How do you handle account deletion when user has an active paid subscription

Question

I want to provide the ability to a user to delete its account on my SaaS. However, how can I handle that if the user has a current active subscription (monthly payment)?

Should I delete the account right away when asked, or plan the deletion at the end of the billing cycle?

Ben Katz · Accepted Answer

If they want to delete their account, they want to delete it. Give them what they want and delete the account even if it's in the middle of a billing cycle. However, I would provide a warning/double confirmation though - i.e. you should definitely ask them via some modal/popup/confirmation screen "Are you sure you want to delete your account? You have X days left on your billing cycle, why not keep the account for the remainder of the month?"

Thomas Cazade · Answer

Thanks for your answer, that seems the most accurate thing to do. I don't want to add complex logic to handle "account deletion scheduling when billing ended".

A fair, large warning with double-confirmation should be enough for the user.

John Ballinger · Answer

Perfect - you can always manually do a partial refund if it comes to it. But I doubt it's going to be big problem.

Russell Smith · Answer

You could delete it at the end of the cycle; but that kinda feels like a dark pattern. IMHO it's better to pro-rate it and refund the difference and get it done.

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How do you handle account deletion when user has an active paid subscription

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