Ah, I see I'm not the only person interested in PayPal's slick new competitor to the Square credit card reader for mobile devices. They're both really cool devices and with a relatively low transaction rate - under 2.5% - both companies are going to shake up the point of sale world, particularly if you do a small number of transactions relatively infrequently. I mean, think about it: you're an artist who sells your work at street faires? Or you work a farmer's market? These are perfect and the $29.95 you charge for a huge basket of organic apples? You'd be keeping over $29 of that after transaction fees. A lot better than renting a card reader!

But my goal here isn't to sell you on Square or PayPal Here, just to show you how to set up your mobile PIN for your account. There are actually two steps, the first of which is adding a mobile number to your account, then, once that's done, you can add a PIN code to allow it to be used on mobile apps and utilities.

Before we proceed, though, I'm curious why you aren't just using your usual email and password information on the PayPal Here app that you'd use on your computer to log in to your account? Should work (unless you have a secondary challenge code set up).

Alright, alright, onto the task!

Log in to your PayPal account, then choose "Add or Edit Phone Number" from "Profile" on the menubar:

Now you'll get a nice, informative screen of information about how to proceed:

You can see that I already have a phone number associated with my account, but the process of adding a new number is the same whether you have one set up or not. Click on "Add" on the lower left.

As you might expect, here you need to actually enter your phone number. If you don't want it used for fraud alerts, uncheck the appropriate box. At the bottom, check "I own this phone account" if either you do actually own the phone or you have permission from the person whose phone it is to use it. Why? So you don't go back to PayPal later and tell them they need to pay for your text message charges. You're on your own for that!

Enter the number, click "Add" and the system will actually send a confirmation code to your specified phone to verify you really do have it handy. You'll see this:

Meanwhile, on your iPhone, you'll see this after a few moments:

You can see the confirmation code. For me, this time, it's 533100. Back to the computer and enter that code in the appropriate box, then click "Confirm phone".

Now you'll get to this page that tells you what you can do with your mobile associated with your PayPal account. Look closely at the bottom line:

That's the link you want. Click on "set or change your PIN" and...

I strongly recommend a long sequence of digits. Think about this: a 3-digit PIN has only 1000 combinations, whereas a 7-digit PIN has over a million possible values. Much more secure.

Enter your PIN code, then click on "Create Mobile PIN" and you're good to go:

That's it. Now take that information and log in your PayPal Here app so you're ready to transaction credit card sales away from your store or office. Slick and simple.