Since signing up with Audible.com in 2008 until just now I was subscribed to the Audible Platinum Membership Plan which cost $22.95 per month and entitled me to 2 credits every month (most audio books on Audible can be downloaded for 1 credit). I’m a big fan of Audible, but lately I’ve been accumulating credits in my Audible account because I’ve been listening to free audio books (for the purpose of writing The Complete Guide to Free Audio Books Online) and experimenting with eMusic (for the purpose of writing The Best Places to Buy Audio Books Online). So I decided to start exploring my Audible account options to see if there was a way to put my account on hold.
1. Switch or Cancel Your Audible Account
After logging into my Audible account I clicked the “account details” link in the top right corner of my screen. Then I clicked on the “change my membership” link. On this page you can switch your membership plan or click on a link called “cancel membership”. At this point I did not see an obvious way to put my account on hold, so I did some quick research on Google and discovered I can put my account on hold by clicking “cancel membership”.
2. Remaining Credits
Right away Audible told me that I still have credits in my account and that when I cancel the membership, they will be deleted from my account. Thanks Audible for the heads up!
Note: if you cancel your Audible account you will not lose access to your online library. You may login to your account at anytime and access your Audible content.
3. A Free Audible Coupon
Down the bottom of the page Audible has a box asking for the primary reason you want to cancel your account. I clicked “I get more credits than I can use” and then “continue”. The next screen offered to downgrade me to the Audible Gold Membership Plan, plus give me a free $20 coupon. Sounds good! Note: if you are currently on the Gold Plan, you will simply be offered a free $20 coupon.
After accepting this offer I was taken to a screen thanking me for staying with Audible.
4. Put Your Audible Account On Hold
By this point I had actually decided the Audible Gold Membersip Plan would be a better option for me than putting my account on hold. But for purposes of writing this article I decided to test the instructions for putting my account on hold that I had read elsewhere. So I went back to the “cancel membership” page and selected the same reason for canceling. Again, rather than simply canceling my account Audible offered me another solution: putting my account on hold. Finally!
It took some detective work, but eventually I found a way to put my Audible account hold. Hooray! As you can see in the above screenshot, Audible allows you to temporarily put your account on hold for 90 days, while keeping your member benefits – e.g. the 30% member discount – which is a pretty sweet deal. There is also a “continue canceling” button for those of you who actually want to cancel your Audible account.
While I think Audible could provide a more obvious way to put your account on hold, overall I was very impressed with the user experience Audible has prepared for someone wanting to cancel their account. I’m sure when presented with the offers of a free coupon and/ or putting their account on hold many people change their mind. If you don’t want to go through the above process for canceling or putting your account on hold, I believe you can also do these things by emailing Audible.
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Canceling your Audible account? I recommend you check out eMusic. The audio books are DRM-free (unlike Audible’s digitally protected audio books) and only cost $9.99 per credit for members (this is cheaper than Audible). Like Audible, eMusic offers a 14 day free trial which includes one free audio book.
About Peter Clemens
Thank you for these instructions. They are perfect!
There is another option, which might be helpful for some people. I went to cancel my account and when asked for a reason chose “I’m trying to reduce expenses.” The first offer they had was to half my subscription for 3 months. I hit “continue cancelling.” The next offer was for $9.95 for the whole year, which would allow me to keep up to 36 credits for the whole year for the one-time fee. The plan is called AudibleListenerLight.
THANK YOU!- After trawling endlessly through websites saying that it was impossible to end this subscription… Finally an answer. Simple, clear and concise.
Great – Thank you
Worked really well : )
Thanks so much! THis worked perfectly!
I just tried this and the offer is actually 50% off the Gold Plan at the moment for three months! Awesome!
Thank you so much.
I wanted to put my account on hold but the page saying I’d lose my credits kept scaring me from going further.
Thanks!
I got $20 to stay after choosed cancel and to many credits. After that I could put the account on hold for 90 days