, and only for a few weeks. No plastic changes hands–Toyota Motor Insurance just gives the shop the amount and a card number it can use to be paid through its merchant bank.

If this sounds like a substitute check, welcome to the wacky world of p-cards, where the market is getting broader by offering narrower applications of the product. Purchasing cards were invented to aggregate purchases, get around costly purchase orders and ultimately replace checks. Now, they're being used instead to mimic checks, settle single transactions and work with purchase orders. Why? Because it's a more fraud-proof way to use p-cards for larger transactions that require more controls, but can earn higher rebates.

PAY IT AGAIN, SAM