July 29th 2009 7:18 pm PT

How to turn off Xbox LIVE account Auto Renewal

 

Update: This feature may not be available in all Xbox LIVE regions.

Each year that your Xbox LIVE membership needs to be renewed and you have a credit card on file with us, we automatically renew the account. We’ve heard from some members that, for a variety of reasons, they’d like the option to turn this off.  I am going to show you how to do this in a few easy steps.

 

  • Sign in to Xbox.com and go to the My Account section.
  • Click the Membership level link on the left.
  • You’ll see a page that has your Membership level, and the end date. Under that, you’ll see your “Automatic Renewal” status.
    Step 1
  • If it reads ON (like the screenshot above) You can click the ON link and you’ll be brought to next page that will let you switch it on or off. (screenshot)
  • Make your selection, then click next.
  • You’ll be returned to your Membership level page, where you can confirm your selection (screenshot)

Hopefully, that will help

Update: This feature may not be available in all Xbox LIVE regions.

 

Archive By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2009/07/29/how-to-turn-off-xbox-live-account-auto-renewal/

← Older Comments
  • Shonk

    i have 145 arcade games + game dlc
    i stick to a strict price policy for ms points
    and also 800point max per game
    if its more they can keep it
    the only exception being 1943 as im an
    avid battlefield 1942 / battlefield 2 fan and have played thousands
    of hours on of it on the pc

  • ExcessiveGBH

    Same as Shonk, can’t remove old credit card info!

  • Exu

    Yeah I’ve noticed this. I’ve not had to use it though, prepaid cards are the way to go.

  • P00K

    @IconicSoulJA: Your reading comprehension leaves much to be desired.
    .
    I understand what you want – you want the system to auto-sign you in, but as offline. That doesn’t exist, so adjust your privacy setting so it’s blocked for everyone and now you’ll always appear offline.
    .
    Either that, or boot whoever you’re hiding from off your friends list.

  • FaultyChip

    It is unlikely that MajorNelson will answer us about credit card info because he is probably not allowed to. Their is no reason why the billing section of Xbox Live should not give you the option to delete information so you must ask yourselves why they want to retain this information,

    Holding onto credit card information when it has been pointed out you want it removed is illegal. Phoning up the support line (in india) will get you nowhere. If you live in the UK write to Microsoft asking them to stop processing your credit card data and they must do so. If they do not, complain to the information commissioner as they are breaking the law.

  • modemman11

    about time. why did we have to call achmed over in india for so long?

  • Sole Epiphany

    When logged into mine the “ON” is not a clickable link. Any other ideas?

  • Lieutenant Bran

    Thanks for adding something that should have been there since day one.

  • K1LLER HORNET

    Auto Renewal is for n00bs!

    Low priced 13 month online codes FTW :D

  • AlphaWolf Fang

    Now I don’t want to sound like a broken record or take the subject to a different matter, but I feel this is at least quite related…

    I would LIKE to get Gold… BUUUUT, I created my account in The Netherlands and have since moved to another country… And the billing information does not allow me to update my country there… AND it refuses me to use a creditcard for purchases unless it is from the same country as my profile is set to (The Netherlands in this case) but I do not have a dutch creditcard anymore…

    This thread on xbox.com might explain it even better in case I was confusing to people:
    http://forums.xbox.com/21816777/ShowPost.aspx

    Someone there at XBox… PLEASE allow the country to be changed so I can start using a creditcard again…

    (P.S. calling support gives me the advice to create a new gamertag… basically losing 20K gamerscore and 30K MicroSoft Points of purchase history… No dice…)

  • Captain Betty

    That may work for a 12mo sub, but I recently got the $1/mo gold and could not for the life of me cancel my subscription or turn off auto renew. I dug around my box account, ms billing. nothing. No way to turn off auto-renew (on/off link was not active – it was there but not active). Believe me, if I could have avoided calling in to cancel my gold subscription I would have. But no, I had to call in, give my genealogy back to the 1600′s, name the countries above the 49th parallel, answer a secret question that I set years ago and explain why I wanted to cancel. Even after being bribed with 500ms points, I turned it down.

    I love box live, but I just don’t do multi-player that much, I have way too many games to finish.

  • Disco Penguins

    It’s about FREAKIN’ TIME! I needed to take my credit card off of my account due to a cancellation, and I spent 2 hours on the phone trying to get it off. All it did was lead to them canceling my LIVE membership, refunding my already paid for time with codes for one-month and three-month memberships, and then I spent an hour typing in all of those stupid codes to bring my Gold membership back to speed. Ridiculous.

  • Neonikngc

    Hey thanks MArjo, you just save me from a some money I don’t have right now :D

  • a peeking duck

    Now add the ability to remove all credit cards online and you’ve done us a great service.

