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Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

pat88 — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 16:25:23 GMT

I have an account with a BT ID just for my mobile. My husband is the holder for our BT broadband account and currently all the household email addresses are within this account. My BT ID username is one of these email addresses.

I am trying to activate a new email address ( from our household allocation) which has been gifted to me but it seems that the system is unable to link it to my existing BT ID The error message says unable to create a BT ID, though that was not what I asked for. Do I need to create a separate BT ID for emails? I so, it rather defeats the idea of a single way of managing all one's BT services.

The help info is very confusing and I am reluctant to bash on ahead in case I lose access to the mobile account. Please, what am I missing here?

TIA

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

gg30340 — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 17:45:56 GMT

See link about adding email accounts to another account.

I think that you can only do this if it is a BT Broadband account that you re wanting to add the email account to.

See link

Can I move my BT email address to another account? | BT Help

If you are "being gifted" the new email account you should be able to follow the procedure as per this link. "How to create and gift email account to a person already linked etc etc"

How do I create and activate a new BT Email address? | BT Help

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

pat88 — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 12:48:05 GMT

Thankyou for replying.

In 'How do I create and activate a new BT email address?', BT does actually recommend that email addresses used by people other than the account holder are gifted to those users, who then need to set up a BT ID unless they already have one. I do have a BT ID which so far is associated only with my mobile account.

I have followed the activation instructions to the letter but, for some reason, the system refuses to associate the email address with my BT ID. It gets to the page 'Choose a BTID username or log in' with an acknowledgment that I can use my existing username to access the new email address and asks to create a new password. I do that, press Continue then on the next page get a error message, saying 'Sorry, something must have gone wrong so we haven't been able to create your BT ID. Please try again later.' Umpteen tries later, I still have the same problem.

Any advice on what to try next would be much appreciated.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

gg30340 — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 12:57:30 GMT

Can you access the new email account prior to you gifting it or trying to add it to your BTID?

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

pat88 — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:01:33 GMT

No, because it was set up specifically as a gifted email address.

Tbh, part of the reason for setting up this new email address for me was to to try out the procedure before moving my currently active ones -- and I'm very glad that we didn't just take the risk.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

licquorice — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:05:08 GMT

It doesn't actually work like that. A 'Gifted' email address is no different to any other email address, as long as you enter the email address and password into the Login form it doesn't matter who 'owns' the address.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

pat88 — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:28:17 GMT

I can't log in because no password is created when a new email address is to be gifted to a new user.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

licquorice — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:53:45 GMT

The whole 'Gifting' process is extremely unintuitive and the instructions are very badly worded to the point of misinformation. The terms BTID and email address appear to be used interchangeably when they are in fact discrete items.

In a nutshell, the account holder creates a new email address including setting the password (or skip this if just gifting an existing address), go to manage email in their MyBT, select the address to gift and click on 'Give this email address'. In the resulting form, enter the name of the recipient and then tick the box 'Share with someone without an email address' , click on continue. This will generate a link which the recipient needs to click on to receive the gifted address. Just send the link to the recipient manually. When the recipient opens the link, just follow the instructions checking the 'I already have a BTID' box, however the wording contradicts itself as it invites you to set an email password independent of the associated BTID but then calls it a BTID password.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

licquorice — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:47:27 GMT

@pat88 wrote:

I can't log in because no password is created when a new email address is to be gifted to a new user.

The password would have had to be created when the email address was created. Don't try creating and gifting as one process, do them individually. Create the address and then gift it.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

pat88 — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:02:38 GMT

Thnaks for the reply.

I agree absolutely about the confusing instructions about gifting. It's not the first time we've had problems with BT's poor instructions. I wonder if BT ever test out these help thingys on someone unfamiliar with the procedure? ( I've probably answered my own question! )

Anyway, we'll have to start from scratch with another new email address that has been set up completely and then try gifting it and hope that it attaches itself to my BT ID this tiime.

Re: Linking a gifted email address to my BT ID

pat88 — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:03:46 GMT

Thanks for the advice -- will try that with a new email address.