What happens to wallet credits when you delete a customer

Last updated: July 2, 2026

When you delete a customer in Lago who has remaining credits in a prepaid wallet, those credits become inaccessible to them, but you do not lose the payment. Wallet credits represent pre-collected funds: the invoice for the top-up was already generated, so deleting the customer doesn't trigger a refund or reverse that payment. Any unused credits that would have applied to future invoices are simply forfeited.

How wallet credits work on customer deletion

Once a customer is deleted, their wallet is terminated and the remaining balance is no longer accessible to them. The wallet record itself still exists and can be retrieved directly by its Lago ID, but looking it up by customer (GET /api/v1/wallets?external_customer_id={id}) returns a 404, since the customer record is gone.

Invoices aren't affected the same way. The invoice for any wallet top-up remains visible on the Invoices page in the Lago UI, and it's still retrievable via the API afterward, using GET /api/v1/invoices?external_customer_id={id}.

Before you delete a customer

If the customer has an active wallet, work through these steps first.

  1. Refund unused credit if it's owed. Issue a credit note on the top-up invoice, or refund the customer directly through your payment provider. This has to happen before deletion: once the customer is deleted, Lago can no longer create a credit note against that invoice, and a direct refund through your payment provider becomes the only option left.

  2. Review draft invoices. Deleting a customer automatically finalizes any drafts they have, which makes them due. If you don't want a draft billed, void it before deleting, or void it once it's been finalized.

  3. Export any usage data you need. Event history can be harder to retrieve for a customer once they've been deleted.

This article reflects guidance drawn from customer case resolutions. It is not officially supported documentation and may not apply to all situations.