Reverting to MS 365 Classic if you have 30% Home User discount.

I can confirm MS are disgustingly not honouring the 30% home user discount if you revert to MS 365 Classic. For me I would pay more!

see email extract from MS

I apologize for any confusion regarding the pricing of Microsoft 365 Classic. Unfortunately, the Classic plan is not eligible for the 30% discount offered through the Workplace Discount Program (WDP) for Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscriptions. This discount applies only to those specific plans and does not extend to the Classic pricing structure

" this adjustment is necessary to continue delivering the same level of excellence you expect from us. "

Yes of course. Costing more!

P.s. you have personal info showing in the attachments you might wish to cover.

Would it be possible to renew the subscription with the discount applied, then after it is renewed do the process of reverting it to classic?

In my case, I got lucky because I had already renewed up to well into 2028 so I could simply switch to classic now and be covered until well into 2028. I have not done that yet, but I could do so if I decided to.

hsehestedt said:

Would it be possible to renew the subscription with the discount applied, then after it is renewed do the process of reverting it to classic?

In my case, I got lucky because I had already renewed up to well into 2028 so I could simply switch to classic now and be covered until well into 2028. I have not done that yet, but I could do so if I decided to.

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No - The new prices are in force now. I am paid until 2026. They just will not honour the discount for MS 365 Classic as it is considered not to be part of MS 365 Friends and Family.

This is just disgusting behaviour by MS.

Note other articles I have read say that MS 365 Classic only applies to existing MS 365 users, and no guarantee it will always apply.

It is quite possible the offer to revert will only be a short term offer. If you do not have a discount, then you may wish to revert to Classic now.

Even if one does revert, no guarantee that is perpetual change!

I will revert to Home version (1 licensed user) rather than family licence, or leave MS 365 altogether.

Fabler2 said:

P.s. you have personal info showing in the attachments you might wish to cover.

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especially at the beginning of image one

While I'm not super excited to pay more for my Office 365 subscription, I am rather happy that the price has remained the same since I signed up for it back in 2017. Not many subscriptions to anything have remained at the same price for as long as my Office 365 sub. Not my tv bill, my insurance bill, my streaming tv services, my amazon account, my water bill, etc.

I equate the loss of the discount here like I would coupons for an item. Lots of time, a coupon is only applicable to an item at it's full/normal MSRP price. You cannot use apply it to an already discounted item. Unfortunately, that's what's happening here.

With anything, you have to do a cost benefit analysis to the service. For some, this increase in price may not make Office 365 worth it anymore to them. personally, I think the AI stuff is going to be quite a game changer in the industry going forward and for those who do use it, it's a huge timesaver and can really help people build things that would have otherwise been nearly impossible for them. So for me personally, I'm okay with the increase in price and with my discount still applying, I'll still be paying what used to be the normal monthly price.

Fabler2 said:

" this adjustment is necessary to continue delivering the same level of excellence you expect from us. "

Yes of course. Costing more!

P.s. you have personal info showing in the attachments you might wish to cover.

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I have deleted the attachments - cheers.
I have added a simpler screen shot

pparks1 said:

While I'm not super excited to pay more for my Office 365 subscription, I am rather happy that the price has remained the same since I signed up for it back in 2017. Not many subscriptions to anything have remained at the same price for as long as my Office 365 sub. Not my tv bill, my insurance bill, my streaming tv services, my amazon account, my water bill, etc.

I equate the loss of the discount here like I would coupons for an item. Lots of time, a coupon is only applicable to an item at it's full/normal MSRP price. You cannot use apply it to an already discounted item. Unfortunately, that's what's happening here.

With anything, you have to do a cost benefit analysis to the service. For some, this increase in price may not make Office 365 worth it anymore to them. personally, I think the AI stuff is going to be quite a game changer in the industry going forward and for those who do use it, it's a huge timesaver and can really help people build things that would have otherwise been nearly impossible for them. So for me personally, I'm okay with the increase in price and with my discount still applying, I'll still be paying what used to be the normal monthly price.

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Yeah - I just think MS are being disingenuous.

If you did not have the discount, you would save money reverting to Classic. If you have the discount, you would actually pay more moving to classic without the discount!

Sooner or later, they will remove MS 365 Classic.

I'm personally sticking with Office 365 even with the price increase, though i am happy it stayed same price since 2017 when i originally signed up. As its a suite of programs i use daily, Onedrive space i use pretty much daily as well--for various things.

MS Word, Excel, Outlook i use most of any part of the suite, Publisher haven't used too much or Powerpoint, but have them i need i suddenly need

I'll just cut down on other expenses when it gets a month away from Renewal time in December 2025, and that way i will have plenty to afford it.

Plan on cutting down on Doordash starting October 2025

I'd get MS Office 365 renewed always someway thats for sure

Other goal is get enough funds saved to replace the 2 remaining unsupported Windows 11 devices--Gaming Laptop and Family Desktop

bikemanI7 said:

I'm personally sticking with Office 365 even with the price increase, though i am happy it stayed same price since 2017 when i originally signed up. As its a suite of programs i use daily, Onedrive space i use pretty much daily as well--for various things.

MS Word, Excel, Outlook i use most of any part of the suite, Publisher haven't used too much or Powerpoint, but have them i need i suddenly need

I'll just cut down on other expenses when it gets a month away from Renewal time in December 2025, and that way i will have plenty to afford it.

