What If I Don’t Pay Aws Bill?: AWS Billing And Sanction Policy

What if I don’t pay AWS bill? If you want to learn more about Amazon Web Services (AWS) billing and sanction policy, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll also explain the steps you need to take if you find yourself in a situation where you don’t pay your AWS bill on time and have your account suspected. 

After about 2 months, your account will be locked and inaccessible to you. Any setup that you have established beforehand will disappear. If you contact Amazon’s customer service, they will very likely help you delete the account and eliminate all the fees that you supposedly should have paid. Before that, Amazon would send you emails monthly to notify you about the payment.

How To Pay AWS Bill

When you create an AWS account, Amazon will ask for your credit card information to charge for all the fees monthly without billing you and asking for permission. With the credit card information, you won’t have to fill in any more monthly data to pay the AWS bill.

You can request a refund if you believe that Amazon has overcharged your bill. You will need to provide a good reason why you think the company is charged too much for their service. You should show the contract as well.

AWS Bill Not Paid

If you fail to pay AWS bill, what will happen? Will they charge extra fees, and you will have to face a thousand-dollar bill? Let’s find out below.

What if I don’t pay AWS bill?

If you don’t pay your AWS bill, you will lose access to your account for a time. You will be unable to access your files and can even be charged a late fee. In addition, Amazon will bill an additional amount on top of your current bill, as stated in the AWS contract.

If you don't pay your AWS bill, you will lose access to your account for a time
If you don’t pay your AWS bill, you will lose access to your account for a time

On the other hand, AWS is quite flexible about it. For example, a Quora user accidentally changed their free AWS account to paid type, and the bill went up to 1200$ without them knowing. The person later contacted Amazon, explained their situation, and Amazon wrote off their unpaid bill.

When does AWS suspend account?

Suspending an AWS account means the customer has been charged for services but failed to pay the bill before the payment deadline. After about 2 months, your account will be suspended. But, for many AWS users who were caught in the same situation, AWS didn’t suspend their account even after 3 or 4 months. So it depends on your luck.

AWS

If your account is not revived within 30 days of suspension, your account’s resources may be lost, and your account may be canceled.

Also, suspending an account is not the same as closing an account. You can still reactivate the account after you have finished your duty with the bills. But if you leave it for too long, AWS will close the account, and you won’t have the chance to recover it anymore.

What happens after AWS suspend an account due to non payment of the bill?

You will have the time to contact AWS customer service and ask them for a solution. You can decide to terminate the account definitely, or you can pay the bill and maintain your account. If you fail to contact them, your account and all the resources you have built will be eliminated forever.

AWS billing grace period

If you fail to pay your bill, you will have about 2 months or more to finish your duty. If pass the deadline and the bills still aren’t paid yet, the account will be suspended. You will have 30 days to reactivate it before all your resources are deleted. After 90 days without reactivation, your account will be terminated.

After 90 days without reactivation, AWS will terminate your account
After 90 days without reactivation, AWS will terminate your account

How To Stop AWS Billing

To close your AWS account, you can follow these steps:

  • Step 1: Log in to the AWS Management Console
  • Step 2: Click on your account name and then choose Account
  • Step 3: Scroll down to the Account Closure section
  • Step 4: Read and comprehend the account closure terms
  • Step 5: Select all of the checkboxes that you find adequate
  • Step 6: Select Close Account in the confirmation window

AWS Hacked Bill

AWS offers terrific support when it comes to hacked bills. Many users have shared their experiences, and the expected final result is that they get to revoke the hacked bills and don’t have to pay a single penny.

Anonymous user:

I was dealing with a customer around 6 months ago who had unintentionally released their keys as public in their GitHub project. A bunch of hackers/ bitcoin miners apparently ran software on GitHub to locate public keys for servers and took over the AWS account.

The monthly charge was $285,000 after only one week of hijacking the account!
We contacted AWS to arbitrate the problem after discovering the account had been hacked. It took about a month to receive clearance since they had to travel well up the chain of command, but the costs were entirely waived in the end.

AWS Remove Credit Card

AWS remove credit card
AWS remove credit card

Open the AWS Billing console in this direction to delete a payment method from your AWS account. Select Payment Methods from the navigation bar. Check that another valid payment method is set as the default in your account. Choose Delete next to the payment method you want to cancel, and it is done.

FAQs

Does AWS charge automatically?

Yes, AWS always requires a payment method to maintain the account active. Therefore, they will charge automatically.

Does closing AWS account stop charges?

After your AWS account is closed, all use costs accrued prior to closure are paid to your selected payment method.

Why is AWS charging me?

You exceeded one or more services’ monthly free tier usage restrictions. You’re utilizing an AWS service that doesn’t have a free tier, such as Amazon Aurora.

Can I use AWS for free forever?

The AWS Free Tier allows clients to explore and test out AWS services for free, according to the restrictions given for each service. The Free Tier is divided into three sections: a 12-month Free Tier, an Always Free offer, and short-term trials. So yes, there is a free forever package that users can enjoy.

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