Care.com helps families find caregivers for their loved ones and pets through their website and app. Using the service, whether as a customer or a caregiver, requires making an account.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- How to Delete Your Own Care.com Account
- How to Delete a Deceased Loved One’s Care.com Account
- Deleting Your Care.com Account: FAQs
Eventually, you may no longer have use for yours. Or a loved one may have had their own Care.com account, but they’ve since died.
This guide will explain how to delete a Care.com account in both of these scenarios. That said, if you’re starting the end-of-life planning process, you may want to gather the login information and other relevant info for all your loved one’s online accounts while doing so.
Although deleting a Care.com account for a loved one after they’ve died isn’t very difficult, it’s definitely much less challenging when you have all their information on hand from the start.
How to Delete Your Own Care.com Account
Deleting your Care.com account is relatively simple. All you have to do is follow these basic steps:
Step 1: Log in
Care.com specifically advises logging into your account from a desktop computer.
Step 2: Open ‘Account Settings’
On the top right of your account page you’ll find a drop-down menu. Select it, then select “Account Settings.”
Step 3: Choose ‘Membership Information’
On the Account Settings page, scroll down to the section on “Membership Information.” You’ll see a link that reads “Close Account.” Click on it.
Step 4: Choose your reason
Care.com will prompt you to choose a reason for closing your account. Select the applicable reason, click “Continue,” and you’re all set!
How to Delete a Deceased Loved One’s Care.com Account
The steps involved in deleting a Care.com account for a deceased loved one can vary depending on your specific circumstances. Thus, the following isn’t a list of steps, so much as a list of two different ways to handle this particular task that may be among your executor duties.
Deleting these accounts can be a chore, but it's an important way to protect your loved one's identity. For more tips and next steps, follow our comprehensive post-loss checklist.
Option 1: Start the account under your name
Planning ahead often makes handling a loved one’s digital assets after their death much easier than it might otherwise be.
In many instances, it makes sense that a person in need of a caregiver would entrust a loved one to manage their Care.com account. For example, maybe you’re arranging care for an elderly and ill parent. In this situation, it would be more appropriate for the Care.com account to be under your name anyway.
Thus, when your loved one dies, you won’t need to take any special steps to delete the account. All you’ll have to do is follow the steps above. Or if a loved one wishes to make the account under their name, they might still be willing to provide you with their login info. That’s all you’ll need to delete their account after they pass.
Option 2: Reach out to Care.com directly
There may still be instances when you need to delete someone else’s Care.com account after they die and you won’t have the login info. For example, perhaps your spouse created a Care.com account to arrange care for their elderly parents, but your spouse suddenly died, leaving you responsible for managing their digital afterlife.
In these circumstances, Care.com’s customer service team suggests reaching out to them directly and explaining the situation. You’ll need certain information and documentation. This includes the email associated with the account, as well as documentation proving your loved one has died and you’re the executor or administrator of their estate.
Tip: When creating online accounts, you should also consider using a password manager to ensure you never lose track of your login info. This type of tool can be particularly useful when you’re trying to delete an account.
Deleting Your Care.com Account: FAQs
Do you still have questions about deleting a Care.com account? If so, you might find the answers below:
Does Care.com charge when you cancel?
Care.com doesn’t necessarily charge a fee for canceling an account. However, when you delete a Care.com account, it’s important to know that you may still incur charges.
Care.com accounts are essentially subscriptions that renew after a certain period of time. Subscription charges are non-refundable. So, for example, if you deleted your Care.com account, but you still had two months on your subscription, Care.com would usually charge you for those months.
That said, Care.com will make an exception if you haven’t used your account since the most recent renewal charge, and you request a refund within 30 days of said charge.
Can you delete your Care.com account on the app?
Currently, the option to delete a Care.com account isn’t available through the app. You need to delete your account through a computer.
Can you delete individual reviews on Care.com?
If you’re a customer deleting a review you’ve left on Care.com, you can simply head to the specific caregiver’s profile, find your review, and click “Delete.”
If you’re a caregiver who wants to delete a review on your profile because you believe it to be inaccurate or unfair in some capacity, the process may be a little trickier. Many caregivers have posted questions relating to this topic on the Care.com questions page, where both other caregivers and actual Care.com employees can respond.
A review of many of these questions and discussions indicates there doesn’t appear to be an official way for Care.com caregivers to delete reviews. However, several caregivers responding to these types of questions have stated that contacting customer service is the best option.
Because Care.com wants to ensure its caregivers aren’t misrepresenting themselves by easily deleting reviews they disagree with, it appears a caregiver in these circumstances needs to explain the specifics of their situation to a customer service team member, who may then determine whether to authorize a review’s deletion.
Deleting a Care.com Account: A Simple Process
Whether you’re deleting your own Care.com account, or you’re deleting a deceased loved one’s account, the process shouldn’t be very time-consuming. It’s just one of those minor chores that may come along for you in our digital age.
Sources
- “How do I close my Care.com account?” Care.com, www.care.com/c/questions/29147/how-do-i-close-my-carecom-account/
- “How do I edit a review?” Care.com, www.care.com/c/questions/32939/how-to-i-edit-a-review/
- “How do I get a refund for canceling my subscription?” Care.com, www.care.com/c/questions/7304/how-do-i-get-a-refund-for-canceling-my-subscr/