I’ve been on Netflix even before it arrived in Singapore and have been paying in USD. With the USD-SGD exchange rate going up in recent years, the resulting amount I’m paying for the standard plan ends up being the same price for Premium in Singapore. Not a hard decision to put in some time to switch that over.

I discovered that I can sign up for the subscription via M1, my home Internet service provider. So I thought, why not just consolidate the bills. For those who have credit card perks with M1, there’s potential to also gain from this process. Though I’m not sure, I had cancelled my M1 Citibank VISA card years ago.

The process to swing subscription over to M1 though, is a little less friendly than expected, but still not too bad.

First, I have to cancel the current subscription. As there is no refund, I have to wait till the current paid period ends. Remember, you have to wait till Netflix says your account is no longer active. Don’t worry, you won’t lose your play history. Netflix had a message says that it will maintain for 10 months. So, as long as I active my account within 10 months, my play history will still be there.

Don’t bother trying to start the M1 side of the process too soon. That registration with Netflix won’t work, until the account becomes inactive. If you try before then, nothing actually goes through.

So, just wait. Just so happen that my subscription ends on the 10th of the month, and I cancelled just a day before, coincidentally.

Wait until Netflix says your account is no longer active. If you can still watch a show, not yet.

Then, kick off the process from M1. Strangely, the website didn’t have the option, I could instead, kick it off from the M1 app on my iPhone.

Once you have initiated the process, M1 will send you an email within about 5 minutes. In there, there is the URL that will take you back to the M1 website, you’ll have to login with your M1 account, and then that’s where you’ll choose the subscription plan. Next, you’ll be re-directed to Netflix to either create a new account, or login with an existing. I did the latter.

If this works, you’ll be brought to the Netflix registration process. I had to re-confirm my mobile number, and that’s about it.

If you tried too soon, before the account is inactive. You’ll end up just logging into Netflix as normal. If you have already cancelled the subscription and waiting for it to expire, you’ll just get a nag/reminder to resume subscription. The other thing is that the specialised URL sent from M1 via email, is only valid for 24hrs. Hence, the other reason why don’t bother starting too soon.

When all is done, in the Account page within Netflix, you will see the billing method has changed.

That’s about it. Hopefully there’s no surprises after this. For now, I’m going to check out some 4K content.