UK ISP’s Accused of Gouging to Keep Old E-mail Addresses

I daresay that many of you reading this probably have e-mail addresses that, in human terms, are approaching the age where they would be getting close to graduating from university. If you’ve had a particular account for more than a few years, however, with the increasing number of online apps you’ve probably associated with it (be it Netflix, your gym, or your bank), the work required in changing your e-mail address does seem rather laborious and increasingly so as you continue to register more and more things to it.

Put simply, it is, in something rather ironic, a lot easier to change your ISP than your e-mail address. What about when your e-mail address is associated/provided by your (soon to be prior) broadband company though? – Well, in a report via the BBC, while you can (in many cases) keep your e-mail address, it seems that many providers are charging customers through the nose for the privilege.

ISP’s Accused of Price Gouging to Keep Their E-mail Addresses

In the report, it has been found that of the UK’s 4 largest internet companies, two of them charge quite a significant sums if you still want to keep your e-mail address while moving to an alternative provider. BT is specifically brought under scrutiny for charging £7.50 a month to some customers who wish to retain their e-mail address, but not their internet access. It is, of course, a bit complicated. It does, however, largely break down to the following factors:

• BT – £7.50 a month for ‘standard’ access. Although potentially available for free, limitations do apply including that users will only be able to access it via a web browser.
• TalkTalk – £5 a month (“discounted” to £50 a year for upfront payment)
• Virgin – No option to keep your e-mail address is made available. All terminated accounts are deleted after 90-days
• Sky – The only major provider who offers customers the chance to keep their @Sky e-mail for free!

What Do We Think?

Well, presuming that Google, Yahoo and/or Microsoft never start charging for the use of their e-mail services, the most obvious solution for those who do have ISP associated e-mail addresses is to look to start transitioning your accounts to a platform which you know will (hopefully) always be free.

I mean, while changing your e-mail is undoubtedly a huge pain in the backside, I don’t think I’d want to pay my old ISP £7.50 for the ‘convenience’ of keeping the one they gave me!

What do you think? Do (or did) you use an ISP provided e-mail address? Have you since switched providers? If so, what happened to you? – Let us know in the comments!