Netflix will help you deactivate your account if you aren’t using it

Not using your Netflix account? If so, that monthly subscription fee is an obvious waste of money — and now, Netflix will nudge you to go ahead and cancel the account in case you simply forgot to do so months earlier.

Starting this week, the company will send emails and in-app notifications to all users who haven’t watched anything on the platform in the past 2 years confirming that they’d like to continue their subscription. Those messages will also go out to anyone who’s had an account for at least 1 year without actually using it. Anyone who cancels their account and then rejoins within 10 months will still have their favorites, profiles, viewing preferences and account details just as they left them, Netflix says.

“These inactive accounts represent less than half of one percent of our overall member base, only a few hundred thousand, and are already factored into our financial guidance,” Netflix Product Innovation lead Eddy Wu wrote in a company blog posted Thursday. “We hope this new approach saves people some hard-earned cash.”

The move comes at a time when Netflix is experiencing record subscriber growth stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has left most people looking for ways to keep themselves entertained at home.