How to Use PayPal Like a MasterCard

Paying for purchases online has gotten much safer over the years, but it's still a hassle. Digging out your credit card, typing in the number, finding your credit card's CVV code, entering your name, address, phone over and over. PayPal has come up with a new way to make the whole thing really simple. And you can use it at any sites that accept credit cards, ***even if they don't accept PayPal payments***! How's that for a good trick? Here's how to do it.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• You'll need a free account with PayPal in order to activate the Plug-In

1. Check out PayPal's new Plug-In, which is a small button added to your brower's toolbar (see Resource links, below).
2. The PayPal plug-in let's you pay for online purchases at any site that accepts credit cards, even if the site does not ordinarily accept PayPal payments.
3. In essence, you can use PayPal as a sort of temporary MasterCard. The PayPal Plug-In will generate a one-time-use account number, and will automatically enter it where you would usually type in your credit card number. This one-time use, known as a "Secure Card", greatly increases online security, as once the transaction is complete, the number is retired, and is no longer valid. It's a way to shop with added peace of mind.
4. PayPal will draw the funds directly from your PayPal account **OR** act as a debit card, and draw funds electronically from your checking account.
5. And as a very handy bonus, the PayPal Plug-In also does your typing for you (but only if you want it to), by auto-filling in fields like your name, address, phone, and so on.
6. This strikes me as about the easiest way possible to shop online. Visit the PayPal Plug-In page for more information (see Resource links, directly below).

Tips & Warnings

• You can streamline the process even more by allowing a site to "remember" your account number, making the one-time number reusable only at that one site.
• The PayPal Plug-In also has a built-in fraud detector to alert you to suspicious-looking sites.