In summary:
- PCWorld reports that Netflix gift cards prevent users from canceling or pausing subscriptions until the entire balance is depleted, potentially causing unexpected charges.
- This policy matters because gift card terms aren’t clearly disclosed on retail sites like Amazon, leaving consumers unaware of cancellation restrictions.
- While Disney+ and Hulu have similar restrictive policies, services like Peacock, Paramount+, Apple, and Amazon allow pausing gift subscriptions to retain unused credit.
When you sign up for Netflix with a gift card, you might expect it to work like any other form of payment, allowing you to cancel and resume the subscription at any time.
But that’s not the case. If you cancel Netflix while paying with a gift card, the subscription will continue every month until the balance is depleted. You can’t put the subscription on hold and save some of the credit for later.
Disney has the same policy for Disney+ and Hulu gift cards. Spokespeople for Netflix and Disney declined to comment on the record about the rationale for their gift card policies.
Update: A Peacock spokesperson has clarified that customers can cancel their subscriptions and retain their unused gift card credit for later.
No pause button
These gift card policies aren’t new, but I became aware of them last month after hearing from Doug Wheeler, a reader who accrued a lot of Netflix credit from Christmas gifts over the past few years. Wheeler activated his subscription in September, and then cancelled in December with $151.37 worth of credit remaining. He planned to restart the subscription after several months of using other streaming services instead.
To his surprise, Netflix continued to withdraw from the gift card in January and showed a message on his account page: “Your membership will be cancelled after your gift card is used up.” An email from Netflix confirming his cancellation said that the subscription would run through December 2026.
Netflix’s account page, showing that an account can’t be cancelled with a gift card balance on it.
Doug Wheeler
According to Wheeler, Netflix’s phone support representatives refused to put the subscription on hold, citing the company’s gift card terms of service. But he points out that those terms weren’t disclosed on the digital gift card he received via Amazon. The gift card listings on Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy contain a URL for Netflix’s full gift card policy, but they don’t disclose the cancellation policy directly.
Wheeler has since been trying to get the word out, contacting local politicians, news outlets, and the New York Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection.
“Netflix may be able to steal my (at this point) $151.37, but I am determined to make it cost them a lot more to not do the right thing by their customers,” he said via email.
Streaming gift card policies compared
Netflix isn’t alone in barring users from pausing their gift subscriptions.
The terms of service for Disney+, for example, state that “cancellation shall become effective when the Gift Card Credit is fully exhausted.” The Disney Store has a similar disclaimer on its Disney+ gift card page.
The fine print when buying a Disney+ gift card through the Disney Store.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Hulu’s policy appears to be more drastic, stating that gift card balances “will be forfeited upon cancellation,” but a Disney spokesman says Hulu’s policy is the same as that of Disney+.
By contrast, Paramount+ deserves credit for explicitly allowing customers to put gift subscriptions on hold, with terms that say any unused balance will remain “indefinitely” available until starting a new subscription. Apple and Amazon allow you to start and stop subscriptions with gift card credit as well.
Peacock’s policy looks a bit more ambiguous, but a spokesperson has confirmed customers can cancel their gift subscriptions and save unused credit for later.
HBO Max, meanwhile, has avoided this whole issue by not offering gift cards at all.
One happy ending
At least for Doug Wheeler, the campaign to complain about Netflix’s gift card policy had a positive outcome.
One month after writing to the New York Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection, he got an email response saying that Netflix had resolved his complaint. He then checked the email address associated with his Netflix account, and found six Netflix gift cards with a total value of $151.37, the same amount he expected to have after cancelling his subscription.
Complaining to state officials can work.
Doug Wheeler
So, if a streaming service’s gift card policy catches you off guard, consider complaining to your state’s consumer protection office or Attorney General. The streamers may be willing to kick over some gift card credit to make the problem go away.
As for Wheeler, he says he’s going to keep making noise about the issue regardless.
“They are not changing their rules,” he says. “They simply gave me back my money, in a form I find acceptable.”
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Author: Jared Newman, Contributor
Jared has been a freelance technology journalist for more than 15 years and is a regular contributor to PCWorld, Fast Company, and TechHive, where he's written a weekly cord-cutting column since 2014. His Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter has more than 30,000 subscribers, and his Advisorator tech advice newsletter is read by nearly 10,000 people each week. Jared has a master's degree in journalism from NYU and specializes in making complex tech topics easy to understand, from streaming and cord-cutting to neat apps and useful tech tricks. He is based in Cincinnati, OH.