An Amazon account is rarely just a shopping account. Over the years it collects a Prime membership, a Kindle library, Audible books, the family's photos in Amazon Photos, the Echo speaker in the kitchen, a Ring doorbell, and a gift card balance from last Christmas. Closing it in the wrong order loses things that cannot be got back.
This guide lists what an Amazon account can hold, what to save and cancel first, and the two ways to close it: with access to the account, and through Amazon customer service without it.
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What Is Tied to an Amazon Account
Before you do anything, it helps to know what disappears when the account closes. The same login covers Prime and Prime Video, Kindle and Kindle Unlimited, Audible, Amazon Music, Amazon Photos, Subscribe and Save deliveries, Alexa and every Echo device, Fire TV sticks, Ring and Blink cameras, Amazon Pay at other shops, gift card balances, and the full order history.
Two of these deserve a warning. Kindle books are licences, not property. They cannot be passed to another account, and they vanish when the account closes. Gift card balances are not transferable either, and Amazon's standard position is that they are not refunded, although customer service can sometimes make an exception for an estate. Ask before you close.
Before You Close Anything
If you have access to a device that is already signed in, such as the person's phone, tablet or laptop, these steps save what matters. If you do not, skip to the section on closing without access, and ask customer service about the photos and the balance.
Prime members get unlimited photo storage, and many phones back up to it automatically without the person ever mentioning it. Open Amazon Photos on the web, select everything, and download it to a family computer or another cloud account before anything else.
Note any gift card balance and ask customer service what can be done with it. Cancel orders that have not shipped, and return any that arrive after the death, which Amazon handles kindly when told why. Check Subscribe and Save for deliveries still on their way.
Under Manage Your Content and Devices, open Devices and deregister each Echo, Fire TV and Kindle. A device left registered to a closed account stops working properly and cannot be set up by someone else. Delete the Alexa voice history in the Alexa privacy settings if the family would rather it did not sit on a server.
Executors sometimes need it, for example to show what a large purchase was or to arrange a return. Download the invoices you need, because the history goes with the account.
Cancel Prime and the Subscriptions
Under Your Account, open Prime and choose End membership. If no Prime benefits have been used since the last payment, Amazon normally refunds that payment. Then cancel Kindle Unlimited, Audible (from the Audible account page, using any remaining credits first if you want the books), Amazon Music, any Prime Video channels, Amazon Kids+, and every Subscribe and Save item. Closing the account also ends all of these, but cancelling first avoids one more charge while the closure goes through.
Closing the Account With Access
Amazon has a self service closure page under Help, called Close your account. It asks you to confirm by email, explains what will be deleted, and then closes the account permanently. Nothing inside it can be recovered afterwards, which is why the saving steps come first.
Be aware that Amazon's terms only allow the account holder to use the account, so using a signed in device after a death is a grey area. Many families do it because the device is already in the house and unlocked, but the official route is the next section, and it is the safer one if anything about the estate might be questioned later.
Closing the Account Without Access
Use the Contact us page on the Amazon site for the person's country and choose chat or a phone call. Amazon does not have a dedicated bereavement form, but its agents handle these requests regularly.
Explain that the account holder has died, give their name and the email address on the account, and ask for the Prime membership to be ended and the account closed. Ask at the same time about the gift card balance and about any photos, so the agent can note both on the case.
The agent will usually ask for a copy of the death certificate and sometimes for proof that you are the executor or next of kin. Amazon sends a secure upload link or an email address for it. Our documents guide explains what proof of authority looks like in each country.
Closure normally takes a few days once the documents are accepted. If nothing has happened after two weeks, contact customer service again with the reference number rather than starting over.
Alexa, Ring, Blink and Fire TV
Smart devices are the part families forget. An Echo that stays registered to a closed account will not respond properly, and a Ring doorbell registered to the person cannot simply be taken over by whoever lives in the house next. Deregister Echo and Fire TV devices from the account before closing it. For Ring and Blink, the owner has to remove the device from their account before someone else can add it, so if you no longer have access, contact Ring or Blink support with the death certificate and the device details.
Seller, Business and Amazon Pay
If the person sold on Amazon, the seller account is separate, may hold a balance owed to the estate, and is handled by Seller Support rather than customer service. An Amazon Business account belongs to the company, which should appoint a new administrator instead of closing it. Amazon Pay purchases at other shops stop when the main account closes.
Or Let Us Handle All of It
Departed Digital manages the whole process for families: Amazon, PayPal, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Apple, Microsoft and any other platform, in one case. You send the documents once, we run every request and chase every silence until each account is closed or memorialised, and you receive a written record of everything for the family and the estate.
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