What happens to Bonanza account when the owner dies
Bonanza Worldwide, LLC has a formal process for transferring account after an account holder dies
Bonanza Support
Bonanza Worldwide, LLC, 3131 Western Ave #527, Seattle, WA 98121
Bonanza Support (no dedicated estate team published)
Bonanza does not publish a timeline for deceased-seller or estate requests; these are handled individually by email at support@bonanza.com. Recovery of the actual sale proceeds is driven by PayPal and Stripe, not Bonanza, on those processors' own timelines. For Stripe specifically, Bonanza notes new Stripe accounts go through a 7-day verification window before payout and that subsequent payouts to US-based sellers run on a rolling 2-day schedule, but those are ordinary payout mechanics, not an estate process.
Bonanza does not publish a deceased-seller or estate-succession process, and its User Agreement contains no death or estate clause at all. What the User Agreement does say, in section II (Membership Eligibility), is that a user agrees "not to transfer or sell your account (including feedback) or User ID," so the booth cannot pass to an heir, and there is no beneficiary designation and no self-service account transfer. Critically, Bonanza does not hold seller money: buyers pay the seller directly at checkout through the seller's own PayPal, Stripe, or Amazon Pay account, and Bonanza states "Bonanza has no hand in the financial part of a transaction. Instead, buyers pay sellers directly," and that it places no holds on payments. So the sale proceeds for a deceased seller are not held by Bonanza — they sit in the seller's connected payment processor, and the estate pursues them by working with PayPal, Stripe, or Amazon Pay (and the receiving bank account) directly. The only balance Bonanza itself holds is Bonanza Tokens, and the User Agreement forecloses any claim to them: Tokens "are not redeemable for cash and have no cash or monetary value," "do not constitute a property right or interest," are "not transferable from one Bonanza account to another," expire on a rolling monthly basis if not redeemed within 12 months of being awarded, and "All Tokens terminate upon any termination of your membership." What is left at Bonanza is therefore the booth and its listings, the feedback and sales records, and money owed in the other direction: a Final Value Fee of at least 11 percent of the Final Offer Value (effective May 1, 2025, with a $0.50 minimum and a flat 1.5 percent on the portion of an order above $4,000), a flat 25-cent transaction fee on each completed sale for sellers without a membership subscription, a listing fee of $0.03 per item per month above 50 active listings capped at $20 per month, and any paid membership subscription. All of it is billed to a credit card on file, which every seller account is required to have, and the User Agreement provides that if the account becomes past due "Bonanza reserves the right to attempt to collect past due fees by charging the seller's card on file." Because Bonanza reviews any request to close or settle a deceased seller's account individually rather than through a published procedure, the account policy is classified as case-by-case: the estate contacts Bonanza about the account and the outstanding fees, while the money is pursued through the payment processor.
How to request a transfer
Follow these steps to initiate a transfer of Bonanza account after the account holder's death:
- •A certified copy of the death certificate
- •Documentation showing you are authorized to act for the estate (for example, Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration)
- •The email address and User ID on the Bonanza account
- •Government-issued photo identification for the person making the request
- •Final Value Fees — a minimum of 11 percent of the Final Offer Value under the fee table effective May 1, 2025, with a $0.50 minimum fee and a flat 1.5 percent on the portion of an order above $4,000
- •A flat 25-cent transaction fee on each completed sale, for sellers who are not on a paid membership subscription
- •A listing fee of $0.03 per item per month for active listings above 50, capped at $20 per month
- •Any paid Bonanza membership subscription, which keeps billing until it is cancelled
- •Billing mechanics: the User Agreement invoices a seller who owes more than $3.00 at the beginning of the month with payment due within 30 days, the billing article states fees are due on the 2nd of the following month once the balance reaches $3.00 and are charged automatically once the balance reaches $25 or $100, and Final Value Fees are charged to the card at the time a buyer places an order for sellers with fewer than 5 completed sales, 3 or fewer consecutive months of Final Value Fees paid, or a most recent sale more than 60 days ago
Required Documents
- Certified copy of the death certificate
- Documentation showing you are authorized to act for the estate (for example, Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration)
- The email address and User ID on the Bonanza account
- Government-issued photo identification for the person making the request
Timeline
Bonanza does not publish a timeline for deceased-seller or estate requests; these are handled individually by email at support@bonanza.com. Recovery of the actual sale proceeds is driven by PayPal and Stripe, not Bonanza, on those processors' own timelines. For Stripe specifically, Bonanza notes new Stripe accounts go through a 7-day verification window before payout and that subsequent payouts to US-based sellers run on a rolling 2-day schedule, but those are ordinary payout mechanics, not an estate process.
