UKC

Does anyone know the normal procedure with email addresses when switching suppliers?

A couple of years ago I was going to leave my supplier BT but I have a business address and a disposable address both of which will cause me a lot of trouble if I have to get rid.

From memory, when I tried to move, BT said that I could keep the addresses but for around £25/month. They are effectively holding me to ransom. I know I should get a Gmail or similar address but that too would cause me grief.

I’m in exactly the same position, a relatively spam free business account and a personal account that is so spam packed (despite the option of filters that never actually work) that it’s my ‘public email’ address.

I’ve looked at alternatives but have come to the conclusion that I just have to put up with their inflated prices rather than try and remember everyone who has my business address.

I now really hate BT, but it seems that once they have you hooked, that’s it.

You'd be able to keep the email address from the normal account for £7.50 per month. The info online is a bit unclear about whether you could keep the business email but suggests that they may have stopped offering that service since you last asked.

I would start the process of migrating everything to Gmail or another provider (NOT a new ISP!) as soon as possible and then quit BT once you're confident everyone relevant has your new address.

Several other ISPs hold you to ransom over email addresses like this. I suppose it's an obvious thing for them to do.

This won’t help your BT issue, but for the future register your own domain and then no one can hold your email address to ransom

But only do this if you're organised enough to be certain it gets renewed when necessary. Otherwise you could end up even worse off!

What happens if you register your domain with one host, but then decide to migrate to a different one a few years down the line??

You simply reroute your DNS to point to your new host server and pretty much all references typically will get updated in less than 24 hours.

just choose a domain registration company that auto renews

and if you chooses a .co.uk domain, if it expires nominet will hold it for a month to give you time to deregister it

I was told by BT last October that I could retain my BT email address for £15 per month otherwise it would die a natural death after three months. I closed my account, I haven't paid them a penny, and the email address is alive and kicking. (I did migrate everything to Gmail as other posters have suggested).

It does make me wonder if BT are perhaps being rather disingenuous or whether they just forgot to pull the plug on my email account. You may detect I'm not a great fan of BT.... to say the least...

Similar to above poster, but with Virgin Media for me.

Had a blueyonder email account for years, moved house to a non-cable area, so no longer a VM customer, they told me email account would be closed after 3 months, so set up a Gmail one, and put an auto forward from the blueyonder to Gmail.

4 years later it's still active as I still get some junk mail forwarded.

I did this too, with and old talktalk account it worked fine for years, at least 6, I'm off to check if it still works

I think you're overimaging  thhe headache. Just

1) get a domain for a few pounds a month or a single annual fee.

2) Email everyone on BT address

3) Pay BT fees for 3-6 months(if at all)  with an auto-forward on/ [you could just do this for 6 months before paying for your own address]

4) Change all emails and contact details on a footer on your email, set-up an auto-responder, on your invoices, as a mailshot to all contacts, mass text to phone book etc and everyone will get the message

We migrated quite easily at work with a bridging gap

I have just found out that BT now charge £7.50/month to retain the email address. this is a standard email address, I didn't know about business addresses.

Your second point "email everyone on BT address" is my main sticking point. Nearly all of my invoices are paper copies sent to the accounts department of over 200 companies. I get paid by BACS and do not have any other contact with any accounts departments so don't have a contact address. From now forward I can get contact details when I personally visit these companies over the next 12 months, or telephone them.

This may all seem antiquated but I have been doing this for around 45 years. I think something to do with a dog and new tricks applies.

Sounds like a perfect excuse to retire?

I left BT about 2 years ago and have not been paying anything, but my old btinternet.com email address still works.  This was a consumer account not business though.

I've done what other have said and get a non-ISP email so that I can move easily between ISPs in the future.  I planned ahead and started telling people and using my new email address, and when I was happy that enough people used the new address I switched ISP

Mike

Set up auto reply on the BT as suggested above. 

I was with Orange for years. They gave me a few months notice that they were withdrawing email services and then they pulled the plug. 

A domain will cost about £7 a year (payable in advance for 3 or 5 years) and I pay about £3.50 a month for hosting which includes webspace.