Cancel one subscription

Question

Hello I have bought 2 subscriptions today one business and one family - as I couldn’t access the business and needed it - the personal was just a renewal. I need to cancel one of them please, I can’t access my two e mail addresses in the business site so renewed personal

Answer 1

Dear @nicola sutherland,

I understand that you purchased two Microsoft 365 subscriptions today: one Business and one Family. Because you couldn’t access the Business account/email addresses at the time, and you needed to continue working. Now you’ve been charged for both annual subscriptions and want to cancel one and avoid paying twice.

I would like to clarify that Microsoft 365 Business and Family subscriptions are managed in different places and often use different sign-in accounts, which can make it look like you can’t access or cancel one of them.

1/ If you want to cancel Microsoft 365 Family

Go to: https://account.microsoft.com/services/microsoft365

Sign in with the same Microsoft account used to purchase the Family subscription

Select Manage > Cancel subscription

During cancellation, Microsoft will show whether the subscription qualifies for a refund.

For reference:

Cancel a Microsoft 365 subscription - Microsoft Support

How to get a refund on a Microsoft subscription - Microsoft Support

2/ If you want to cancel Microsoft 365 Business

To cancel Microsoft 365 Business subscription, you need to access your admin account first, then you can cancel your business subscription.

For access to the administrator account, please contact the Data Protection Team directly. Contacting Microsoft Data Protection team by phone support - Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support.

Microsoft Data Protection team has only required permission to reset your account on the backend. They are the only responsible and privileged support team for account questions.

During the phone call, you will be required to provide the information associated with your subscription - such as your company name, billing details, phone number, and alternate email address - to verify ownership of the company’s tenant. This verification will assist the Data Protection Team in granting you access to the administrator account.

Please carefully follow this instruction to ask for Microsoft Data Protection team support:

Depending on your country or region. For some countries, when calling the support number, although there are about 30 seconds opening as something "you can visit the link...." But you can ignore this opening and wait until the option, then "1" as a business email user, "1" again for technical help. For some countries, it will be an automated conversation like:

• First, when you call the hotline, it asks what kind of problem you are worried about.    Answered: authenticator.
• A: What kind of product are you using?
• B: Office 365 for business.
• A confirmation: education or company account?
• B: For companies
• A: Are you an administrator?
• B: Yes.
• A: Do you have the other admin in your organization?
• B: No.
• A: You need one.... Service request?
• B: Yes

In this situation, only Microsoft Data Protection team has tools and processes in place to verify identity and regain access to administrator accounts.     

If your organization's Office 365 Business/Education subscription is from a partner or reseller, and the global administrator is unable to open a service request on your end, contact the reseller's support provider to help open a service request on behalf of you instead.   

Please understand that forum moderators have no control over user accounts, especially when it comes to logging in to your account, resetting your password, changing your access, etc.

Alternatively, you can try set up a new trial tenant and submit your support request: 

1. Start a free trial: Go to Compare Office 365 Enterprise Pricing and Plans | Microsoft 365.  and click Try for free to create a new tenant.
2. Complete setup: Follow the guided steps to create a new Microsoft account and tenant.
3. Access Admin Center: Sign in at https://admin.microsoft.com.
4. Open Support: In the left menu, select Support > Help & support.
5. Submit a ticket: Clearly state you are locked out of a different tenant where you are the admin. Include: Admin account email, Tenant domain name, Error messages, Issue details, Confirmation you are the administrator
6. Track your request: Submit and note the ticket number.

Important notes:  

• The trial tenant won’t give access to your original tenant’s data or settings; it’s only for contacting Microsoft support.
• Support may require identity and admin rights verification for the locked tenant.
• Resolution could take longer because you’re contacting from a different tenant.
• Please do not forget cancel the trial subscription after resolving the issue to avoid charges (Admin Center > Billing > Your products).

After you can access your admin account, to cancel your business subscription and create , please follow the step below:

• Go to: https://admin.microsoft.com
• Sign in with the Business admin account
• Go to Billing > Your products > select the subscription > Cancel subscription (or turn off recurring billing)

For reference: Cancel your subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center

To refund your subscription, please sign in to: https://admin.microsoft.com  then go to Support > Help & Support (bottom right) and create a billing support ticket. 

• After clicking on "Help & Support" button like this image, you can type "I need agent support via phone or email". After that, you can click on "Contact support" 
• Choose contact method: "Phone" 
• Fill all the information in this contact support details, please describe your situation carefully so they will have enough information to help you. 
• Finally, click on "Contact me"
• After completing them, you will receive an email appointment for a meeting to review this issue professionally together. 
• For more details, you could refer to this article: Get support for Microsoft 365 for business 

As much as I’d like to assist you directly, only the Microsoft Billing Support team has the necessary access to review this charge, confirm the cancellation details, and process or verify the refund. Please reach out to them for further help, as they are best equipped to resolve this issue quickly and securely.

I truly appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions or need further clarification, please feel free to reach out. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

To keep only one Microsoft 365 subscription and cancel the other, use the account that was used to buy each subscription and cancel the one that is not needed.

For the Microsoft 365 Family (personal) subscription:

1. Go to the Services & subscriptions page: https://account.microsoft.com/services and sign in with the personal Microsoft account used for the Family subscription.
2. Find the Microsoft 365 Family (or Personal) subscription.
3. Select Manage.
4. Select Cancel or Cancel subscription (or Upgrade or Cancel, depending on what is shown).
5. Follow the prompts to complete cancellation.
   • If you see Turn on recurring billing instead of Manage, the subscription is already set to expire on the date shown and will not renew.

For the Microsoft 365 Business subscription (if that is the one to cancel):

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center with the business account that owns the subscription: https://admin.microsoft.com.
2. Go to Billing > Your products.
3. Select the business subscription that should be canceled.
4. In Billing settings, choose Cancel subscription.
5. Choose whether to Cancel now or Cancel before the next renewal date, then confirm.
   • If only recurring billing can be turned off, select Edit recurring billing, set it to Off, and Save. The subscription will then end at the current term’s expiry.

Important points:

• Canceling a subscription does not delete the email accounts; the Microsoft accounts remain, but access to Microsoft 365 apps and extra storage will change when the subscription ends.
• Before canceling the business subscription, back up any important email, OneDrive, or SharePoint data, because access is reduced after cancellation and data may be deleted after a retention period.
• If one subscription was purchased through a third party (for example, an app store or retailer), cancellation must be done through that provider, as described in the general Microsoft subscription cancellation guidance.

If sign-in to the business portal with the business email is not possible, use the personal account to cancel the personal subscription (if that is the one not needed), or contact support from the admin center once access is restored to the business account.

---

References:

• Cancel a Microsoft 365 subscription
• Cancel your Microsoft subscription
• Renew or cancel your Microsoft 365 for business subscription
• Cancel your subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center
• cancel subscription - Microsoft Q&A
• How to unsubscribe microsoft 365 account? - Microsoft Q&A
• How to connect with Help and Support - Microsoft Q&A
• Request refund - Microsoft Q&A
• I am paying for two subscriptions - Microsoft Q&A