Changing e-mail

[Steve B]

I'm changing our ISP and will need to change e-mail addresses.

Are there any tips on doing this? I can send an e-mail to my entire address book, but I'm sure many people won't remember to change it in their system. Is there a forwarding service?

I look forward to getting away from a lot of the junk e-mails, but I'm sure I'll miss some important stuff as well.

[KristineS]

I use Gmail for my primary mailbox, and I forward e-mails from other locations to that mailbox. It's pretty easy to set up and works very well.

I think the existence of a forwarding service would depend on the e-mail client you're using. As I said, Gmail has one built in. I'm not sure what other e-mail programs do.

[dynocat]

I'm changing our ISP and will need to change e-mail addresses.

Are there any tips on doing this? I can send an e-mail to my entire address book, but I'm sure many people won't remember to change it in their system. Is there a forwarding service?

I look forward to getting away from a lot of the junk e-mails, but I'm sure I'll miss some important stuff as well.

I was hoping to do the same thing because I am not at all happy with our cable company for many reasons I won't go into here. I have gmail/google apps email set up but was wondering too how to get those emails forwarded. With our cable isp, apparently there is no way unless I keep their service long enough to "catch" every responder. That's not likely to happen.

[Evan]

I have my ISP e-mail address sent to my Gmail address. The address is identical, except the provider.

Too bad Plaxo wasn't as popular as it could be. All you'd have to do is update your e-mail address, and it'd update it in the address book of others. That service USED to be free, but they now charge for it. Made it nice if a person changed companies or whatever -- as they were the one who updated their contact information and it "synced" with their contact in your Outlook file (and everyone else who had them in their list).

Seems like a potential business opportunity to expand on :)

[Harold Mansfield]

I was hoping to do the same thing because I am not at all happy with our cable company for many reasons I won't go into here. I have gmail/google apps email set up but was wondering too how to get those emails forwarded. With our cable isp, apparently there is no way unless I keep their service long enough to "catch" every responder. That's not likely to happen.

I am pretty sure that Gmail has an "invitation" or alert type function that will alert all of your contacts of your new address.

More specifically, what ever address book, or email client that you are using (outlook, Thunderbird, etc) is able to send an email to "All Recipients" and you can alert them of your new address before you close that old account.

While you are making the change, be sure to respond to all of your current emails with a little "P.S." of tag line alerting people that you are changing email addresses and of course change it everywhere it is listed.

If there is the possibility of forwarding emails that come in to the old account, that would be something that the ISP would offer..only they can keep that email account active. If they offer it, there may be a slight charge.

Also, make sure that your email address will be shut down...just because you discontinue our account, doesn't necessarily mean that your email address will be instantly inactive.

I signed up for MSN 2 years ago, and have since stopped paying for it, but my MSN email address (@msn.com) is still active.

It may be active for some time after you close your account..in that case, you just merely need to add the email account into your email client..it may buy you some time to catch and respond to as many incoming emails as possible to alert them of your new address.


If I can make a suggestion for the future ? I have always thought it to be a bad idea to use free email accounts, or ISP email addresses for business,.. I only use them for signing up for things, newsletters, or instant messaging.

Everyone can have their own email address, and if you have a website, you already have a domain...that's the email address that you should be using..for 1, you know that you will be keeping it for some time, and it's also more professional.

Even if you don't have a website, domain registration is only $10 a year and most registrars will give a either a limited number of email accounts, or unlimited...and you can import that email address into your email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) to send and receive emails under that address.

[Evan]

Ohhh, here's an idea from my original post... why not include a vCard with your NEW contact information. Then they just have to click it to add it to the address book. It won't replace what is there probably, but at least it'd be a lot "easier".

Plus if you include other useful information like your mailing address or phone -- fields most people don't fill in, if there was a question of who to send it to, they may figure the "new" one is you.

[vangogh]

Ideally you'll hold onto the current email for awhile just in case, though that may not be realistic.

I'd certainly alert everyone to the change as soon as possible and only send emails from the new address. Most people will typically hit reply to send you a new email without thinking about it. Some will forget to update their address book. Maybe keep track of some people who you expect to hear from, but don't and down the line send them another email reminding them of your new address.

This is also one reason I prefer not to tie an email address to something I may change and also why I have several different emails. If you can hang try to get people to switch to the new email before you get rid of the old. If you can't do that just do your best to let people know about the new address. Odds are most anyone that really wants to get in touch with you will find a way.

[Evan]

Change your "Reply To" address as well for outgoing e-mails. When people click "reply", it'll go to the new e-mail address... :)

[Steve B]

Great advice folks.

I did find a few on-line registries that allow you to put your old and new e-mails in a database (freshaddress, findmemail, and maillocate). This requires someone to go there and look for you of course.

I am changing to an e-mail assoicated with my domain. So, this could be the last time I switch e-mail accounts for a while. The new e-mail will be Steve@DerbysFence.com.

[Business Attorney]

Steve, I think you have figured out that there are things that you can do to alleviate the problem but the only real way to be sure that you get your emails from people who don't remember to change (or you don't remember to notify) is to keep the old email address alive.

In the mid-1990's AOL was my ISP and my AOL address was the only one I used. When I changed from AOL dial-up to Comcast in 1998, I kept the AOL account alive for well over a year just to get the occasional emails that still went to the AOL account. Every time I got an email in the old AOL account, I sent another notice to the sender. Even then, some people never fixed the address. I learned my lesson and never used the email address bundled with the Comcast account nor afterwards with the one bundled with my AT&T service.

One thing to keep in mind when you kill your current service: most web sites that you sign up for online ask for an email address and if you ever forget your password or user name, the only way to get back into your account is by having an email message sent to the account listed in the website's records. I thought I caught all of them by the end of my AOL phase-out period, but even ten years later I found that I was locked out of an account because the reset message was directed to the AOL account. (That one had a happy ending because there were real people in support who read my plea to change my email address to my current account. That will not always be the case, and it did take over a week to get a response.)

[Dan Furman]

Great advice folks.

I did find a few on-line registries that allow you to put your old and new e-mails in a database (freshaddress, findmemail, and maillocate). This requires someone to go there and look for you of course.

I am changing to an e-mail assoicated with my domain. So, this could be the last time I switch e-mail accounts for a while. The new e-mail will be Steve@DerbysFence.com.

This is exactly what I was going to recommend.

[Spider]

...I am changing to an e-mail assoicated with my domain. So, this could be the last time I switch e-mail accounts for a while. The new e-mail will be Steve@DerbysFence.com.This is what every business owner ought to do upon starting their business. I think there is little more unprofessional-looking than a business e-mail address to person@ ISP.com. I cringe whenever I see the likes of BestSocksCo@ AOL.com.

[billbenson]

David, VG, and Eborg said this, but never use an email you don't have control of. One for Steve B's situation. He may loose business trying to move it. His only option may be to keep a minimal account with his old provider for a while.

There is another reason as well, professionalism. Free emails such as hotmail scream amateur. I frequently check out the website of customers from their email ie john@domain.com If you are a business, I would expect you to have a business email.

[vangogh]

The free emails like gmail and yahoo and your isp are great for personal emails, but anyone in business really should have email address that use the domain of their site. like Bill pointed out.