All financial institutions in Nigeria, including United Bank for Africa (UBA) possess a 30-digits unique identifier called Session ID. This session ID comprises of alphabets and numbers and can be used by any financial bodies to track and trace initiated transactions on the banking system.
Session ID can be found in any financial transactions receipt and bank account statement. You can simply request your account statement from bank and the session ID will be placed at the front of every inward and outward transactions including money transfer, bill payment, mobile top-up and more.
Do you know that numbers or codes requested by your bank whenever your transaction get stucked? That's Session ID. The codes are used to to trace and track hanged or stucked transactions in bank.
For example, if you send money to your Mummy and after 24 hours, the money doesn't reflect on your Mother's Account, then you have to take the Session ID to bank for reversal.
In most cases, Session ID is literally called transaction ID or Transfer ID. In UBA, it's referred to as Transfer ID. While in Kudabank, it's called Transaction ID. The UBA Transfer ID is usually 10 digits numbers while the Kuda Transaction ID is usually ranged from 30 digits (alphabets and numbers) to 36-digits codes.
What is UBA Session ID?
UBA Session ID is a 30-digits identifier codes that's attached to every transactions receipt in your bank account. Unlike other commercial banks in Nigeria, you cannot easily find Session ID in your UBA Account unless you're using UBA E-banking.
Nevertheless, you can get UBA Session ID via your account statement. The ID found on your transaction receipt on UBA is Transfer ID and this transfer ID can only be used within the UBA banking system to trace and track transactions.
That's, if you transaction from UBA to other Banks in Nigeria get stucked, you will need to login to your E-banking account to find the transaction session ID or download your account statement to get the Session ID.
Once you get the session ID, you can then send it your recipient and his/her bank will help with further assistance to get the money into the expected bank account.
Fact about Session ID in Bank
Session ID is attached to every transactions initiated in a bank account. It doesn't mean if the transaction is successful or not. So far the transaction is initiated, a session ID must be generated for the transaction. If a session ID is not created, that mean the action/transaction has not been initiated.
Another fact is that a Session ID can be used by any financial institutions in Nigeria to trace and track a transaction regardless of which institution the session ID is generated. This is why you can take UBA transaction Session ID to First Bank of Nigeria to trace and track your stucked transfer.
It's also important to note that when a stucked transfer is tracked using Session ID, it usually take up to seven days for the money to reflect in your bank account. However, your customer representative will tell you the actual days required to waiting.
Lastly, do note that banks call Session ID many names such as Transfer ID, Transaction ID, and Receipt ID. Depending on what your bank is calling it, you should now know that is also Session ID. Meanwhile, Session ID is different from Reference Number or Referral ID.
Is Session ID the same as Reference Number?
No, session ID is not the same as reference number. The two banking terms are different phenomenas entirely.
While Session ID is a unique identifier codes that's used to identity an initiated transaction within banking system, a Reference Number is a unique identification code of a banker/bank marketer that refer you to the financial institutions.
A reference can be your account manager. It can also be the person that help you to open the account. It can be the bank agent that just wake to your house and introduce the features of the account to you and you're willing to bank with his bank by opening an account.
The Bottom Line
A session ID in bank is also known as transaction ID, transfer ID or receipt ID. It can be found in some transaction receipt but mostly found in bank account statement. You can also contact your bank customer care service to get a session ID of a particular transaction.
Session ID is crucial to find any stucked and hooked transactions in the banking system in Nigeria. However, session ID is not only used in banks, it's also being used on any web entries of an organization or online platform.