BT ends free email for non-broadband customers
From September, people with a BT email address who don't have broadband will either have to pay or see their account closed down.
If you used to be a BT broadband customer and you have a BT or talk21 email address, you’ll either have to pay for the privilege of keeping your account or it will be closed from next month.
As of 1st September, BT is closing the email accounts of all former broadband customers unless they sign up for a new broadband contract or pay £1.60 a month for the BT Premium email service.
Customers have until 16th September to either pay up or switch to another email provider. This applies to both BT and BT Yahoo email customers.
End of the line for dial-up too
BT is also closing its dial-up, or narrowband, internet service as of Sunday (1st September). Customers will either need to switch to BT broadband, if it’s available in their area, or Plusnet’s narrowband service.
If dial-up customers switch to BT broadband they’ll be able to keep their email address. If they switch to Plusnet, they’ll either have to pay the £1.60 a month for BT Premium or lose their email address. At least either option will be cheaper than continuing to pay BT £17.25 a month for dial-up.
However, it’s up to those customers to switch. If they haven’t moved by Sunday, their service will simply stop.
BT has also been deactivating the email addresses of current broadband customers who haven’t used their email addresses for 90 days.
What to do if you’re affected
If you don’t want to pay BT for your email address then you need to find a new free service. There are the likes of Microsoft’s Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail), Google’s Gmail, Yahoo mail, Apple’s iCloud and GMX.
To move your old email over to your new address, you could attempt the long and laborious task of forwarding. Or several free email services allow you to move your mail and folders over automatically; for example, Google offers a Mail Fetcher for transferring to Gmail.
If you own your own web hosting package you could use any free email address that comes with this.
The danger of ISP email
These changes highlight the potential danger of using an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for your main email account. They can shift the goalposts or close services, whereas their advertising-funded competitors have, to this point anyway, continued to offer a free-to-all service.
Are you affected by this change? Do you think BT is right to close these accounts? Let us know in the Comments box below.
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Comments
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2nite I tried to log in to my talk21.com account saying that the id or password is wrong tried couple of times and then clicked forgot password then put id in only to be told that the email is suspended then done a Google search and found out that they have closed the email services and was not informed and had no idea that they had done this and would like to access the email in order to transfer or get the details off the email accounts
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Had an update email on this- seems BT are really struggling! Important update about your email account Hello, We wrote to you recently about some changes to your email service that were due to happen on 16 September 2013. We won't now be making those changes on 16 September. Due to the high volume of demand we've had, we've decided to extend the time our customers have to choose their options. We're also taking the opportunity to make this process quicker and easier and we're sorry if you've had trouble getting through to us. In the meantime, your email will carry on working. (Even if you haven't done anything.) Don't worry, we'll be in touch We hope you continue to enjoy using your email and we'll be in touch again when we need you to do something. Already given us your choice? If you've already told us how you'd like to keep your email address, don't worry, your email address is safe. If you've not already heard from us, we're working on your request and we'll email you to confirm. Find out more about our email changes. Thanks. Warren Buckley Managing Director, Customer Service
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CliffR I tried to love your post with many >3 but unfortunately there is an error. I left BT last year after they informed me I had moved house and took 28 dats to restore original landline and I yet et. In mean time I was calling their useless call centres off my mobile to rectify problem. They offered me a months free line rental and broadband. I took them to Ofcom who gave me £80. This still ( in my opinion) significantly downplayed the frustration and disorder that BT wrought upon me. FF to now and I want to keep my BT email addresses so signed up to their Premium service 4 hours of calls later and I think I am sorted. I have put in a complaint to BT but this has not been rectified to date- this sloppy service and the poor customer service in Calcutta us exactly the reason I left in the first place. Fair play BT really don't give a toss about their customers. I will never go back to their landline or Broadband and I had been a customer for over 20 years.
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07 September 2014