PayPal has a new service for making payments through its system on websites that don’t take PayPal directly.
When you set up a free PayPal account (a login name and password), it’s linked to one of your bank accounts. When you pay through your PayPal account on a web site, PayPal withdraws the money from your bank account and takes responsibility for getting it to the merchant securely. PayPal was purchased by eBay to facilitate auction purchases but it is growing by leaps and bounds for purchases all over the web – tens of thousands of merchants accept PayPal payments.
PayPal’s new service will generate a one-time-only unique MasterCard number whenever you get to a secured checkout page that does not otherwise take PayPal. Software on your computer will make the checkout process take just a couple of extra clicks. The transaction appears to the merchant as a normal MasterCard payment. Here’s an article about the new service.
The PayPal system is safe and secure, and this new payment system has reportedly been extensively tested over the last year. There’s obvious appeal in being able to shop online without spreading your credit card number around. This is worth looking into!
