Is there a possibility of getting your money back if you made a UPI payment to the wrong person?

Mobile payments through UPI have become very popular among Indian users in recent years, so much so that some have even stopped carrying wallets or cash to pay for groceries, phone bills or even a regular chai stall. However, there are some hiccups in the technology, most of which are related to human error, and unfortunately, a wrong UPI payment can be difficult to reverse.

This means that if you send money to the wrong number, you will probably never get the money back. The only small chance to cancel the transaction is a positive influence from the recipient or even the bank from which the payment was made.

The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has shared an alarming update on payment cancellation and related challenges in a recent post on X. “We request everyone to be careful while making a payment transaction. Any wrong transaction is irreversible from our side. Kindly check all the details of the beneficiary before proceeding with the transaction. Please contact your bank for further assistance.”

X’s post makes it clear that making a payment via UPI (usually via phone numbers) requires the sender to be 100% sure of the number they are sending the money to, as misusing even one number can result in sending your money to the wrong person.

When this happens, you need to contact the recipient and get them to reverse the payment. There is a good reason for a person to refuse to send money back, and that is because they may feel that there may be a scam for more money, which is quite possible these days.

If the person doesn’t agree, you can contact the bank and see if they can help you get your money back. Such cases have been reported quite often, which explains the need for a different solution to the problem.

It has recently been reported that there may be a 4-hour delay in UPI payments, which may make it easier to reverse erroneous payments, but the feature will only be implemented once it is approved by the relevant authorities.