Instant Payment vs Notification of Payment Received

[blueberryjellyfish]

I receive two types of payment received e-mails from PayPal.

One subject line says "Notification of payment received" and when opened says "you've got cash".

One subject line says "Item #xxxx Instant Payment received from username".

Am I correct in assuming that the former is a cash transfer from someone's PayPal balance and the latter is a credit card payment processed through PayPal?

[a_c_green]

I don't think there's any way to tell, really. I've seen other theories floated about this inconsistency in payment wording, such as that one version comes from a direct purchase and another comes from the buyer making payment on a shopping cart (which may contain items from more than one seller). 

I haven't seen any functional difference between the different notifications, as either indicates that payment has been received. (If in doubt, certainly log into your PayPal account for a closer look-see.)

[blueberryjellyfish · Accepted solution]

Thanks. I ended up calling PayPal to see if they could provide an answer.

They said that "Notification of Payment Received" means the buyer used either cash transfer from PayPal balance or a credit/debit card.

They said that "Item #xxx Instant Payment Received" means the buyer is using a bank account to fund their purchase.

I wanted more information because sellers sometimes worry about Credit Card chargebacks. The above info can provide a little more insight if that is a possibility for a specific transaction as long as PayPal was the payment processor.