Changing ISP and new email address

andygb

After having a discussion relating to the best deals on phone/internet packages with some friends, we then got slightly confused over what happens when you change ISP.
I am with AOL at the moment, and am quite happy with their service, but I am always looking around for cheaper, better alternatives.
The question though is this.
If I were change form AOL to let us say Virgin (just an example), would I lose the AOL screen names, and therefore have to set up new email addresses?

googler

Yes. Why would AOL agree to you still having a login there, when you're not paying them anymore? Why would they handle/forward your mail when you're not paying them anymore?

chillsky

Why not use a google email address that is independent to your ISP?

No spam, free, quick and huge amount of email space.

Owain_Moneysaver

Why not register your own domain name for a few quid and then have unlimited email addresses for life, independent of any ISP or Google?

badger09

andygb wrote: »

After having a discussion relating to the best deals on phone/internet packages with some friends, we then got slightly confused over what happens when you change ISP.
I am with AOL at the moment, and am quite happy with their service, but I am always looking around for cheaper, better alternatives.
The question though is this.
If I were change form AOL to let us say Virgin (just an example), would I lose the AOL screen names, and therefore have to set up new email addresses?

I changed my ISP from AOL to Zen in June this year and have retained my 3 AOL email addresses. You do lose any emails saved in folders though .

billywhizz

AFAIK emails are handled in a similar way to mobile phone numbers now and can be ported between ISP's so no you wouldn't lose the email addresses you have.

debitcardmayhem

billywhizz wrote: »

AFAIK emails are handled in a similar way to mobile phone numbers now and can be ported between ISP's so no you wouldn't lose the email addresses you have.

Huh ? Show me please....

leemoss

billywhizz wrote: »

AFAIK emails are handled in a similar way to mobile phone numbers now and can be ported between ISP's so no you wouldn't lose the email addresses you have.

Not sure where you heard this, but from a technical POV I cant really see how its possible.

TrixieB

I have retained my aol email address despite not being an AOL customer since switching to BT 3 yrs ago.

jayme1

even though you will likely still be able to access and use the aol account after you leave aol, it does not stop aol email sucking really bad.

you will do yourself a favour moving to gmail or hotmail, if you switch to gmail you can bring all your email with you you can let gmail do it for you (guide here) or you can do it yourself by setting up you old aol and the new hotmail/gmail using an email client (like live mail/thunderbird) and copy all the mail from one to another.

not only will something like gmail be better at catching spam it will also be more secure, it also has more features like mobile sync, IMAP access and 2 step verification.