Will My Former Internet Provider Forward My Email?

Some dial-up Internet providers such as AOL or NetZero continue to provide former customers with free web mail accounts even after Internet services are cancelled. If you are switching from a dial-up provider, check to see if this is the case. If so, then it's a simple matter to keep your webmail account open and simply create an inbox rule to forward mail to your new address. Alternatively, you can set up your email program's POP3 or SMTP settings to download mail from your webmail server.

High-speed Internet providers generally do not offer free web mail accounts. If you are switching from a high-speed provider and would like them to forward your email to your new address, it will be necessary to keep the account open, which unfortunately means you will have to keep paying for it.

One alternative to paying for an email provider that you no longer use is simply to let all of your contacts know your new email address before closing the account. You should also download your contact list and synch it with your new email provider, and then after you've closed your old email account, send a follow-up email to your contacts reminding them of the address change.

The best way to avoid this problem is to set up an email address on your own domain, such as "example@yourpersonaldomain.com." A domain email address can be configured to forward to any Internet or web mail provider, allowing you to keep the same email address regardless of how often you switch providers.