Paypal Partners With Discover to Begin Processing Paypal Transactions in 2013

Paypal, an online payment platform owned by eBay

, announced a new partnership with Discover

to begin processing Paypal transactions in 2013. In January of this year, Paypal began testing its new payment method in Home Depot

stores. When making purchases, customers could enter their mobile phone number and PIN to pay for their goods as a new option besides credit and debit cards or cash. On a call this morning, Paypal VP Don Kingsborough said the service is projected to start in the second quarter of 2013. Paypal plans to begin its roll out with a Paypal branded card, and move towards a digital wallet. Kingsborough went on to say that the digital wallet will allow retailers to offer incentives to users, and will incorporate Paypal's "bill me later" feature. This move into the digital wallet segment comes with little surprise after Target

, Walmart

, and 7-Eleven announced their partnership to create a digital wallet offering earlier this month. Paypal will become the second major competitor to Google

wallet, and with its already massive user base, should provide formidable competition. eBay has been on a heater this year, rising consistently month over month for a cumulative growth of just over 60% in share price. This move could very well help continue that growth. Ebay traded up 3.6% Wednesday morning to near $47.53