How do I keep my email address when switching providers?

Changing an email address is a real pain. It can require hours of work to painstakingly go through and update the many correspondences you have.

If you decided to go for an email domain provided by your ISP and happen to be leaving them, you might be wondering whether or not you can keep it.

Generally speaking, you can (for a time at least), although this will vary from company to company:

Sky

Sky is not the jealous type at all and is happy for you to keep your email even after you switch to another broadband provider and won’t charge you anything for the privilege. However, they want to make sure you’re getting good use out of it. This means they will close it down after a certain period of inactivity, generally around six months.

TalkTalk

When you leave TalkTalk, they delete your email within one year. During this time, however, you are not able to access any account functionality, like changing settings or passwords. Similar to Sky, they will delete it if it is not being used for six months.

BT

BT give you access to your email for 60 days after you stop using their service. After this point, you need to sign up for BT Premium Mail, which is fairly pricey at £7.50 a month.

Plusnet

Plusnet is happy for you to keep your email address. However, it’s important to let them know you plan to do this, as if they don’t hear anything from you, they will delete it.

Virgin Media

A company known for its fast internet, Virgin Media are even quicker when it comes to saying goodbye. Once you’ve moved on, you have 90 days to get your email affairs in order before they delete your account entirely. 

Our advice

The solution to all of this is to get an email address that isn’t tied to any provider. The functionalities remain pretty much identical, and you won’t have to worry about trying to keep your email after your switch.