Issue solved. The problem is not particularly obvious.
I could not pay with a PayPal account in registered in the same country as the business paypal account for the Moodle site; it only accepts "international" transactions (local regulations...) so I was using a the non-PayPal credit/debit option.
In using this option, I also was using my personal email address for the receipt. This email addresss, however, is registered to a PayPal account (which I cannot use) so it declines the transaction. I presume this might also happen if the same card is registered to one but I haven't tested that.
The error from PayPal "let's try another card" does not explain at all that this is decline is imposed by PayPal for the reason noted above. I came across this advice on a random site from Google Searches that suggested this could be a reason (among many others) and 100% it was the reason. I am relieved to a small degree that I am able to read directions and set up PayPal correctly. The documentation in Moodle regarding PayPal though could use a bit more development.
I know that things change, making the current directions a bit dated in terms of their descriptions of where things are in PayPal (not to mention PayPal's portal and functioning is less than ideal). For example, the IPN and UTF encoding is deeply hidden and buried in various settings that took some searching for. It's just something that Moodlers need to be aware of as the documentation (including PayPal's) is lacking.
I could not pay with a PayPal account in registered in the same country as the business paypal account for the Moodle site; it only accepts "international" transactions (local regulations...) so I was using a the non-PayPal credit/debit option.
In using this option, I also was using my personal email address for the receipt. This email addresss, however, is registered to a PayPal account (which I cannot use) so it declines the transaction. I presume this might also happen if the same card is registered to one but I haven't tested that.
The error from PayPal "let's try another card" does not explain at all that this is decline is imposed by PayPal for the reason noted above. I came across this advice on a random site from Google Searches that suggested this could be a reason (among many others) and 100% it was the reason. I am relieved to a small degree that I am able to read directions and set up PayPal correctly. The documentation in Moodle regarding PayPal though could use a bit more development.
I know that things change, making the current directions a bit dated in terms of their descriptions of where things are in PayPal (not to mention PayPal's portal and functioning is less than ideal). For example, the IPN and UTF encoding is deeply hidden and buried in various settings that took some searching for. It's just something that Moodlers need to be aware of as the documentation (including PayPal's) is lacking.