Home Depot pilots PayPal

Home Depot is testing the PayPal system at its point-of-sale in five stores, according to an article in American Banker.

Customers can use their PayPal accounts to pay for merchandise by either entering their phone numbers and PayPal PIN, or by swiping their PayPal cards.

A spokeswoman for PayPal confirmed the test but would not identify the location of the stores. She said a "small number" of PayPal employees are in the pilot stores to help walk customers through those transactions.

PayPal, a division of eBay, is competing head on with Visa, MasterCard, and other credit card companies by developing a magnetic strip card that account holders can use in bricks-and-mortar stores. Traditionally, PayPal was a system utilized by consumers to complete Internet transactions.