How to reverse M-Pesa sent to wrong number or paybill.

Youcan now easily and efficiently reverse Mpesa sent to a wrong number thanks to Safaricom's Mpesa reversal service.

M-Pesa is Africa's largest mobile money transfer service, started in Kenya in 2007 by Vodafone in partnership with Safaricom. It is already available in a number of countries across Africa and outside Africa.

The service allows it's users send and receive money from other M-Pesa users, send and withdraw money from partner banks as well as pay for goods and services using the Lipa Na M-Pesa platform.
With about 1,200 M-Pesa transactions carried out per second, there's a chance that some of those transactions could land in the wrong places, a challenge that M-Pesa knee from the start that it had to find a way to overcome it.

How to reverse a wrong M-Pesa transaction.

To ensure that the chances of sending money to a wrong number are minimal, Mpesa has a two way verification process.
Once you enter the M-pesa pin, you get a window to confirm the number and amount you've entered before pressing OK. Then follows 'Hakikisha' which gives you the name of the person you're about to send funds to. In case you realize that's not the intended recipient of the money, you have 25 seconds to cancel the transaction.
Yet still some people realize they have sent money to a wrong Mpesa number when funds have already been transferred.
Earlier there was nothing much you could do in this case except call the recipient and if kind enough they could resend the money.
But since October 2017, there has been an automatic process to refund the money from your end by use of SMS.

How do i reverse M-pesa send to wrong number? 

In case you realize that you have mistakenly send money to a wrong number, you can start the reversal process by following these steps:

• Go to the M-pesa confirmation SMS of the wrong transaction.
• Copy the entire text.
• Send it to 456, the official safaricom's reversal number. This is free of charge.
• You will receive a text from REFUND about the details of your reversal request.

Also read: Faiba 4G Compatible devices.

How to reverse Mpesa sent to a wrong Till number.

Lipa na M-pesa is a great business transaction initiative by M-pesa that allows customers buy goods and services directly from M-pesa while giving merchants a safe secure platform to receive payments for goods sold and services rendered.
When you make a wrong transaction on lipa na Mpesa, you cannot immediately reverse the transaction as in the case when you send money to a wrong number.
To reverse money send to wrong paybill number:

• Ensure you retain the M-pesa confirmation SMS for the wrong transaction.
• Call Safaricom customer care and explain your situation
• They will first have to confirm if your claim is genuine.
• Once confirmed they will give you the number of the merchant who owns the till number you mistakenly send money to.
• Call them and once confirmed you will get your money within two business days.

M-pesa reversal has greatly reduced instances of wrong M-pesa transactions, but it's success depends on the actions of the recipient. In case you need further assistance kindly check out this Mpesa reversal trick
In a latest move to improve M-pesa transactions and further avoid wrong transactions, Safaricom have updated their app to include in-app M-pesa pin authentication which allows complete transactions within the app.

How long does it take to effect an M-pesa reversal?

Safaricom promises that once a reversal request has been made, it will take it's customer care team a period of around 2 hours to contact the wrong recipient and effect the reversal.

This duration however,according to my experience can vary depending on various factors the main being the actions of the wrong recipient.

Once the reversal request is received by Safaricom customer care, the erroneous recipient will be called and informed of the wrong transaction, and if there is no conflict, the reversal will be effected.

You can alternatively call customer care,but the introduction of the SMS reversal was to avoid numerous customer care calls as a result of wrong Mpesa transactions,since you can do the reversal automatically from your end.

Please note:

• You should send the text as soon as possible to effect the reversal before the wrong recipient withdraws the money or sends it to another account.
• An Mpesa reversal request can only be effected within 24 hours from the time of the transaction.
• In case someone sends you money and calls requesting you to reverse the money, never do that, instead tell them to call Safaricom to effect the reversal from their end. If they were conmen, you will resend the money and then they also do a reversal, meaning at the end you will have given them your money.
• If you are a business person, never accept payments directly to your M-pesa number, since the customer can later request for an M-pesa reversal and hence you will loose your money. Instead apply for a Lipa na Mpesa till number.

While the M-Pesa SMS reversal is a good initiative, from my own experience it could not be that reliable, and we all know that getting through to customer care can sometimes proof hectic. 

If you are here because you are feeling the same kind of helplessness after doing a wrong transaction as I found myself in some days ago, then this could the only way to get your Money back.

Kindly share your experience with the service below.