Estate planning as a Decluttr account holder

Decluttr was a sell-your-tech trade-in service: the customer created an order, mailed in used phones, tablets, games consoles, CDs, DVDs, games, and books, and Decluttr paid for accepted items by direct deposit, PayPal, or mailed check. It was a transactional service rather than a stored-balance account, so the estate-relevant assets are a pending trade-in payment (money Decluttr owes for items already sent in but not yet paid out) and the account records the company still holds, including order history and the payment details on file. As of 2026, the public decluttr.com website shows a notice that the website has officially closed, while Decluttr states its customer service team remains ready to assist with any active orders through the Help Center.

After a Decluttr account holder dies, Entertainment Magpie, Inc. (trading as Decluttr) may transfer payment to a designated recipient, but this is handled case by case. The outcome depends on the documentation provided and is entirely at Entertainment Magpie, Inc. (trading as Decluttr)'s discretion.

What happens at death

Decluttr does not publish a deceased-customer or estate-succession process. A scan of the full published help-center corpus (78 articles, including the current Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy) found no occurrence of death, deceased, estate, executor, personal representative, probate, or next of kin. Decluttr was a trade-in service rather than a stored-balance wallet, so it does not hold a standing customer balance that an heir would inherit — the only money at stake is a pending payment for an open order: items the customer had already mailed in (or was in the process of mailing in) that have not yet been paid out. That pending payment is money Decluttr owes for accepted items, so it is a debt the estate may seek to recover by contacting Decluttr support with proof of death and proof of authority to act for the estate. Because Decluttr publishes no procedure and would review such a request individually, the policy is classified as case-by-case. The Terms & Conditions state that once Decluttr has received the items, checked them and dispatched payment, "ownership of the items passes immediately and irrevocably to us," so an estate cannot ask for already-assessed items back once payment has issued. Payment was issued the business day after items passed Quality Assessment, by the method chosen on the order: PayPal (arrives within one business day), direct deposit (within 3 business days), or a check dispatched by U.S. Mail (up to 10 business days depending on location). The Terms also provide that Decluttr takes no responsibility for delays caused by incorrect payment details, that it may charge an administrative fee where a check fails to clear or a direct deposit fails because of details supplied to it, and that "it is at the sole discretion of Decluttr how reissue payments are made." As of 2026 the decluttr.com website has closed and is no longer accepting trade-ins, while customer service remains available for active orders, which makes resolving any remaining in-flight payment time-sensitive.

Frequently asked questions