Does Netflix Give Refunds?

Jamie Read more June 30, 2020

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services for premium movies and television shows, offering thousands of hours of content right at your fingertips. Of course, it isn’t a perfect service. While Netflix is great for a Friday night in or for when you’re looking to kill time, there’s always bound to be a few problems with Netflix that make you consider asking for a refund.

Outages are the big one—Netflix isn’t immune to them, and an outage on a weekend or weeknight can really ruin your plans for the evening. So, does Netflix give refunds? Is it worth asking, or are you going to find yourself wasting time? Read on to find out.

Getting the Most for Your Money

Unfortunately, after looking into Netflix’s subscription terms of service, it’s become obvious that Netflix won’t give you a refund. The best you can do is cancel your service, which will allow you to use Netflix until your billing period ends. Here’s what Netflix’s actual Terms of Service have to say:

3.3. Cancellation. You can cancel your Netflix membership at any time, and you will continue to have access to the Netflix service through the end of your monthly billing period. To the extent permitted by the applicable law, payments are non-refundable and we do not provide refunds or credits for any partial-month membership periods or unwatched Netflix content.

Not to discourage you, but if you see multiple charges, charges after you’ve canceled your account, contact Netflix Support so that they can further investigate the charges.

Where Did the Extra Charges Come From?

Before contacting support for charges that you know are not legitimate, Netflix will ask you to consider a few things:

Authorization: When you sign up for Netflix’s free trial, they will authorize your card for the amount of your subscription (this is pretty common and it’s relatively harmless assuming you have the cash to cover it in your account). If you sign up for the free trial and see a charge, don’t be alarmed. The charge will go away within a few days.
Multiple Accounts: If you have more than one Netflix account (you signed up using multiple email addresses) you may see additional charges. The best way to investigate this is to go to your email accounts and use the search bar to find any Netflix communications.
Restarted Your Account: Netflix will check to see if you somehow accidentally restarted your account.
Cancelation Date: If you canceled your account, but you were still billed for the subscription, consider the fact that you may have canceled at the beginning of your bill cycle. It can take a few days for the charge to show up.

If none of the above-listed scenarios apply to you, contact Netflix for more support.

How to Cancel Netflix

If Netflix is no longer doing it for you, it’s easy to cancel and move on to something else. Netflix is one of the few companies that actually make it simple to control and cancel your account and not hide it deep within your account page.

Log onto your Netflix account.
Navigate to your Account page using your icon in the top right.
Select the Cancel Membership button under Membership & Billing.
Select the blue Finish Cancelation box on the next page.

That’s it.

If you don’t see the Cancel Membership button on your account page, you may have acquired your Netflix account through another service. That could be iTunes, Google Play, or something else. You should look at your bank statement or other subscription services you use to see where you’re paying for Netflix. You will then need to use that local account to cancel it.

Netflix Charged Me After My Free Trial

What happens if you are charged once the free trial ends? Can you get a refund then? The answer is no. It’s up to you to cancel your membership before the end of the free trial if you don’t want to pay. You have 30 days of free-content to enjoy before having to pay a dime and it’s down to you to set a reminder or otherwise remember to cancel before that time is up.

Netflix is Charging Me After I Canceled

Netflix is good but not omnipotent. Mistakes happen and from what I have seen, the company is pretty good at making things right. Before you contact them to remedy your situation, it helps to gather all the facts and present your case all at once. If you see charges after cancelation, make sure your account has been properly canceled. Make sure nobody else has a login and that you remove your card(s) as payment.

If you see charges on your Netflix account during your free trial, it is more likely an authorization check rather than charge. Netflix performs a test charge to ensure the payment method is legit. This ensures they get their money when the time comes. It may look like a charge but isn’t. Check before you contact Netflix as it could save you a lot of time!

Getting in Touch with Netflix

Again, unlike other services, Netflix makes it easy to get in contact with them. They even have a toll-free number you can call them on. It is 888-638-3549 from within the US. You can also live chat using this link. Depending on the time of day, there will likely be a wait until an agent gets to you. It seems to average around 10-12 minutes wait time for normal hours. Netflix customer service operates 24/7 so you should always be able to get a hold of someone at any time.

Netflix does not give refunds in most situations. No subscription service that I know of does. You pay for the period, retain access for that period and then pay no more. Once the billing period is over, you lose access. It’s a simple system and while it may not offer refunds, it does seem fair.

If you forget to cancel your membership or experience an inability to enjoy the service, you likely won’t get a refund. If your Netflix account has been hacked there may be options for refunds using the same support options listed above.