Plan on cutting down on Doordash starting October 2025

I'd get MS Office 365 renewed always someway thats for sure

Other goal is get enough funds saved to replace the 2 remaining unsupported Windows 11 devices--Gaming Laptop and Family Desktop

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This is fine but not relevant to my thread about MS changing the rules about discounts if I revert to MS 365 Classic i.e. my perpetual 30% discount is reneged for reverting.

Yeah, I gotta say that I'm not at all thrilled about the tactic used - in effect forcing you into a higher tier AND making you pay more for it without you opting in. Instead, you need to jump through hoops to get back to the tier you were on. They are not even forthcoming in letting you know that this is an option.

Just terrible.

Thats why I just stick to using the office buy once and done. I hate subscriptions. I will gladly buy a product, but I dont want to keep paying over time.

Sometimes I like subscriptions. Some companies have (or had) really good maintenance agreement prices. For example, my maintenance agreement to Veritas System Recovery (used to be Norton Ghost) is something like $12 per year. Better yet, it is a permanent license so if I stop maintenance I still have the last version I had forever, so long as it works.

But lately, it seems like almost everyone is going full on subscription and jacking prices.

I'm one of those people who runs no software that I don't pay for, unless it is just plain free software, but I have simply had to drop several subscriptions lately and find free or less expensive alternatives.

hsehestedt said:

Sometimes I like subscriptions. Some companies have (or had) really good maintenance agreement prices. For example, my maintenance agreement to Veritas System Recovery (used to be Norton Ghost) is something like $12 per year. Better yet, it is a permanent license so if I stop maintenance I still have the last version I had forever, so long as it works.

But lately, it seems like almost everyone is going full on subscription and jacking prices.

I'm one of those people who runs no software that I don't pay for, unless it is just plain free software, but I have simply had to drop several subscriptions lately and find free or less expensive alternatives.

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Yeah. The problem with subscriptions is every single company is doing one.............except they don't realize as a person you can only afford or have so many subscriptions......

It just makes less sense for most people unless it's a great value.

andrew129260 said:

Yeah. The problem with subscriptions is every single company is doing one.............except they don't realize as a person you can only afford or have so many subscriptions......

It just makes less sense for most people unless it's a great value.

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And I've always felt like Office 365 has been a great value. For somebody who uses OneDrive storage space, the fact that I get 1TB per user for up 6 users, for the previous cost of $99, made this a no-brainer. I've not been able to buy that much storage space from any cloud vendor for $99 a year. And in addition, I get the Office Professional suite (which used to cost like $450 per computer if you bought it), on every device that I own, both Windows and Mac. And I get to stay on the latest versions of the office suite as soon as they come out. And Microsoft allows me to share my subscription with friends and family, which I do as well.

Now, I realize that many people find the low cost grey area licenses for office on the web. And I do realize that most of these work fine, and activate. And I understand that if the license does get shutdown, for many the cost savings makes that risk worth it and they can simply buy another one if they need to. However, I also realize that these licenses are not 100% legit, Microsoft doesn't offer that steep of a discount. I'm just not comfortable buying these licenses, so I choose to not buy them. But to buy Office directly from Microsoft is $249 per copy for Home and Office. If you need a few copies, that adds up pretty fast.

And with Office 365, once I decide i no longer need it, I can cancel the sub. But if I bought a perpetual license for full cost, I cannot get any of that money back.

cereberus said:

If you did not have the discount, you would save money reverting to Classic. If you have the discount, you would actually pay more moving to classic without the discount!

Sooner or later, they will remove MS 365 Classic.

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So, previously the 365 Family plan was $99.99 a year...which is what I have had. A few years ago, I get the 30% discount rate through my employer, so my cost has been $69.99 for the Family plan for the past few years.

My understanding was that the new price for Family is going to be $129.99 a year. If I don't want to pay that, I can opt to cancel, and select the Family classic option which returns the price to $99.99. But as I understand it, the Family Classic option is not available to a new customer. This means that the standard price now for Office 365 Family is $129.99. With the 30% discount, this means it's going to renew at $90.99. And you are right, if I revert to Family Classic it would be $99.99 and no discount, so I would actually spend $9 more per month without getting the Co-Pilot AI stuff.

Thus, it makes sense for me to stick with the new plan, get the 30% discount and pay $90.99. It will cost me $21 a year more than I was currently paying (90.99-69.99). I think $21 a year for Co-Pilot is fair.


Yes, eventually I believe they will remove the MS 365 classic option. I'd bet that's a 1 year thing. Gives them time to build up the AI stuff a bit more and get it out and about and hope that customers see that value and opt for keeping the subscription.

pparks1 said:

365 Family plan

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AU$179.00/year. Bargain

antspants said:

AU$179.00/year. Bargain

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Yeah, everything is more expensive in AUS. I used to work for an Australian company for 8 years, so i've seen that first hand.

pparks1 said:

Yeah, everything is more expensive in AUS. I used to work for an Australian company for 8 years, so i've seen that first hand.

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Yeah not good here. The AUD is 0.63 to the USD | UK£ 0.50

It’s not like I can’t afford it but the issue is that many families here couldn’t. And as people become reliant, it’s a big “What do I do?” question.
Many families (home owners) pay the Council (Municiple) nearly $1000 every 4 months for house rates and $700 for water and sewage . That’s before general utilities and the mortgage if you have one.

Families are doing it tough, most especially single income families.

Microsoft needs to do better.