What Happens When You Delete Your Okidoky Account (Concrete, Step by Step)

Most finance apps make leaving easy or hard depending on their business model. Apps that rely on a large free user base find an exit button inconvenient; apps with premium subscriptions would rather you just forget to cancel. The result: that one link buried under "Settings → Advanced → Account → [tiny] Delete".

We do it differently. This post explains exactly what happens when you delete your Okidoky account — technically, legally, and practically. No hide and seek.

The short answer

  1. Email info@okidoky.nl with your username.
  2. Within 48 hours we delete your account and all personal data.
  3. Before you take that step you can always export your complete transaction history to CSV first — which works in any other app you move to.

That's it. The rest of this post is for people who want the details.

Why email and not a button?

Honest reason: at our scale, a self-service button can be abused (someone who gains access to your account could press it). With an email we confirm the request really comes from the account owner by verifying it arrived from the registered email address. A small extra step, for a reason.

We are considering a self-service button with email confirmation — that is the right balance. It is on our roadmap, not built yet.

What happens technically

When we delete your account:

Removed immediately (straight out of the database)

  • Your user account (email, password hash, settings)
  • Every transaction you entered
  • All receipt images (from storage and the database)
  • Every category you created yourself
  • All budgets, saving goals and forecasts
  • All sharing relationships (shared ledgers are disconnected)
  • All login sessions (automatically signed out on every device)

In backups, until the next backup rotation

Our backups follow a Grandfather-Father-Son schedule: 14 daily, 8 weekly, and 12 monthly backups are retained. After deletion, your data rolls out of the backup layers step by step, at the latest with the next monthly rotation (see our Privacy Policy for the exact wording). During that transition period:

  • Data stays encrypted in backup storage
  • It is not reachable via our regular systems
  • It is only read if a disaster-recovery is required (has never happened)

After the next backup rotation your data no longer exists in any of our systems.

Retained at least 90 days (GDPR-required)

  • Abstract log entries for audit purposes (GDPR requires proof-of-deletion)
  • No content from your transactions, just "account with ID X was deleted on date Y" — the so-called deletion log

Possibly retained longer

  • Payment records (if you ever had Premium or Lifetime): Dutch tax law requires invoices and payment records to be kept for 7 years. These live at Mollie (our PSP); we only see anonymised references to them. Your name may appear in Mollie records for that period, but your transaction content does not.

What you can export first

Before you delete — even on the free plan — you can export all your data as CSV. Literally every transaction line, complete with dates, amounts, categories and descriptions. Instructions:

  1. Sign in
  2. Go to Expenses or Income
  3. Click the Export CSV button at the top (next to the filters)
  4. Choose a period ("all" if you want the full history)
  5. Confirm the download

The file you receive works in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or as an import into another app (including your next Okidoky account, if you ever come back). No proprietary format — just CSV, the same shape banks produce.

What is not in the CSV

  • Receipt images (download those separately via the Receipts page)
  • Shared-access logs (who did what in a shared ledger — that is inherently a shared log)
  • Subscription history (check your Mollie inbox for invoices)

If you also want the images: open each transaction, click the receipt, save it. We are working on an "export everything as ZIP" feature for 2026.

Practical examples

Three scenarios where people delete their account, to show what it looks like in practice:

Scenario 1: You are moving to another app. Export CSV → import into the new app (most accept CSV) → email us. Total switch ~20 minutes. No data loss.

Scenario 2: You simply stopped using it. Delete straight away, no export needed. If you never really used it, there is usually nothing to take with you.

Scenario 3: The account holder has died. A rare but real scenario. Next of kin can submit a deletion request with a copy of the death certificate. If the deceased held Premium, we can produce an export for relatives who need proof for tax purposes.

What we don't do

  • No exit survey you have to fill in before deletion goes through. That is friction in disguise.
  • No "are you sure?" chain of 5 screens. One confirmation is enough.
  • No retention email campaign. If you delete, you delete. No "we miss you" emails.
  • No "paused account" middle state that exists mainly to win you back. Deleted is deleted.

Why are we publishing this?

Because it is your right to know. GDPR article 17 (right to erasure) gives you this legally — but an app that keeps the detail to itself leaves you to figure it out. We prefer the other side of that line: you get this explanation before you ever need it, so choosing Okidoky is not a gamble on what happens later.

If you want to know now when you would want to leave: it is useful information to have before you start.

Try Okidoky free, no credit card. And if you ever decide you have had enough: one email, 48 hours, gone.