How to protect your Nintendo account while you are alive
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on a Nintendo account. While the account holder is alive, Nintendo of America allows family pooling.
Because Nintendo of America's terms close a Nintendo account at death, anything kept from it is exported, moved or handed over while the holder is alive. There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on a Nintendo account. While the account holder is alive, Nintendo of America allows family pooling.
How to protect your Nintendo accounts
- •Deleting the purchaser's account ends the service for every member of the family group.
- •Renewal and member management sit on the purchaser's account only.
- •A surviving member can leave the group and buy an individual membership.
- •The only transfers within the Services are console loading and family-group lending, and both keep the library on your account.
Naming who acts after a death
- Designation
There is no way to name a beneficiary or successor on a Nintendo Account; the account is personal to its holder.1
What Nintendo of America Inc.'s terms say about sharing and transfers4
- Family plans and household sharing
eShop purchases are virtual game cards. A card loaded onto a console can be played even when the console is offline, by any user on that console, and cards can be swapped between up to two linked consoles.2
One console per Nintendo Account can be registered as the pass-enabled console, formerly called the primary console.3
A Nintendo Switch Online family membership covers up to 8 people in the purchaser's family group, is sold only in 12-month increments, and is linked to the Nintendo Account rather than a console, so members need not share a console or a household.4
The Nintendo Switch Online family membership does not share digital game purchases.4
- Pooling with family
The holder can lend a virtual game card to a member of their Nintendo Account family group for 14 days, after which it returns automatically. Both consoles must be in proximity and online, and any purchased DLC goes with the card.2
Up to three cards can be lent at a time, one per borrower and one per borrowing console. The lender cannot play a game while it is lent out, and some games do not support lending.2
- Transferring the account or registration
Neither a Nintendo Account nor a Nintendo Network ID can be transferred or sold to another person.5
Digital purchases cannot be transferred from one Nintendo Account to another.6
- Expiry and activity requirements
Gold Points are valid until the last day of the month 12 months after they were earned, and Platinum Points until the last day of the month 6 months after. Both can be applied only to eShop purchases, with no transfer or cash-out.7
Nintendo stopped Gold Points earning on digital purchases, Nintendo New York store purchases and eShop card balance usage at 9:30 PM PDT on March 24, 2025, and on physical Nintendo Switch software registration on March 25, 2026.8
Existing Gold Points stay valid to their own expiration dates, and Platinum Points can still be earned.8
Sources8
- 1.Nintendo Account User Agreement (US), Effective Date 05/2025
- 2.Virtual Game Card Guide
- 3.Nintendo Support: set or change the pass-enabled console
- 4.Nintendo Switch Online Service FAQ
- 5.Nintendo Support: account ownership is non-transferable
- 6.Nintendo Support: digital games and DLC cannot be transferred between accounts
- 7.Do My Nintendo Points Expire?
- 8.Discontinuation of earning My Nintendo Gold Points
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Sources
Data sourced from Nintendo of America Inc. primary sources (17 pages reviewed). How we research.
Nintendo customer support
Nintendo Customer Support
Phone
International
Text/SMS support
TTY
Hours
Website
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