Paypal have briefed a number of journalists and companies about their latest endeavours to join the ranks of the Credit Card Elite (reports Tricia Duryee on All Things D). The 150 companies received demonstrations on the Paypal issued card, affiliated directly to Paypal and not an existing merchant, and the payment process using a phone number and PIN security code.

What is interesting is the extra technology required to make this solution work. Or the lack of it. All of this is built into the existing systems used by the likes of Home Depot, Walmart and other major chains as well as smaller retailers.

Much of the back-end running the system has been put together through acquisitions by Paypal over the last year. Companies like Zong for the phone number payment system and BillMeLater for temporary credit to customers, all picked up by Ebay in a drive to stay agile and innovative. We talked about Ebay needing to “stay hungry” previously on Mobile Money Transactions, so it’s good to see this action, even if we’re still waiting on real world demonstrations.

After all, it’s far easier to sell a “card” you swipe to the pubic than a specialist phone with NFC technology that pretends to be a credit card. But on that note, the more people that become aware of the digital ability to pay, the more that all the choices, not just Paypal’s, will be visible, and the more systems will become successful and take off. Including Paypal.