BT £7.50 Charge for Email

DCFC79

Takes a few minutes to change the email address for bank accounts.
Make sure all other contacts use the new email address before you cancel the payment to BT.

[Deleted User]

bmbm365 said:
 Ofcom is looking into this

Seriously? 

I don't think they are..

bmbm365

Moneyineptitude said:

bmbm365 said:
 Ofcom is looking into this

Seriously? 

I don't think they are..

bbc / news / business-51571275

I cant links.

Maybe you have to see the £7.50 DD to feel the pain of the whole thing 

gt94sss2

Your father can claim the cost as a business expense or if it’s such a big issue he can switch ISP back from Virgin to BT and get the emai for ‘free’ again.

unforeseen

If BT didn't charge then they would have done the same that other providers have done and cancel the email.
Complaining to Ofcom invokes the law of unintended consequences and the outcome won't be what was actually wanted. 
If Ofcom put their foot down about the charge then all that will happen is email accounts get cancelled at the same time as the broadband. 

bmbm365

gt94sss2 said:

Your father can claim the cost as a business expense or if it’s such a big issue he can switch ISP back from Virgin to BT and get the emai for ‘free’ again.

Yes that would have worked except issue no.2 the area is a new build estate. They build it with Virgin Fibre broadband and no infrastructure otherwise so if you were to get another service its max 5Mbs i think!

unforeseen said:

If BT didn't charge then they would have done the same that other providers have done and cancel the email.
Complaining to Ofcom invokes the law of unintended consequences and the outcome won't be what was actually wanted. 
If Ofcom put their foot down about the charge then all that will happen is email accounts get cancelled at the same time as the broadband. 

On reflection that would have been ok if that was what happened as common practice.

Basically we switched say around 20 years ago. Kept using the email for free for 10 years or so, then over the last 10 years they introduced a fee gradually rising to £7.50.

TBH it looks like my dad will continue to pay whatever price they set for the foreseeable future as the thought of contacting everyone just fills him with dread more than any monetary value 

Neil_Jones

bmbm365 said:

TBH it looks like my dad will continue to pay whatever price they set for the foreseeable future as the thought of contacting everyone just fills him with dread more than any monetary value 

Sounds more like an excuse not to do it in all honesty.

Find out everybody who has mailed your father in the last year or so.  Add them to a contact list or a BCC or whatever in the new account.

Send a group email from the new account, all it has to say is "Hello, my email address will be changing from <whatever@bt> to <whatever@gmail> as of <whenever>, regards Fred". Send it, and then give notice to close the BT account.

Realistically if you haven't heard from somebody after 12 months you're probably not that keen for communication from them so this is actually doing you a favour by clearing out the contact list.  Anybody who really wants to contact your father after 12 months will probably write to him.

There, that saves £7.50 a month for however long in the future you don't have an email with BT, and all for 20 minutes work, if that.  Being happy to pay £7.50 a month just because of what basically boils down to complete apathy and "can't be bothered" is ridiculous.  If you are the more technically savvy offspring, then save your father £90 a year and get it done for him.

Neil49

BT isn't alone in charging for such a service.

Many other Internet service providers also charge if you move away but continue to make use of their email facility. I have used services such as Gmail and Yahoo for many years as this enables me to switch from one Internet provider to another without any hassle.