When you entered into a contract with your ISP e.g. BT, Virgin, they will have issued you with an email address such as [email protected]. They issue this to you free of charge as part of their customer service.
More than half of people use ISP's email address. Source: Which
No such thing as a free lunch!
Well, although the email address kindly given to you by your ISP is free it is not without cost. Effectively what they have done is made it difficult for you to shop around for a better deal when the time comes, as the email address you have given out for the last 12 months is in fact tied to your continuation with that internet service provider.
So, I will just change my email address…
Yes, send out a group mail to all your friends and family, most of them will get the message. Then all you have to do is change your details for things like Ebay, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter or any site that you need to log into. Remember it is not quite as easy as just change your email address, there will be a verification process of varying complexity depending on the website. (Having been commissioned to do this in the past, trust me this is not fun!)
And what happens to my old email address?
This is the almost unbelievable bit... in time it gets recycled! So in a nutshell if your email was [email protected] this email could be given to a future BT customer, which apart from the security issues could be embarrassing if you forgot to update your info at the clinic!
But I need an email address…
Yes of course having an email address is pretty much an essential and there are some very simple ways to get one without all hassle of being tethered to your ISP. For example:
· Hotmail email account
· Gmail email account
These are free and straight forward to sign up to and yours for as long as you want them.
Small business email accounts
It is just as easy to have email accounts linked to your small business e.g. [email protected] or [email protected]. Hotmail and Gmail accounts tend to send out mixed messages especially if you are using them for both personal and business purposes. Email redirects can be set-up to ensure you don’t miss any mail. (e.g. all mail sent to [email protected] gets forwarded to [email protected] or visa versa. If you would like to know further information about small business email accounts and domain names, please contact Creative Remedy on 01733 892604, they provide all of File Genie's!
As you can probably tell, I am no fan of ISP email, I strongly believe that they restrict your options, and when there are so many other choices at your finger tips, why pick one that could be such a headache in a year?
Have you encountered any internet service provider email issues in the past? Maybe you would like to share your stories... please comment below.