I closed my personal AWS learning account on July 13 after trying to terminate all resources in every region. I received a $0.00 invoice on August 1, but I've now received an automated notice saying my Free Tier access and remaining $105 in promotional credits will expire on August 24. Since I can no longer log in, I'd like to confirm whether closing the account stops pay-as-you-go billing, including charges from anything I might have missed, such as an EBS volume or Elastic IP. Could the credit card on file still be charged during the 90-day post-closure period when the credits expire? Does the $0.00 invoice indicate that no balance was accruing?
3 Answers
The $0.00 invoice strongly suggests there was no billable balance for that billing period, but it isn’t a universal guarantee against a later adjustment or a charge from a contractual service. Keep the closure confirmation and invoice for your records, and check any final billing notices sent during the post-closure window.
You should be fine based on the information provided. Closing the account stops normal resource usage, and the post-closure period is mainly for settling any remaining charges and handling account access. The credit expiration notice by itself should not trigger a card charge. If you want absolute confirmation, contact AWS Account and Billing Support through the account-closure support process, since they can check the account status even if normal console access is unavailable.
The expiration email is generally an automated Free Tier notification and doesn’t mean new charges are being created. You can still be responsible for eligible charges incurred before closure, but a $0.00 invoice is a good sign that there was no outstanding usage billed at that point. The main exception would be something with an ongoing contractual commitment, such as a Reserved Instance or Savings Plan, which can continue charging until its term ends.
Thanks, that helps. I didn’t sign up for any Reserved Instances or Savings Plans, so it sounds like the $0 invoice covers the resources I used.