Written by anti_aol

How to Delete Your AOL Or AIM Screen Name – Updated 1-18-2016

How to delete your AOL or AIM screen name

Updated 1-18-2016.

The only way to delete your AOL screen name if you live in the US is to completely cancel your free or paid AOL account (information for AOL UK users is here – ETA, 1-18-2016: you must hit “Escape” on your keyboard as soon as this page loads or it will 301 redirect to help.aol.com, which gives no specifics). The easiest way to do that is to use AOL’s online cancel form.

The form was designed to convert paying AOL subscribers to free-of-charge accounts, but it can also be used to completely rid yourself of your AOL screen name.

It’s as simple as filling out your name, address, alternate email, phone number, then checking the box next to where it says, If you do not want your account to be converted to free, or if you want to cancel your free account, check here (screen cap).

To keep you from having to click through to my all-purpose post on using the online cancel form to completely cancel your AOL account, here it is:

Paid and free AOL users, just follow these steps…

  1. Click this link or copy and paste this URL into your browser’s address bar:
    https://bill.aol.com/SPortal/jsp/notify_fdm.jsp – ETA, 1-18-2016: you must sign into AOL to complete this form.
  2. Sign in with the AOL screen name that you want to either convert to a free account or completely cancel (screen cap). On the next page, answer your Security Question (screen cap).
  3. Fill out the cancel form (screen cap). If you want to completely cancel your free or paid AOL account (in other words, you do not want to keep using AOL for free) place a check in the box near the bottom of the form where it says: If you do not want your account to be converted to free, or if you want to cancel your free account, check here (screen cap).
  4. Click Submit.

Deleting AIM Screen Names

The upshot is, it can’t be done, but there are a few ways around that:

  1. You can delete your AIM name from the AIM client, just to keep yourself from signing into AIM by accident, then wait up to six weeks for AOL to de-activate your AIM name from the system.
  2. The other method: if you live in the UK, you can write this email address: CancelWSAUK@aol.com, and your AOL or AIM name should be de-activated within a few days – more info here – ETA, 1-18-2016: you must hit “Escape” on your keyboard as soon as this page loads or it will 301 redirect to help.aol.com, which gives no specifics – but this is not known to work for AOL US users, who will just get an email back saying that they must contact AOL in the US.

Question: Can I contact AOL in the US to delete my AIM screen name?

Answer: No. An AIM name cannot be deleted except by the methods listed above.

Get TOSed (rhymes with “Get Lost”)?

You can also try getting TOSed to get your AIM name automatically suspended. While I don’t approve of TOSing yourself, it’s only fair to put it out there, since your options really are quite limited.

Question: If I completely cancel my AOL account, will that automatically de-activate my AIM screen name?

Answer: It depends. If you sign into AIM with an AOL screen name tied to the primary AOL account you wish to cancel, then yes, completely canceling your AOL account will de-activate that screen name. If you have a separate AIM name not tied to your AOL account, though, canceling your AOL account will not de-activate it.

Remind me: What’s the difference between “canceling” and “completely” canceling AOL?

There are two ways to cancel your AOL account: “cancel it and convert to a free account” and “completely cancel it”. If you “cancel it and convert to a free account”, you can keep your existing AOL account, your AOL software, AOL screen name, your AOL email and email addresses for free. If you “completely cancel” AOL, you will lose all of the above. If you want to delete your AOL screen name, you must “completely cancel” your AOL account.