Can't Change Preferred (Default) Credit Card Anymore

Rick216
Contributor
Contributor

I currently use ONLY credit cards on PayPal, no debit cards or bank account.  There are 4 credit cards in my account.  I'll call them CC1, CC2, CC3 and CC4.

 

For a couple years I have had CC2 set as my Preferred (default) payment account.  So when I go to checkout on a website, that is the one that shows up.  (Of course I can change to a different card at checkout, but the change applies to that one transaction only.) 

 

I now want to change to CC4 as the default.  Making this kind of change used to be easy on the old PayPal site.  And it *looks* like it should be easy on the new site, but it simply doesn't work -- at least not for me.  I went to My Account / Settings / Edit Payment Preferences, and under "choose how you prefer to pay in stores" I clicked on CC4.  This highlights it and puts a check mark next to it.

 

Seems simple, but again, it doesn't accomplish anything.  CC2 still always shows up instead when I go to checkout, and I have to manually change it to CC4 each time (if I remember to).  I have tried repeatedly to fix this, to no avail.  A CSR spent awhile with me on the phone and finally declared she had fixed it by deleting and re-adding cards.  But nope, it still always comes up with CC2 as the default at checkout.  I have tried things like deleting and re-adding cards myself, but the only way I can get it to actually use CC4 as the checkout default is by deleting all the other cards. And as long as CC2 is still on the list, that's the one that always shows up.  But again, this is only at checkout.  My *settings* still denote CC4 as the preferred card, i.e. with the highlighting and checkmark.

 

This has got to be some kind of weird bug on my account, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone has a brainstorm.  I doubt this could have anything to do with it, but CC1, CC2 and CC3 are all Visas, while CC4 is the only Mastercard.

 

Thanks.

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22 REPLIES 22

spooky
Contributor
Contributor

Amen, brother!  I've enjoyed the convenience and security of PayPal...but I've told them, if they can't resolve this problem, I'll be cancelling my PayPal account.  If their programming team is so incompetent it can't fix this, I'm reluctant...no, I'm LOATH...to trust them with money.

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BluesMessiah
New Community Member

Well at least it's not just me.  I am trying to close a bank account so have very little in there right now.  Tried to remove it from Paypal but was not able to, so tried to set default to the other account (that I have had on file and used over the past year), and no way to do that.  So I have to keep remembering to switch over whenever I make a payment until the bank closes it, or get NSF charges.

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shikoa7med
New Community Member

hi i think i have found the solution this worked for me

here are the steps :

1) head to settings

2) go to payments tap

3)click on preapproved payments

4)you will find Set Available Funding Sources on the top right of a table click on it

5)Choose which funding sources should be used for authorized/recurring payments to merchants, and click Save.

Deselect any funding sources that you do not want used

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Gement
New Community Member

Thank you, shikoa7med. I have been searching for that link (and therefore the solution) for months, and there are many threads asking about the same problem.

 

Paypal admins: Please make this link to "Set Available Funding Sources" visible *somewhere* in the Wallet, along with a button to define the backup credit card for a bank account. Someone has confused "simplified" with "lacks basic controls" and we're left finding back-door links to prior functionality from other users.

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RuthaLu
New Community Member

So I just had this same problem!! I was on StubHub a few minutes ago and bought concert tickets with my PayPal account. Problem was, it didn't give me the option to sign in and choose my payment method. I don't have a bank account linked either - just three credit/debit cards. In my account settings, I chose my main debit card to be the default payment method "in-store". Silly me, I thought it would cover online payments as well! (I have never used nor heard of this "in store" payment before).

 

When I noticed that the wrong debit card was charged, I found your topic....What's even better, I *think* I figured out how to fix it!.........Sort of.

 

Under my account, I selected "Activity" and clicked on the StubHub transaction. Underneath the "shipping" part, there was an option to "manage StubHub payments". Wayyyy at the bottom, under the details of the transaction, there is a "Funding Source" section, with "primary" and "backup" payment options. I had no defaults set for this, and after I picked the correct card I wanted to be charged, a message was displayed stating that I've set my default payment option for future StubHub payments. BUT, I am pretty sure I can't change the payment source for this specific transaction.

 

TL;DR This will not fix all your problems - it seems like you need to have a brand new (active) transaction in order to actually set the default payment option for the future. So the next time Netflix charges me, I can go in and have them charge the card I WANT them to for all payments following that one. You'll have to do this for every company/website that you make routine payments to. Unfortunately, you might be stuck using the same [default] card for each initial transaction per company.

