Which card is charged when having multiple cards in the account?

[gkatsis02]

Hello,

I have recently added a debit card on my profile. So, I now have a two cards: a credit card (the "old" one) and a debit card (the "new" one).

At the time I added the new card, I explicitly marked me "old" card as the preferred payment method. Having set an automatic payment (i.e. subscription) several months ago, I figured out that the last payment was charged to my "new" card. Does anyone have an idea what this has happened? If I am not mistaken, PayPal first checks the account's balance and if there is no enough funds, it will try to charge the bank account and then the card. Given that I haven't linked any bank account to my profile yet, the card is the next option to check.

But in the case where there are multiple cards linked to the profile, is there any sort of prioritisation?

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@gkatsis02 

Adding new card should not affect active automatic payment payments in your profile. Those backup fund sources should already be in place so not sure why it was changed, unless the set backup was unavailable for use for some reason at the time the autopay took place.

Keep in mind that setting your preferred method on the wallet page does not affect your automatic payments/billing agreements funding sources settings, which are set during initial registration and can be reviewed and adjusted only on the Manage automatic payment page separately.

“If you have not set a preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement, or if your preferred payment method for an automatic payment agreement is unavailable (for example, because it is expired or has insufficient funds) the payment method used will be in the following order, if applicable:

1. Cash Account (if one is linked to your personal PayPal account) or balance in your business PayPal account (if we've been able to verify the required identifying information you provide to us);

2. Bank account;

3. PayPal co-branded debit card;

4. PayPal co-branded credit card;

5. Debit card;

6. Credit card; and

7. E-check.

This is also the order of payment methods that will be used if a previously selected payment method to be used in a seller agreement is unavailable.”