Home Depot fights ‘abusive’ credit card fees with PayPal system

The Home Depot says its rollout of a PayPal in-store payment system to 1,976 U.S. stores in March has generally been a success, though it notes that the system still accounts for a very small percentage of overall transactions.

The retailer deployed the system in part to avoid what it calls "abusive" bank fees for credit card transactions.

Home Depot customers can use PayPal by simply typing their mobile phone number and a specific PayPal account PIN on an in-store terminal. A receipt for the purchase is sent to the customer's online PayPal account, which is accessible from a mobile phone.

PayPal is offering account holders a card with a magnetic stripe that can be swiped and read the same way credit cards are read. To date, however, more than 90% of customers use the mobile number and PIN to pay, Home Depot said. Read more...