diff --git a/youtube_dl/compat.py b/youtube_dl/compat.py
index 08e8d64d7..3e35e2b84 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/compat.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/compat.py
@@ -280,6 +280,7 @@ except AttributeError:
 if sys.version_info < (3, 0) and sys.platform == 'win32':
     def compat_getpass(prompt, *args, **kwargs):
         if isinstance(prompt, compat_str):
+            from .utils import preferredencoding
             prompt = prompt.encode(preferredencoding())
         return getpass.getpass(prompt, *args, **kwargs)
 else:
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index b0255c943..620c4fe8a 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import ctypes
 import datetime
 import email.utils
 import errno
-import getpass
 import gzip
 import itertools
 import io