Downgrade from Premium to basic email

[ConradJ]

I have a premium BT email, for which I have to pay £7.50 / month as I dont have BT phone/broadband. I'd like to downgrade this to basic email (free), and have been told by 2 BT representatives this is possible - I keep the account but it has some limitations. However when I tried to do this, I was told my email account would be deleted 60 days after downgrading. In other words, you cant downgrade it. 

I started this email as a talk21-btyahoo service which was free, then they started charging for it. Now it looks like I'm locked in! 

Any help appreciated.

[gg30340]

Who told you it would be deleted after 60 days.... was it an automated email or a person. I suspect it was an automated email. If it was a person, they are wrong.

Once you stop BT Premium email your email account would be deleted but only if you did not request it to be changed to the BT Basic email. If you made the request then it will be "downgraded" to BTBasic.

You must however use the email account at least once every 90 days or it will be suspended then after 60 days deleted.

See link

Why has my email address been suspended or deleted? | BT Help

See link about types of email.

BT Email products | Types of BT Emails | BT Help

[ConradJ]

Thanks for this- that's what I want to hear!

It was a person who told me. Initially I was told I could downgrade the account, then put through to someone to actually do it, and this person, who seemed very confident in what they were saying, and checked it when I asked, were insistent it couldn't be done.

I'll try again now I'm armed with those links!

[robby2k9]

There seems to be some confusion over what to do when leaving BT with regards to email retention. On one part of the website it says that If you're leaving BT Broadband and want to get Basic email, you need to order it when cancelling your broadband. On the other hand, on another part of the site, it states that on leaving BT the email account is downgraded to basic, suggesting that this is an automatic process & that no request needs to be made. Some clarity please?

[NeilO]

Hi @robby2k9 I'm sorry for any confusion caused, to clarify we no longer delete a mailbox when a customer leaves BT Broadband.

When a BT email customer cancels their Broadband, for 60 days after the cease date, they’ll continue to enjoy all their existing email features. After this time, we’ll automatically downgrade them to Basic email.

I'll highlight the webpage that says you need to order it as that information is now out of date.

Thanks

Neil

[ConradJ]

I managed to downgrade to basic a few days ago (thanks gg30340), but still got some conflicting info.

At the moment my account still has mail forwarding working - will that continue for good? Or  is that a premium feature which is kept going for 60 days only?

[licquorice]

Mail forwarding is not a feature of basic mail, so will cease to work at some point.