PayPal will be expanding its payments trial from five Home Depot locations to 51:

American Banker reports:

“PayPal, of San Jose, Calif., said this month that it is testing this system at five Home Depot stores. This week, it will expand the trial to 51 Home Depot stores: one in Atlanta, six in Omaha and 44 in the San Francisco bay area.”

PayPal hopes that by March, the technology will be available in all Home Depot stores across the U.S. 

As PaymentsViews noted yesterday, this is not a mobile payments technology (as mistaken by some). Because the transaction requires a phone number combined with a PIN, the customer never uses a mobile device.

To read a personal account of how the technology works in action, check out what Russ Jones, PaymentsViews writer, has to say about the experience.

Fresh after PayPal revealed its point of sale pilot with Home Depot stores, TechCrunch reports that PayPal has partnered with ABJ Software, an international company that specializes in transaction authorization, PIN and point of sale communication, and many other solutions.

TechCrunch reports:

“AJB will build a native PayPal interface within its integrated payment solutions platform. The interface can then be made available to AJB’s retail customer base…. Similar to the Home Depot integration, PayPal members will have the option of paying for merchandise by swiping a PayPal Access Card or by entering the mobile telephone number and password associated with their accounts.”

This partnership will help PayPal’s technology reach 250,000 point of sale terminals in ABJ’s 140-plus retailer base.

To learn more about PayPal, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo and come to FinovateEurope 2012 in London next month to see its live demo.