Audible Inactive Light Annual Plan is one of the two hidden membership plans by Audible. The other one being the Silver Membership Plan in which you get one credit every alternate month.
For some reasons, Audible does not advertise about these plans on their website. You won’t see them until you follow certain steps that trigger these offers to appear!
In this article, you will learn about Audible Light Membership plan (Also known as Audible Inactive Light or Audible Listener Light Plan), and the steps to activate it.
One way to activate this plan is by contacting Audible Customer Care and asking them to do it for you. But here, I will show you the trick to do it yourself, without having to contact customer care.
So let’s dive in…
Please Note:
The method explained in this article is based on Audible accounts on Audible.com. If you are using any other country specific Audible services like that on Audible.co.uk, Audible.ca, Audible.in, etc, this method may not be applicable. Please contact customer care in such cases.
What is Audible Light Annual Plan?
Audible Light is an inactive plan that basically extends the expiry date of your current unused credits. Besides, it also gives you access to some exclusive members offers like Daily Deals emails.
So, if you have some unused credits in your account that are expiring soon, or for any reason, you want to take a break from Audible, you can opt for this plan and avoid being billed for your regular membership plan.
Here are some of the key points about the Audible Inactive Light Plan:
- This plan costs $9.95 per year and it extends the expiry date of your unused credits by 1 year.
- The expiry date is based on your most recent Inactive Light renewal date.
- For example: If you switched to Inactive Light on May 12, 2019, with 5 credits. Those credits will expire on May 12, 2020, unless you renew your membership.
- With the Audible Light Annual plan, you can return up to 2 audiobooks every 6 months by contacting Audible customer care.
- This plan does not include other regular member benefits like 30% discount on all purchase, Audible originals, etc.
Did you know?
Audible also has another secret Silver plan that costs $14.98 every two months! You will enjoy all the benefits of an Audible member and you will be charged on alternate months. If you think this plan might suit your requirements, then check out the article on Audible Silver Membership Plan.
How to activate Audible Light Plan?
Here’s the step-by-step process to activate Audible Light Annual Plan:
1. First, try canceling your membership (Don’t worry, you don’t actually have to cancel your membership, just pretend that you want to cancel it).
Audible does not want to lose its customers. So, if you try to cancel your membership, Audible will try to lure you in with some special offers. Audible Light plan at $9.95/year is one of those offers!
2. Go to Audible’s Official Website and sign in. Click or hover over your name and from the menu choose Account Details.
In the membership details page, you will see the option to cancel your membership as shown below.
Please note that membership cancelation option is not available on Audible app. You will have to do it from the desktop site.
If you are on a mobile, just go to the official website and click on ‘Full Site’ at the bottom of the page. You will be redirected to the desktop site. And then follow the above steps.
4. Now click on ‘Cancel Membership’. You will be asked to choose the reason for canceling your membership. Choose ‘I’m using another service’ or ‘I didn’t know I was in a Membership’. And then click on ‘Continue Canceling’
If you are not asked the reason for canceling your membership as shown below, or if, after clicking ‘Continue canceling‘, the offer doesn’t show up, Please Do Not Continue further. Instead, contact Audible customer care and ask them to activate the plan for you.
5. Once you click on ‘Continue Canceling‘, you will land on a page with two offers, one of them will be the Audible Light Annual plan.
Though the name of the plan may not be mentioned, you can see the heading as ‘Keep your credits’, with the description as ‘For just $9.95 per year, keep your current credits and access to exclusive offers’ as shown below.
6. Now click on ‘Take Offer’ and your membership will be switched.
If for some reason you do not get the above options, you can contact Audible Customer Care, they will activate it for you.
So, that’s how you can activate the Audible Inactive Light Annual Plan. I hope this article was helpful to you!
If you have any doubt or question regarding the method mentioned above, please share it in the comment section below. I would be glad to answer them as best as I can.
Inactive light is no longer offered via the instructions mentioned. Additionally did a chat with Audible CS rep and they said the plan was discontinued. Very unfortunate.
I just made the switch to Inactive Lite ($9.95/year) by using the live chat feature once I logged in to my account. The CS rep was very helpful. I retain my credits until they expire, a year from when I bought each of them. Credit history is stored several places in our accounts. I retain my history and my library. I can revert to the monthly plan any time. The rep offered the 90/60/30 day pause plan you may see, but there was no pressure. It was a good experience overall.
Correction. The credits expire a year from today, according to the updated account details.
I’d been a member since the year 2001 and they wouldn’t switch me so I just walked away/cancelled. Disappointing but there’s enough podcasts and things like that to listen to that I’ll survive.
The CS agent I spoke with said that it is no longer available. Should I recontact them? She cancelled my membership effective today even though I said that I read current members qualify for the light membership. Any advice?
Hi Sandy. I think this plan may only be available for Audible.com accounts. If you are using any country specific Audible service like that on Audible.co.uk, Audible.ca, Audible.in, etc, then you may not get this option. I followed the above mentioned steps in my Audible.com account just now to confirm, and the &9.95 plan is still showing up. So may be you can contact the customer service again and confirm if it is available for your country’s Audible service.
I hope it helps.
Sandi, I used the live chat feature and spoke to a very nice cs rep who was able to switch my account to the inactive light plan for $9.95 per year. I was using the audible.com site from the states, and I was not offered the inactive light option when I tried to cancel myself. I ended up accidentally cancelling my account (!). But cs was able to update it. I hope that helps! Good luck
Hi there. I have been buying 24 credits at a time (the platinum annual plan) for years because it is the lowest per-credit price, and then switching to the inactive plan for a year or two until those 24 credits are used up. I’ve done that three times now. But I strongly suspect Audible may be in the process of trying to kill off the light plan, because they have been sending me emails trying to get me to sign up for the annual plan at a $30 discount. I ignored the first two acceptance deadlines, and now they have just sent me a third email with a new deadline of 9/30/19. This is very suspicious to me – because the best way to get somebody to give up something like this is to get them to do it voluntarily. I have been waiting to see if people online are reporting that the light membership is no longer available. Even though it sounds like you can still get it through CS (or you could as of May), I suspect we may be in a transition period, meaning that they’ll still give it to you if you know to ask, but I doubt that will go on indefinitely. My next renewal date is not until May. I wonder if they are just going to tell me in May that I can’t renew it anymore… with the tech companies all moving to mandatory subscription services, I have to think Audible/Amazon is going to close this loophole soon. 🙁