Paypal will launch a new virtual credit card payment product Tuesday.
The new service “PayPal Secure Card” generates a one use unique Mastercard number that Paypal users can utilize to make payments on sites that don’t take Paypal. According to Reuters, the software package with PayPal Secure Card automatically recognizes an e-commerce checkout page and fills out the payment information for the user.
The move is said to be in response to Google’s Checkout service (launched June 06) that also stores financial details for secure online payments.
It’s a great idea; not only does this open up Paypal accounts to shopping on sites that don’t take Paypal, it also provides credit card access to folks who don’t have a credit card (or similar credit style debit card), either by choice or because they are unable to obtain one. On the security front it also provides an alternative to using your actual credit card online, a secure way of using your credit card (if linked to your Paypal account) without the risk of your real details being disclosed.