How do you cancel Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime after someone passes away? (UK)

2 October 2026 · Inherit Vault

Streaming services are sneaky after someone passes away. The bank stops Direct Debits once it knows, but a subscription paid by card can carry on. Here's how Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and Apple handle it, going by their own help pages.

Why the payments don't always stop

Barclays says that once it's told, it'll freeze sole accounts and cancel all Direct Debits and standing orders. But Santander points out a gap. It says ongoing payments or recurring card payments might still be taken while the account stays open. So a subscription paid by card can keep charging after the bank has been told. Please don't use their card to sort it out, as that causes problems of its own.

Netflix

Netflix has a help page just for this. It says that if a friend or family member has passed away with an active account, it can cancel the account for you. If you can't get into the account, contact Netflix with two things. It needs the email address or phone number linked to the account. It also needs the full payment details used to pay for it. Netflix says cancelling means you won't be charged again. If there's time left in the billing period, the account stays open until that period ends. If Netflix is billed through a payment partner, you cancel it with that partner. Our Netflix page has the contact route.

Spotify

We couldn't find a bereavement page on Spotify's help site, so the route is its support team, through the contact page. Its general cancel page says a Premium plan can be cancelled any time from the account page. Premium carries on until the next billing date, then the account switches to the free version. Playlists and saved music are kept. Family plans need a little care. Spotify says that if the plan manager cancels, the other people on the plan move to the free version. If the person who passed away was only a member of someone else's plan, it's the plan manager who needs to cancel or change it.

Amazon, including Prime

Amazon has a bereavement support team. It says it can only share account details, or take most actions, when the request comes from the person managing the estate. But even without all the documents, it can still end subscriptions, stop repeat deliveries and switch off the account. You email bereavement-support@amazon.co.uk with the death certificate and the email address or phone number on the account. For full access to the account, Amazon asks for more. That's a copy of the death certificate, proof you're the legal representative of the estate, and photo ID. The details are on our Amazon Prime Video page.

Apple

Apple subscriptions, like Apple TV+ and Apple Music, sit inside the person's Apple Account. Apple says it needs legal documents before it'll help with a deceased person's account. That generally means a death certificate, and it may ask for a court order too. You can ask Apple to permanently delete the account through its Digital Legacy website, but you'll need an Apple Account of your own to do it. Think carefully before you do. Apple describes this as permanent deletion of the account and the data stored with it, so it can't be undone.

Check what's inside before you cancel

Some services are more than entertainment. Cloud storage can hold photos and documents nobody else has a copy of. Google gives a clear warning here. If you ask it to close a Google account, it can't later hand over what was in it. So if the family wants anything saved, ask for that first. We've written more about the subscriptions people forget to cancel, including cloud storage.

How to find them all

There's rarely one list. Go through their bank and credit card statements for the last few months, and look for small monthly amounts. Check their email for receipts and "your subscription" messages. Look on their phone or TV for apps that were signed in. Then work down the list one at a time. Our streaming and subscriptions list has the bereavement routes for the big names, from Disney+ to YouTube Premium.

Direct Debits are a different job

Some things, like broadband bundles and gym memberships, are paid by Direct Debit. The bank should stop those once it's told, but that can also stop bills you still need. Our post on direct debits and household bills covers which to keep going.

Most families only find these subscriptions one charge at a time. A simple list of what you pay for, and how, turns weeks of detective work into an afternoon. Inherit Vault gives you a quiet place to keep that list up to date.

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