The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has revealed that transactions through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) crossed 10 billion in August 2023. While it is a huge achievement, there could be issues senior citizens might be facing while making UPI transactions due to their advanced age. For instance, what if they accidentally send money to a wrong person?

Since its launch in April 2016, UPI’s popularity has grown rapidly in India, with banks, financial institutions, fintech companies offering UPI-enabled apps on the Google Play store, etc. The rapid expansion of the smartphone market has also increased the UPI penetration. 

While UPI has brought convenience by allowing access to different bank accounts with a UPI ID, senior citizens who are not tech-savvy may still need help to operate. They may make a mistake while typing the UPI ID (of the receiver) or the contact number linked with the UPI ID.

So, here is what they can do if they send money to the wrong account.

Inform The UPI Service Provider: If you transferred the money to the wrong account, inform your UPI service provider (BHIM, G-Pay, PhonePe, etc.). You may contact their customer care and ask for a refund. The refund may take less time if the payee’s account is in the same bank as the payer. It may take more time if the accounts are in different banks.

Contact The PSP Bank And End User’s Bank: If the issue is unresolved, you may approach the payment service provider (PSP) bank and the bank where the payer has an account. If you are still unsatisfied, you can lodge a complaint with NPCI.

File Complaint On The NPCI Portal:  Here is how you can lodge your complaint on NPCI. 

• Log in to npci.org.in
• Select the option from the top ‘What do we do – UPI’
• Select ‘Dispute Redressal Mechanism’ and select the form for complaints and feedback.
• Select ‘Transaction’ in the complaint form, and fill in your details, such as the nature of the transaction, issue, transaction ID, bank name, amount, transaction date, email ID, and mobile number.
• Note that the ‘Issue’ tab has various options to choose. You need to select the ‘incorrectly transferred to another account’ option. You may add comments if you want to about your complaint and upload the bank account statement showing the transaction.
• Click the submit button, and the complaint should be resolved.

Banking Ombudsman Of RBI: 

Once all the options mentioned above are exhausted, you may approach the ‘Banking Ombudsman/ or the Ombudsman for Digital Complaints within 30 days of making the complaint. You can send a written complaint to the Ombudsman by post or online through the RBI’s complaint (Grievance Redressal) portal.  

Note that before filing the complaint with the Ombudsman, you must file the same with the relevant regulated entity, such as banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFC), etc.

As per the NPCI website, the UPI security system has a ‘Single Click 2 Factor Authentication, aligned with the regulatory guidelines.