 

I do agree that PayPal needs to fix this!! Hope this helps.

 

- Cheers, Ruth

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Amanda312
Contributor
Contributor
I just got off the phone with a PayPal rep about a recent purchase I made on a merchants site that accepted PAYPAL but would allow me to select my PAYPAL CREDIT as my payment option. I only have one debit card under my paypal account and both paypal & paypal credit are linked together. The rep said Many merchants now have "Express check out" which automatically selects your "Primary/preferred" payment method if you paypal account has no funds in it. I asked how do I change my preferred payment method to my PAYPAL CREDIT VS MY DEBIT CARD? Select "WALLET" and under PAYPAL CREDIT the option will be there When I log into my account and this horrific NEW INTERFACE there is no WALLET OR SETTINGS TO DO THIS? I am using a mobile device - I don't own a computer - is that why I can't change this? Does anyone have a "WALLET" option when login to your accounts? There was a visual 4-step instruction I found under HELP BUT THE IMAGES OF THE ACCOUNT INTERFACE WERE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT I HAVE, is there a new mobile app or different method to sign in that I don't know about? WAS THIS REP JUST FEEDING BS THAT CANT BE DONE? THIS REALLY IS CRAZY....
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mary1937
New Community Member

I have a debit Card on my Paypal account

 

i cannot confirm it at the moment, Paypal keep on asking me to, and that i should use the 4 digit number they provide, but i can

 

not find the 4 digit number they e-mail me about, i tried all the screens on my account but still cannot find the 4 digit number, this

 

is so frustrating i have purchased things with this Debit Card, so i do not not what to do next !!!!!!!

 

regards

 

Mary Norcott

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Solved

muckraker
New Community Member

I just changed my default credit card and removed two older accounts. Here's how. Click on the Wallet tab and you'll get a list of the bank accounts and credit cards on file. Click on the card you want to use as your default/primary payment method and then click the star to make it your preferred method of payment. To remove a card or account, click on it, then click on remove, then confirm. Of course, I won't know if it sticks until I need to pay for my next transaction, but the removed cards/bank account are no longer on my Wallet list, and the correct credit card is tagged "preferred."

 

Hope that helps.

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Rick216
Contributor
Contributor

I am the OP, and hadn't been aware that this thread has had continuing activity (I *thought* I had elected to be alerted of responses, but apparently not...)

 

Anyway, awhile after I originally posted, PayPal started making it easy to select a preferred payment card, as described in muckraker's post that I just marked as the solution.  Further, they now seem to offer the opportunity to change (or confirm) preferred card upon checkout.

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froggles
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same problem, and on the off-chance that a PayPal employee bothers to read these forums, you're losing my business because of this. Not entirely, I won't pretend I'm quitting over this, and I still use paypal occasionally, but not for ALL my online purchases—which I really would if it was more easy/convenient—but it's not just one-click, so I don't.

 

I've been stung a few times by charging things to the wrong card. Why? Because (a) my default payment source is never what I want it to be, and (b) I cannot nickname my cards. So every time I use paypal, I have to change the different payment source, and when prompted with a list of many cards with similar last-four-digits, sometimes I've made the wrong choice. To make the right choice, I need to go check my actual cards... all in all, it's about a 30 second process with a bunch of clicking and confirming numbers... unnecessary hassle.

 

So instead, I use another solution. A password manager that remembers my credit card details, and lets me name them so it's easy to choose from the list. It takes about 3 seconds to hit the shortcut and select a card from the list. So I pay direct with my card on the vendors payment portal or whatever instead of via paypal. It's much quicker for me.

 

I'd like the added security of paying via paypal, but honestly the hassle factor is so much lower for literally every other website than yours, because my browser/plugin fills it out for me in a second or two, rather than your intentionally hobbled implementation.

 

And yes, it's intentionally hobbled. I'm certain we used to be able to select a default card. And I'm certain there is no technical challenge to implementing this, because years and years of requesting it has resulted in nothing. It's a business decision plain and simple. PayPal are intentionally disabling choosing a default payment source because they think it's more profitable. And sure, a direct debit from my bank account would mean a lower transaction fee, I get it, you want to push me into that by putting it as the default. But because of this, you've genuinely lost about 90% of my transactions. I can only guess at your goals here, but I would think the overall business case would be much better if you had more transactions, even if you earned less per transaction.

 

I'm telling you (PayPal) because I would actually happily use your system if it was actually convenient to pay for something with the payment source I want to use. If/when you decide to let me set a default card and name my cards so I can select the right one from the list, you'll see a lot more of my transactions.

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