Minnesota, USA -October 14, 2011 - Do not get too excited about the prospect of walking into a store and being able to purchase anything with a 'PayPal card' or simply your phone number and PIN number; it is not reality, but a vision that EBay and PayPal are determined to make reality. PayPal makes online purchasing so easy that it could completely transform the in-store shopping as well. It is not like the Google phone payments, which is operating right now. For those of us who occasionally forget our phones, we could not rely on Google payments. Plus, the thought of carrying nothing at all is the most appealing part.

PayPal and EBay hope to offer services to consumers by 2012; the end of the year is just a few months away and it is possible that we could have a different 'holiday shopping' experience if these visions quickly become reality. In the meantime, demonstrations were offered this week at an Innovations Show in San Francisco; there, people were able to see the actual PayPal card -what the company likes to call a 'token' since it holds so much information about account.

Interestingly, reports announce that customers could use any PayPal card and modify it to another account within 2 weeks of the purchase date; basically, customers have control of their payments and there will no longer be the issue of using the wrong card on a purchase. After all, it can be modified; people will not need to cancel a transaction, but continue with the process and change it later. That is quick and easy; there is no need to have a headache over what account has enough funds.

PayPal could also connect to customers' cell phones and send text messages periodically containing deals to help customers save money. Although a phone would not be needed to make purchases, it is beneficial to enter cell phone information to get access to money saving deals. When customers choose to accept deals, they can simply walk into the stores and walk out with their purchases -with the exception of stopping at customer service, of course. With this option, the customers would not need any payment information; a phone number would suffice.

The PayPal card -or token - would be extraordinarily different from any of your credit and debit cards; in fact, the card would not contain your name at all; you do not need your name when you make purchases online, so PayPal does not want you to be required to have ID either. Best of all, PayPal will still offer the same insurance on in-store purchases as it does on online purchases. You do not need to fear theft because you have the PIN number to keep you protected as well.

For the essential purchases that are high in price -such as computers, TVs, etc - PayPal would make financing available. There is no other card or account that could have so many capabilities as this.