Choosing preferred method of payment in different currency ($CAD, $USD, bank vs credit card)

[chantl01]

I have a Canadian paypal account. My preferred method of payment is a credit card, which has worked perfectly for all transactions to date. I prefer to use the credit card for extra protection, and because it is a cash back card so I get that cash back benefit. This particular credit card does not charge foreign exchange fees, so I use it for transactions in both $CAD and $USD. However, I recently linked a cross-border $USD bank account to my Canadian paypal account, as I plan to bill some clients in $USD and this would be a convenient way to receive and transfer the funds in the billing currency. Unexpectedly, when I then conducted a payment transaction in $USD, paypal automatically chose to pay it from my cross-border $USD account instead of my credit card set as my preferred payment method. Is there anyway to force paypal to use my preferred payment method, even if the transaction is in a different currency? 

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@chantl01 

Even with a USD currency bank account linked, PayPal will not permit Canadian users to withdraw in USD and converts the USD to CAD automatically on the withdrawal (see user agreement). If you insist, there will be double conversion: USD to CAD by PayPal and back to USD by your USD bank account.

Make sure the payment method you want is selected at checkout or go to Settings > Payments > Online Purchases > Change

Or remove the USD bank account since your plan on withdrawing in USD is not going to work anyway.