Pay Pal Online Review

A few years ago, when I began bidding on Ebay it was customary for me to just mail in a personal check or money order to the seller.  Of course, sending in a payment by postal mail meant extra time spent for the seller to receive it; then more time waiting for the payment to clear, and a further delay for the item to finally to ship. It's easy to see why PayPal is preferable to mailing in a payment; it lets you get your products faster by decreasing the time it takes to process a payment.

PayPal allows you to pay with a confirmed checking account or major credit card to anyone who has a valid email address.  You can pay safely without revealing your credit card or bank numbers to online merchants with whom you may be unfamiliar.  What I appreciate most about PayPal is that I can use it as my major payment source for most of my online purchases.  Since I don't have to keep inputting my credit card data in multiple online stores, I feel that my financial data is better protected. Once I get to the checkout page and indicate that I am paying by PayPal, I am then redirected to the PayPal website.  I confirm my information and submit my payment.  The merchant gets paid but he never has access to my credit card information.  

In addition to Ebay, PayPal is now a checkout option at other major online retailers including; Avon, ToysRUs, BarnesandNoble, Walgreens, Dell, Buy.com, iTunes, and many more.  There are also thousands of smaller online business that allow you to pay for your purchases via PayPal.

Overall, I find PayPal to be a safer, easier way to pay for purchases on the web.  I hope that even more major retailers sign on so that this option becomes as commonplace as MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover.