The objective of this paper was to illustrate the frequent and wide occurrence of unsteady two dimensional MHD flow of an UCM fluid over a stretching surface in the presence of higher order chemical reaction in a diverse range of applications, both in nature and in technology. The governing partial differential equations are converted into ordinary differential equations by using similarity transformation. The ordinary differential equations were numerically solved by using shooting technique. The effects of different governing parameters on the flow field and mass transfer are shown in graphs and tables. The governing physical parameters significantly influence the flow field and mass transfer. Also, existing results in the literature are compared with the present study as a special case. In addition to practical applications in foams, suspensions, polymer solutions and melts, the present study also contributed to the existing literature. © 2016 Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.