iTMS and PayPal: big deal or big hassle?

By Barb Dybwad

This weekend we reported that the iTunes Music Store is accepting payments via PayPal. Glenn Fleishman of Tidbits weighs in on his
not-so-pleasant experience trying to sign up to purchase music via PayPal:

Here's the critical and confusing part: if you don't click Return to Merchant, the process isn't completed. Clicking
that button redirects to an insecure page (a no-no which Firefox warns me about), and then tries to load an iTunes
URL, which Firefox also warned me about (malicious potential there). Agreeing to launch that URL brings up iTunes and
shows that PayPal is available.

But I hit another snag. After clicking Done, I clicked Edit Credit Card again. Now iTunes is telling me that because
my PayPal account isn't linked to an instant payment method like a credit card that I'm out of luck? I'm not sure. I
have a reasonable balance in my PayPal account, but I know that certain merchants use PayPal essentially like a
credit card intermediary while others use whatever credit or cash you have in your account.

Anyone else frustrated with getting the iTMS and PayPal to play nice? Anyone already empty out their PayPal account on new tunes?

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