Frequently asked questions

Hosts list their spare Spotify Family plan slots on KiwiSubs. Joiners browse available plans, pick one, and pay a monthly fee.

Once payment is confirmed, the invite link appears in the joiner's dashboard. The joiner saves money on a subscription they already use, and the host recovers part of their subscription cost.

Yes, when it stays within a few boundaries: the plan is one designed for multiple users (like Spotify's Family plan), everyone pays a proportional share rather than a profit-making markup, and access goes through the plan's own invite mechanism rather than a shared password. KiwiSubs is built around exactly that.

See our full explainer on is subscription sharing legal for the full picture, including the one caveat specific to Spotify's own terms.

No. Spotify gives its included audiobook listening hours to the plan manager only, not to the other members of a Duo or Family plan. That is Spotify's rule rather than ours, and it applies to any shared Family plan however it was arranged.

So if audiobooks are a big part of why you pay for Premium, joining a shared plan will not give you them. Hosting your own plan will, since the host is the plan manager, and your spare seats would earn you money each month.

Cancel your own subscription with Spotify before you join a plan here. Spotify keeps your Premium running until the end of the period you have already paid for, so if you join before that date you end up paying for the same month twice.

Once your own subscription has lapsed, accept the invite link from your dashboard and you will be on the shared plan from then on.

If you have already joined and ended up overlapping, your KiwiSubs spot is still yours and starts working the moment your own Spotify subscription lapses. Nothing is wasted at our end. We cannot change your Spotify billing, though, because that is between you and Spotify.

Payments are non-refundable except where the host fails to deliver what was listed. Specifically, you can request a refund if the invite link is invalid or expired, your access to the subscription is interrupted, or the plan does not match its listing description.

Requests must be sent to hello@kiwisubs.nz within 7 days and are assessed case by case. No refund is issued for a change of mind.

After you list your plan, not before. You do not need Stripe to create a listing or to have people join you. Anything you earn in the meantime is held in your KiwiSubs balance until you are ready to be paid.

We never send you a Stripe link by email. To connect, go to your dashboard, open the Account tab and choose “Verify identity and connect bank”. That takes you to Stripe's own website.

If you are ever sent a Stripe link that did not come from your own dashboard, do not use it.

Neither. Your bank account and identity details are entered on Stripe's website, not ours. We only store a reference to your Stripe account, and joiners never see any of it.

Stripe is the payment service we use to handle payouts, and it is the same one used by a large share of online businesses. Payments are held until a join is confirmed, so both sides are protected.

Hosting lets you reduce the cost of subscriptions you are already paying for by sharing unused spots with others. Instead of covering the full monthly price yourself, members contribute towards the cost through KiwiSubs.

Hosts do not pay any commission fees. KiwiSubs' service fee is paid by members, not hosts.

KiwiSubs also handles recurring member payments, making it simpler and more reliable than collecting payments manually. Once payments have been processed, eligible payouts are sent to your bank account according to our payout schedule.

Yes, on the Overview page of your dashboard. It shows your pending, available and total earnings, with your payment history under Previous Transfers.

Once your Stripe account is connected you can also see the payout itself in Stripe.

Payouts run on the 9th of each month, once your balance has reached $20. Anything below that carries over to the following month rather than being lost.

You get an email when a payout is sent. Funds usually arrive within 3 to 5 business days depending on your bank.

Almost everything is in your dashboard.

Number of spots, invite link, address and notes: the Hosting tab, then edit your listing. You can share up to 5 spots, and you can reduce that to however many people are already on the plan, but no lower.

Bank and payout details: the Account tab, then “Manage payout details”, which takes you through to Stripe once you are verified.

Name and password: Account tab, under Account details.

Email address: not self-service yet. Email us and we will change it for you.

Yes. Stripe, our payment provider, requires identity verification before they will process payouts to a host's bank account. This is part of Stripe's compliance with financial regulations and helps protect everyone on the platform.

Joiners can trust that hosts have been vetted before receiving any money, and hosts can trust that their payouts are processed securely.

For most hosts, verification is instant: you enter your name, date of birth, home address, and bank account details, and Stripe confirms this automatically. Occasionally Stripe may ask for a photo ID (such as a driver's licence or passport) as an extra step if it cannot verify your details automatically. This usually only takes a minute.

When a joiner cancels, we mark them as gone at the end of their billing period and their spot goes back on sale. You then need to remove them from the plan on Spotify yourself, because we have no access to your Spotify account.

We email you when someone leaves, so that email is your prompt to do it. If you do not, the spot will be sold to someone new while the old member is still occupying a place on the actual plan.

If you need someone gone urgently for any other reason, email us at hello@kiwisubs.nz and we will help as quickly as we can.

Yes. KiwiSubs is a New Zealand platform built around three protections. Payments are processed by Stripe to PCI-DSS standards, so KiwiSubs never sees or stores your card details. Every host must complete identity verification through Stripe before they can be paid, so a host who has not verified cannot receive a cent. And you never share or receive a password: access is granted through the subscription service's own invite system.

If access is not delivered or stops working, you are covered by our refund policy. See "How does KiwiSubs protect buyers?" below.

Each subscription service sets its own conditions for its group and family plans, and some describe them as intended for a single household. Those conditions, and how actively each service applies them, differ by service and change over time, so it is worth reading the current terms of whichever service you are joining.

KiwiSubs only lists genuine multi-seat plans and only ever adds members through the service's own invite system. Our guide to subscription sharing explains this in more detail.

Yes. Your data is stored in a secured cloud database, access is restricted to authorised staff only, and your information is never sold to third parties. We collect only what is needed to operate the service: your name, email, and payment details.

For full details on how we handle your data, read our Privacy Policy.

KiwiSubs protects joiners in several ways. All hosts must verify their identity through Stripe before receiving any payouts. Payments are processed securely by Stripe and never stored by KiwiSubs.

If a host fails to deliver access or the invite link is invalid, you are entitled to a refund. You can report any issues directly to hello@kiwisubs.nz and we will investigate.