Sorry, confused by your answer. You're still going through Paypal no matter what, right? I seem to recall Paypal has a thing now where you somehow “register” your credit card with them and they manage it - is that what you mean?
I'm not sure if this is what cmifx has but I have a paypal merchant account. It works great so smaller projects that I work on can pay me by credit card. It's my understanding that it works just like a credit-card-thing at any store etc. No you don't have to have paypal setup if that's what it is.