PayPal has launched a new application that allows people to use it to pay for any online purchase, even if the site doesn’t normally accept the service as a payment method.
The company, which is owned by online auction site eBay, released its PayPal Secure Card on Tuesday.
PayPal is marketing the device, which is free to use, to online shoppers who want to use PayPal on any Web site.
The program interfaces with Web sites and creates a “virtual” MasterCard specifically for the person’s transactions, according to Chris George, senior director and general manager of PayPal’s financial products.
“That way you don’t have to share your financial data when you pay someone online,” George said.
The application comes during a year when perpetrators of online financial fraud will divert around $3.6 billion from merchants, according to a survey from Mountain View, Calif.-based CyberSource.
PayPal had approximately 3 million of its members test the PayPal Secure Card over the past few months before releasing it, George said.
The program has a number of features, such as saving receipts for each purchase and automatically filling in some online forms, George said. The program is not yet available on Macintosh computers.
“This comes just in time for the holidays, so it’s very strategic timing for PayPal,” said Thomas Harpointner, CEO of AIS Media.
The two largest benefactors from the move are small businesses that are unequipped to accept PayPal and shoppers who cannot get a credit card but can tie the feature to their bank accounts, Harpointner said.
“The big benefit will come on the merchant side because the merchant doesn’t really have to change anything,” Harpointner said.
