[img src="http://www.e-handcraft.com/images/paypal.gif" caption="" credit="" alt=""]PayPal has announced that it is set "officially launch" Tuesday yet another way for its customers to make payments on web sites that do not accept PayPal. The downloadable software utility is called PayPal Secure Card. It is designed to automatically detect when you're on an eCommerce checkout page, and then fill out the payment form for you.
I've actually had the software installed for going on a year now, and honestly thought it was already publicly available. As it turns out, I'm part of some pre-beta club that got an early peek. As someone who uses it regularly, I can give you a bit better run down on how it actually works.
You install and set up the software, and on your taskbar, you have a little PayPal icon. When you want to generate a random credit card number, you double click on it. A little "virtual credit card" pops up on your screen, complete with randomly generated MasterCard numbers, expiration date, and CVV. All payments made with the information are directly and immediately made from your existing PayPal account
The form fill seems to work decently in Internet Explorer, but if you're a Firefox user, don't expect it to fill out any forms. It has a Firefox plug-in that seems to do little more than really slow down the browsing experience (and I recommend removing the plug-in as soon as you install the application). It is, however, handy to have, especially for folks like me with a debit card so well worn that the CVV numbers are no longer visible.
I'd post some screenshots of the application for you to take a gander at, but all the interesting stuff you'd see would give you access to make payments from my account. Instead, just log into your PayPal account on Tuesday and download it. Quite a nifty utility, worth a try for heavy PayPal account users.