Wrong payment source used - prefered card is not used

[Elliehime]

I have two cards defined on my account.

American express- default card- prefered card- it is valid, no issue with limits, use it almost daily.

Mastercard - was there as a back up, forget even it is still there since I dont use it at all.

I have made two purchases in USA dollars, told the vendor charge it to my PayPal account, and I fully expected it to be charged to my American Express card- which is my default prefered card for my PayPal account.

but I see that charges went to mastercard!!!

it is not just inconvenience but

1) what is the point of having prefered card if PayPal is going to ignore it

2) it actually has costs for me since American express would have given me better exchange rates for this and also point 

I contacted support chat but they simply told me transaction is over. yes that is how I know it went to wrong card, because that card was surprised and send me e-mail. I don't get it, isn't this PayPal's miss? is there really nothing they can do? 

I didn't even get an explanation on why it went to other card (I asked) 

so here I am, frustrated that PayPal does not even offer an explanation. not sure what will this post do, but here it is.

[Elliehime · Accepted solution]

Personally I removed my second card, and left only my preferred card.

whatever that problem was, could be that the other card was somehow not valid for the transaction and passed on to the next thing, I think that could have been checked and explained by PayPal on why/how it happened. But it was not a security related issue in my case as I have transactions and active usage for both long time and also prior to this incident.

Eitherway, I do not have a certain answer. and going forwards I am only going to define one card.