  • tbs0

    Hi

    This does not work for people in Sweden and Norway (Europe?). We still have to call Microsoft (Xbox Support) to be able to remove this. Will this function be available for us to in the future?

  • tbs0

    Forgett what I said ^^

  • Warrengonline

    @Exu
    Yep, same here. Account expires April 2010, I buy my One-Year Gold in March of 2010. I’ve had a friend let his credit card expire and he could not update for some odd reason, about three months later and a few calls to 18004myxbox, he was able to update it and was back online ready to go.

  • Gotmian

    Thank you for this, it is great to know it is that easy to change our subscription :) Kudos!

  • Analogue

    Finally ! It was boring to have to make a call to cancel the auto renew

  • PhAnToM x M1L3Y

    When i Hover over ON it wont allow me to click on it.
    Any idea why?

  • Anonymous

    any comments ??

    As normal rest of the world gets screwed, america gets every thing.

    “The US is getting a reward for buying all the Summer of Arcade Games by recieving a reward of 800msp”

    Why only the usa ?

  • AK ReubenDR

    Thanks for that, Was wondering how to do that!

  • VEGEMITE 98

    @Faultychip, according to ‘official’ releases there is NO call centre in india!. They keep telling us this in Australia at least, they even make out that they are not in india when you ring them up, they even have english names to use! Well we all know there IS and did you know they are trained to speak like they are from seattle!
    there is a report about this little known fact in the seattle times, do a search for it, it’s funny stuff

  • Freaky Priest

    @Big Guino: That’s the way it is. We Europeans get only about 70% of Xbox LIVE’s services, but we pay about 1.68 times that much as US citizens.

  • Photolysis

    The ON option is only a clickable link on the dedicated membership level page, but not on the account summary page.

  • dreampage

    Now let’s just get one thing straight. If I turn the auto-renewal OFF, and my subscription expires, Microsoft will NOT try to charge my credit card again, is this correct? And when the subscription expires, my account will simply go back to Silver membership. Not suspended, not cancelled, just Silver. Is this correct?

  • weetibix

    I want to be able to remove my credit card details as the card expired ages ago
    I’m now on my second 12 month subscription card and that is how I will renew in future.
    What is the point in keeping the credit card info and not let me remove it?
    Come on Major we need to be able to delete this info if we want.

  • Shonk

    I added my cc on xbox1 as you didnt have a choice then
    i have never paid by cc and never will
    the card expired 3 years ago
    but they still insist on keeping it

  • Logic Squirrel

    Great inclusion,It can be a pain getting connected to customer support sometimes.. thanks Microsoft.

  • mikee 002

    A step in the right direction but!!
    It’s my credit card so why can’t i remove it?
    Why switch !auto creditcard renewal” back on if i use a prepaid card?

    low money-grabbing shoddy behavior imho!!

  • Sneeches

    this would have helped me a few months ago when i was on the phone with support trying to get my cc info removed. They finally did it but this feature is long overdue.

  • Aberfoyle

    You only posting this because when you *call* customer service they bribe you with 500 MS pts to leave it on? Hmm?

  • Kivlov

    I dont usually get excited, but I could make love to you right now. Thank you so much. My account has been held hostage many times.

  • Zeuxis

    Major, can you instead show me how I can change my credit card details if I am now living in a different country? ow, you can’t change country details…. fail!

  • EldonTLH

    @dreampage: That would be correct, yes. Your friends, points, achievements, and whatever you can think of stay exactly the same. Your account merely turns Silver. And if you some day want to renew, just do so and everything’s back to the way it used to be.

  • PhAnToM x M1L3Y

    @ Photolysis, Your right, thanks.

  • Casserole

    Looks like MS has it in for me, my subscription ended on the 28th but I wanted to cancel it a few days before (my Xbox had red ringed and I was sending it in for repair), phoned them but it didn’t process until after the account was renewed (account renewal was set to on with no option to change it) for another month. Then a day later this post appears and now account renewal is off – after paying for another month I didn’t want. Sure it’s only £5, but I would have preferred to have the choice of keeping it.

  • CrypdanCD

    Hey Major I have a complaint, i told my credit card providers that doesn’t accept charges so i my gold subscription couldn’t charge so…. my account was suspended because of this, what do i do?

  • KEVN38

    Thank you very much. I’ve been waiting for this option.

  • Ghostwize

    It works! Here I was thinking you had to call the support center. Why was this not made publicly know ages ago? So much easier!

  • Ghostwize

    Oh I should ask…Why in gods name do I get charged a half a month later when my sub is due?! Every month! Lets say my sub is to renew on July 21st. My card was charged this morning on the 2nd. Happens every month! WTF is up with that?! I’m just gonna buy sub cards from now on.

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