diff --git a/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py b/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py
index 8bdd1f7..8e1702e 100644
--- a/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py
+++ b/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ class PGPaymentRequestData(BaseModel):
         frozen = True
     )
 
-    tags: List[Any] = Field(
+    tags: List[Any] | None = Field(
         description = "any no. of tags to apply to this payment record to make search and filtering easy later",
         default = None
     )
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ class PGPaymentRequestData(BaseModel):
         if currency is None: raise ValueError("invalid currency code, please use iso 4217 standard")
         return value
 
-    @field_validator("tags", mode = "before")
+    @field_validator("tags", mode = "after")
     def null_to_empty_list(cls, value):
         return [] if value is None else value
 
diff --git a/models/api/sms/send.py b/models/api/sms/send.py
index bac373f..8a57526 100644
--- a/models/api/sms/send.py
+++ b/models/api/sms/send.py
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ class SMSSendRequestData(BaseModel):
 
     tokenKey: ObjectId = Field(description = "the auth token to use to send this message")
     message: List[NimbusSMSIndiaMessage] | List[SavvyBulkSMSKenyaMessage]
-    tags: List[Any]
+    tags: List[Any] | None
 
     # ┏┓    ┏•
     # ┃ ┏┓┏┓╋┓┏┓
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ class SMSSendRequestData(BaseModel):
         if not isinstance(value, list): value = [value]
         return value
 
-    @field_validator("tags", mode = "before")
+    @field_validator("tags", mode = "after")
     def null_to_list(cls, value):
         return [] if value is None else value