SEO, Website Content Optimization
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PayPal, the e-commerce payment service, today launched a secure virtual credit card in partnership with MasterCard.

For each online purchase, the ”PayPal Secure Card” generates a unique, one-use MasterCard credit card number, meaning it can even be used on websites that don’t accept PayPal.

The system works via software that PayPal users first need to download, which once installed places a PayPal icon on their desktop. When they wish to make an online transaction they click the icon to receive a randomly generated credit card number that is linked to their PayPal account.

The software also stores the customer’s shipping and billing details, meaning they don’t need to fill out the same information for each online store they visit.

A key benefit of the service is that witholding your actual credit card or banking details from merchants should provide extra security for online e-commerce transactions. It also provides access to products and services that require credit cards for people who are either unable or unwilling to obtain one.

There is speculation that PayPal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay since 2002, have introduced the service to compete with the Google Checkout service, which also offers a method of storing the financial information of its customers for secure online payments.

In the race to be the online payment platform of choice, PayPal’s Secure Card does has the advantage of a large existing customer base to draw from, a significant proportion of which stem from eBay’s 233 million strong registered users. However, Google Checkout has been available since June 2006 and does not require a software download; adding the flexibility of using a login from any location.

There has not yet been any announcement on what additional incentives (such as points, cashbacks or other rewards) there will be for users of the PayPal Secure Card. The existing PayPal Mastercard offers 1% cashback on purchases and without similar inducements in place PayPal may find it difficult to persuade some to switch.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 12:53 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.