The Washington Post confirms that you can save a lot on Internet service by shopping around. But the article doesn’t mention what keeps people with the same ISP and paying way too much for Internet access – using email supplied by the ISP.
Moving your email address away from your Internet provider is possible, in stages, and has many benefits, beyond just money saving.
Email from an Internet Service Provider is usually quite awful because the companies spend little money on it and they don’t have to try very hard, figuring they have a captive audience.
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Common problems with ISP email
- No online storage. Modern email keeps a copy of everything online for easy access. Most ISP mailboxes are merely holding areas until messages are downloaded to a single computer.
- Even if there’s online storage, using an IMAP connection, the amount available is relatively small.
- Poor spam filtering. Often the spam checks are OVER aggressive, meaning messages you want are either sent to a Spam folder or deleted entirely.
- No Calendar or Contacts. If available, they are more limited.
- Modern mailbox services include calendar and contacts that are also synchronized among all your devices.
- You have to stay with the ISP even if there are better or cheaper deals available elsewhere.
Modern email from the likes of Google (Gmail) or Microsoft (Outlook.com) is much, much better. There’s plentiful online storage that accessible from any computer or device. Spam and virus filtering is more finely tuned so bad emails disappear or are sidelined while the messages you want still make it.
Moving is definitely worth the trouble
Yes, changing to a different email address is a pain but it’s well worth the effort. At the very least, take the first steps so you’re ready for a changeover in the future.
The first step is to setup a proper mailbox fit for the 21st Century from the two main contenders for free email:
- Gmail has a ‘Check mail from other accounts’ option, which will grab any new email from other mailboxes and put it into your Gmail account.
- Free Gmail works with Outlook desktop software but in a limited way.
- Outlook.com does not have a way to link with other mailboxes. Microsoft stopped their ‘Connected Mailbox’ service, seemingly because it was too useful to new customers
. - Naturally, Outlook.com connects fully with Outlook desktop and mobile software.
- If your Microsoft account for Microsoft 365 Personal/Family is the same as your Outlook.com address, there are some extra benefits.
Choose the new email address carefully because it’s what you’ll be using for years to come. My advice is to make an address that’s easy to explain over the phone. An address that needs spelling out individual letters or punctuation is more likely to be mistyped.
Start using the new email address whenever the chance arises. Over time, the new address will get emails with fewer to the old one. When going to a new web site, login using the new address. As you return to other sites, for example to pay bills, take a moment to change the email address on the account. For personal messages, use the new address and ask people to update their contact list (add a ‘change of address’ note to your email signature).
The changeover might take a few months but there’s no hurry. Eventually you’ll be in a position to consider changing Internet providers when you are ready.
Even if you don’t change ISP’s, you’ll still end up with a much better email, calendar and contacts service.
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