my sons xbox live was deleted 4 months into his 12 month subscription

What if I don't want it to convert? I bought my son 12 months of Xbox Live Gold, and that's what we want (he doesn't want only 4 months of Live Ultimate)

Time you redeem via prepaid cards is fully added to whatever time is left on your son's account (up to 36 months).

So for example if your son has still 3 months of Gold left on his account, and you add a 12 month card, your son has 15 months of gold on his account.

Or if your son has an active subscription, and his subscription would renew in 3 months from now, and you add the 12 month card, the prepaid card will "pause" his subscription, activate 12 months, and after the 12 months of the card are over, the subscription
will continue with the remaining 3 months, and your son will have to be billed again in 15 months from now.

So there really is no need to wait until you redeem prepaid cards.

In fact, since some promotional cards have an expiry date on them, I heartily recommend to redeem prepaid cards as soon as possible.

But keep in mind, that you can have only up to 36 month of Gold or Game Pass time on your account.

Does it only last 4 months because his xbox live was for 12 months

Hi I have just tried to redeem a 12 month xbox live code. The code was accepted and stated that it was a 12 month subscription but nothing shows up on my xbox live account? Any ideas?

X-Box Live not Lice :-(

Hi, simply put, you don't need a Gold membership if you can't justify the cost. Here is the Xbox Live Gold page, it will list all the features of gold.

So after doing some math, If you were to buy 12 months of Gold, the cheapest option is a 12 month subscription, then 4 three month subscriptions, and lastly and most expensively 12 one month subscriptions.

There is no extra offers "like bonus platinum or gear", just 4 free games every month.

The Game pass page will explain what it is, and all the benefits.