PayPal's problems persist for fifth day

Despite repair efforts, intermittent service outages at the online payment service PayPal continued on Tuesday for the fifth consecutive day, affecting payments, log-ins and account creations.

The technical glitch plaguing the eBay Inc-owned company has affected an untold number of users, making it hard for some online sellers to complete deals, according to the eBay Web site.

Since some people are able to log in while others are not, eBay spokeswoman Amanda Pires said the total number of affected users remains unclear.

PayPal is a common method of payment on eBay and is gaining in popularity among customers of other online retailers as well as in money transactions between individuals in the off-line world.

Users began experiencing some glitches on Friday following a software upgrade to the PayPal system, eBay officials said. Ebay has posted numerous apologies to users on its Web site and reassured them that their account data and personal information have not been compromised.