---
title: "Best practices for managing your OVHcloud services and account"
description: "This guide contains the essential elements for managing your account and the billing of your OVHcloud services."
url: https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/best-practices
lang: en
---
> For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms.txt, the full documentation bundle is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms-full.txt.

# Best practices for managing your OVHcloud services and account

This guide contains the essential elements for managing your account and the billing of your OVHcloud services.

 

## Requirements

- Access to your [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/)
- Active OVHcloud services in your OVHcloud account

 

## Instructions

### Account settings

#### Account security

[Create a strong password](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/manage-account-password.md) that will ensure your OVHcloud account's privacy.

[Enable two-factor authentication](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/secure-account-two-factor-authentication.md) to prevent any fraudulent access.

For the security measures to be efficient, make sure your email addresses (main and backup) and your mobile number are **up-to-date and accessible**.

 

#### Personal information

Your personal information (postal address, email address, etc.) must be up-to-date in your customer account to guarantee the security and proper functioning of your services.

You can check your personal information in the [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/) by clicking on your `name` in the top right-hand corner and then your `Access my account`.

In the **My profile** panel, select `Edit my profile`.

For more information, read our [Securing my OVHcloud account and managing my personal information](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/secure-account-manage-personal-information.md) guide.

Ensure your email address is always **up to date, accessible, and secured**. Email messages from our services will be sent to this address, including the ones meant to reset your Control Panel's password.

**Warning:**

**NOTE:** Add a **backup email** to your personal information to prevent any loss of access to your [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/).

 

#### Automatic renewal

**Note:**

To prevent any service interruption and for the good functioning of the auto-renewal, register a payment method in your [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/).

Check regularly that your payment method is **valid**.

For more information, please follow the instructions of these guides:

- [Managing commitments in the OVHcloud Control Panel](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/manage-commitments.md)
- [Managing payment methods](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/manage-payment-methods.md)

If you decide not to activate the auto-renewal on your services, you will receive notifications prompting you to make a **manual payment** to either renew your service in advance or pay your pending bill.

 

### Order follow-up

Did you know that you can [track your orders](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/manage-orders.md) in your [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/)?

Just click the OVHcloud logo at the top-left corner of your screen, then click on `View my orders →`.

You will find out the steps of delivery and you will know if actions are required from your side.

For more information on the ordering process, see [this guide](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/faq-order-validation.md).

 

### Service cancellation

If you want to stop using one of your services, you can either cancel it or delete it immediately through your [OVHcloud Control Panel](https://manager.us.ovhcloud.com/).

For instructions to cancel services, consult the [How to cancel your OVHcloud services](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/cancel-services.md) guide.

 

### Account closure

If you want to close your OVHcloud personal account, first check that it does not contain any active services, pending invoices, or ongoing orders.\
Then, [submit a request](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/account-information/contact-us-support.md) to our support teams to ask for the permanent deletion of your account.

 

## Go further

Browse all the [Managing billing, payments, and services guides](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/account/billing/landing-page-billing.md).

Browse the rest of the [OVHcloud US documentation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/index.md) for guides on our other products and services.