Frequently asked questions
Bonanza does not publish a deceased-seller or estate-succession process, and its User Agreement states that you agree not to transfer or sell your account, feedback, or User ID. There is no beneficiary designation and no self-service transfer. The estate contacts Bonanza support at support@bonanza.com with proof of death and proof of authority over the estate, and Bonanza reviews how to close or settle the account on a case-by-case basis.
No. On Bonanza, buyers pay the seller directly at checkout through the seller's own PayPal, Stripe, or Amazon Pay account, and Bonanza states it has no hand in the financial part of a transaction and places no holds on payments. So the sale proceeds are in the seller's payment processor and the bank account linked to it, not in a Bonanza balance. The estate pursues that money through PayPal, Stripe, or Amazon Pay directly, not by claiming a balance from Bonanza. The one balance Bonanza does hold is Bonanza Tokens, and the User Agreement states Tokens have no cash or monetary value, are not redeemable for cash, are not a property right, cannot be transferred between accounts, and terminate when the membership terminates, so they are not something the estate can collect either.
Not automatically. The User Agreement says a user agrees not to transfer or sell the account, including feedback, or the User ID. There is no documented way to hand a booth and its feedback to an heir, and the same agreement bars marketing or exporting a Bonanza feedback rating outside a Bonanza-operated website, so the seller's reputation does not move either. Someone who wants to keep selling the inventory would open and operate their own Bonanza account. Confirm any account-handling path directly with Bonanza support before relying on it.
Possibly, and the money runs toward Bonanza rather than toward the estate. Bonanza bills sellers a Final Value Fee (a minimum of 11 percent of the Final Offer Value under the fee table effective May 1, 2025, with a $0.50 minimum and a flat 1.5 percent on the portion of an order above $4,000), a flat 25-cent transaction fee on each completed sale for sellers who are not on a paid membership subscription, a $0.03 per-listing monthly fee for active listings above 50 capped at $20 per month, and any paid membership subscription. Every seller account is required to keep a credit or debit card on file. Under the User Agreement, a seller owing more than $3.00 at the beginning of the month is invoiced with payment due within 30 days, and Bonanza reserves the right to collect past-due fees by charging the card on file. Bonanza's billing article adds that fees are charged automatically once the account balance reaches $25 or $100. The estate should ask support to disable active listings to stop new sales, cancel any membership subscription, and confirm what is owed and how the card on file is handled.
Bonanza does not publish a required-document list for deceased-seller requests. Estate requests of this kind typically require a certified death certificate, documentation showing authority to act for the estate (such as Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration), the email address and User ID on the account, and photo identification for the requester. Because there is no published procedure, confirm the exact documents directly with Bonanza support.
Because Bonanza does not hold seller funds, the estate pursues sale proceeds through the payment processor the seller used — PayPal, Stripe, or Amazon Pay — and the bank account linked to it. Identify which processor the booth paid into, then follow that processor's own estate process. Contact Bonanza only about closing the account and any fees still owed to it.
By email. Bonanza's support article directs members to email support@bonanza.com or use the "Contact" link at the bottom of any Bonanza page, and includes the registered email address and Bonanza username in the message. Bonanza publishes no general support phone line and no support hours, and there is no separate estates team, so the executor writes to the same support address any member would use. Bonanza Worldwide, LLC publishes a mailing address of 3131 Western Ave #527, Seattle, WA 98121 in its privacy policy, but that is a general company contact address rather than a designated channel for estate requests.
The recipient can use transferred account under the program's normal terms. Keeping the deceased account holder's account number and contact details on file simplifies this process for the executor or surviving family.
Sources
Data sourced from Bonanza Worldwide, LLC primary sources (8 pages reviewed). How we research.
Bonanza Support
Bonanza Worldwide, LLC, 3131 Western Ave #527, Seattle, WA 98121
Bonanza Support (no dedicated estate team published)
Bonanza does not publish a timeline for deceased-seller or estate requests; these are handled individually by email at support@bonanza.com. Recovery of the actual sale proceeds is driven by PayPal and Stripe, not Bonanza, on those processors' own timelines. For Stripe specifically, Bonanza notes new Stripe accounts go through a 7-day verification window before payout and that subsequent payouts to US-based sellers run on a rolling 2-day schedule, but those are ordinary payout mechanics, not an estate process.
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