Accidentally sent extra money through UPI? Here's what you should do next

Imagine going out for dinner and receiving a bill of ₹2,000. While paying the restaurant through UPI, you accidentally enter an extra zero and transfer ₹20,000 instead. Since UPI payments are processed almost instantly, the transaction goes through before you realise the mistake.

It is only the next morning, while checking your transaction history, that you discover the blunder. What can someone do in such a situation?

Such errors are more common than many people think. A wrong digit, an extra zero or selecting the wrong recipient can lead to an unintended transfer of money. In such cases, recovering the amount may seem difficult but if you act quickly, there are chances of recovering the excess amount.

If an user accidentally transfers more money than intended through UPI, the first step is to contact the recipient and request a refund of the excess amount, said Shams Tabrej, co-founder and CEO of Ezeepay,

He also advised that in such cases, the user must also lodge a complaint through their banking or UPI application. “Retaining all information related to the transactions is crucial in solving any dispute.”

To make the recovering process easier, keeping records such as the transaction ID, screenshots and payment receipts can be crucial for resolving the dispute and supporting any formal grievance redressal process.

For a resolution to be reached, cooperation from both parties, along with the involvement of the respective banks, is often necessary.

While UPI transactions cannot be reversed once successfully processed, the banks involved can facilitate dispute resolution and help users in recovery of the excess amount paid, Tabrej said.

According to the expert, this recovery process could take several days up to weeks, depending on whether the recipient acknowledges the dispute or not. However, if the recipient refuses to address the issue, the user should not lose hope because there's still ways to escalate the matter further.

Legally, the recipient does not have any rightful claim for retaining money that was received solely due to a payment error, Tabrej noted. If the excess amount was transferred by mistake, the recipient is generally expected to return it once the error is brought to their notice.

“However, in situations where they refuse, the sender must approach their bank for redress and also report a dispute through the UPI platform,” he said.

However, once the transaction using UPI has been successful, it can neither be revoked nor cancelled unilaterally by the recipient of the funds.

“In this case, it becomes incumbent upon the sender to seek a refund with the cooperation of the recipient,” the expert noted.

As UPI has become the preferred mode of digital payments for millions of Indians, accidental payment errors are also bound to happen. The scale of usage among consumers clearly shows the trend of rising growth in UPI usage.

UPI transactions touched an all-time high in May, with the total value of transactions surging to ₹29.90 lakh crore and volumes reaching 23.2 billion, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).