How do I set a default payment card?

The default payment card in Valid Email Checker is the one VEC reaches for first on subscription renewals, auto-refill top-ups, and PAYG checkout pre-selection. You always have the option to override on a per-charge basis, but setting a sensible default saves you a click on every transaction. Changing the default is a one-click action.

How to set the default

1. Open Account Settings → Billing & Payments.
2. Switch to the Payment Methods sub-tab.
3. Find the card you want as default in your saved-cards list.
4. Click the star icon (or Set as Default checkbox/button) on that card row.
5. The card is marked default. Any previously-default card is implicitly demoted; only one card can be default at a time.

What the default actually controls

• Subscription renewals — the renewal cron tries the default card first. If it fails and you have other cards, those are not tried automatically (single-attempt design).
• Auto-refill top-ups — auto-refill always uses the default card. If you change the default while auto-refill is running, the next top-up uses the new default.
• PAYG checkout pre-selection — the default card is pre-selected when you open the buy-credits page. You can change it per-purchase.
• Invoice payment pre-selection — when you open a pending invoice, the default card is the suggested method.

What happens to the old default

Nothing dramatic. It stays in your saved-cards list and remains usable for one-off charges. It just loses the "default" badge. Auto-refill stops drawing against it. No emails are sent. No re-authorisation is needed. If you want to remove the old card entirely, follow removing a saved card.

Special cases

• Paddle accounts. The anchor card is implicitly the default — there is no separate default flag because Paddle binds one card per subscription. To change it, use the customer portal which reissues the anchor.
• Only one card saved. It is default by definition. The button is grey or hidden.
• No card saved. No default until you add one.
• Crypto-preference accounts. Setting a card default does not flip your renewal-payment-method preference. To change that explicitly, see how to change the card used only on the next renewal.