Transferring email address

[Kat789]

Hi,

We have switched my father in law to EE broadband recently, as BT has been ripping him off for years. He has a BT email address that he had for as long as we remember. We have BT broadband and want to connect his address to our broadband so he doesn't have to pay extra £7.50 to keep the features. Now, we have been customers for just over two years and never created a BT email so don't have the "manage email" option in our account, so absolutely no way to access those features, hence BT's FAQ being no use. On the other hand we also don't have landline and have our phones on contracts with other network provider and BT charges for phone calls that are not from BT phone. No email address or online chat that I found. Can anyone help? Poor guy has been paying over £80 a month for 7 years now, as he never renewed his contract, while watching Freeview and using perhaps 5GB internet a month, so we really feel he shouldn't have to pay extra to keep an email...

Thanks for any help and tips

[rbz5416]

I believe BT email is gradually being withdrawn & isn't available to new customers. If you've never used it then like me, you're probably considered a new email customer & hence it isn't available. Even if it was, I doubt you could transfer an email address between accounts.

He won't lose the email address, just the ability to use it with an email client. He will still have access to webmail.

Maybe set him up with Gmail & gradually migrate him over?

[Kat789]

If you look at the BT website, it clearly states you can create emails and "gift" them to others. Also can transfer someone's email to your account.

https://www.bt.com/help/email/manage-email-account/can-i-move-my-bt-email-address-to-another-account...

He is a businessman so the amount of people that have his email is staggering. I don't think transferring to gmail is a viable option here. Having never used bt email, does it come with its own app? Perhaps he can access it via Gmail or outlook app on his phone? 

[gg30340]

As has been stated, BT are no longer offering BTMail to new customers or existing customer who did not set up an email account prior to October 2022.

If you had a BT email account you could have moved his email account onto your BTBroadband account but as you never set up a BT email account prior to October 2022 you will not be able to do this  nor will you be able to set up a BTMail account for your self.

If you have another relative or trusted friend who has a BT Broadband account and a BT email account you could move your father's email account to that account.

Once it has been moved, it would need to be "gifted" to him by the BT Broadband account holder and he would "accept" it and set up his own BTID.

This would give him total control over the account such as setting up the password and only he would have access to it. The Broadband account holder would have it showing on their account but they could not access it or change the password. They could however delete the email account from their account if the chose to do so.

See link and sub links.

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

If it is not possible to move it to another BT Broadband account, as has been pointed out your father's email account would be "downgraded" to the BTMail Basic account so he would still have access to it albeit not by using an email client/app.

He would need to pay for a BT Premium email account if he wanted that facility.

See link about types of BTMail accounts

BT Email products | Types of BT Emails | BT Help

[Kat789]

I have been through all these links, thanks. Do you know exactly what sort of "features" he'll be losing if he downgrades to a basic email? Apart from only being able to use it on a webpage, obviously. They're being very vague about it in the letter they sent to him and he is worried there will be more to it than just that. Will he be able to retain all his folders and settings, etc? I can't find any information about any other changes anywhere.

[licquorice]

As you say, the account will only be available to use by web browser, the ability to forward mails will also be lost. Folders and other settings will remain

[Kat789]

Is there a list somewhere that states all the changes? It's the first time I hear about losing the ability to forward emails, which is a rather essential part of any emailing platform, especially if you have your own business. What else is there that BT is not saying? My father in law is an elderly person, stuck in his ways and not extremely technology savvy, I just want to avoid his disappointment if it turns out there's more to it than what is being highlighted by BT.

[gg30340]

If he has his own business it begs the question why would he choose to use a consumer email account rather than a business email account which amongst other things would have a far better SLA (Service Level Agreement) should anything go wrong.

The BTMail Basic account will perform in exactly the same way as it does now with the exception of forwarding, although some have found it still works,  and not being able to use it with an email client/app. Auto reply will still work as will rules. What more would he need? There will be BT adverts on the web page.

If at any time he is not happy with what BTMail Basic provides he can "upgrade" to a BT Premium email account which will give him exactly the same as he has now but he will be paying £7.50 per month for it.

[Kat789]

I wouldn't be able to answer that question as I wasn't around to advise when he was setting it up. Perhaps it has started as a personal account and merged into "all in one" as time went by. Bear in mind he is an old generation that did not have all these options when first started and had to learn internet as it went. The problem now is that everyone knows him under that address and transferring would take forever.

Ah yes, he can pay, but I don't see why he should, since he was overpaying for over seven years and BT wasn't complaining then. There were no reminders that he should review his account and I can guarantee you that he didn't even know he can download an app for it. Personally I find it unreasonable, and the way BT treats their long term customers is bad business. No forwarding is a really sad move as it forces people to either keep on paying an absolutely extortionate amount to retain a standard feature, or not being able to expand and transfer their emails onto another platform after the deadline. 

[gg30340]

I'll leave aside your comment about being an older generation as many, myself included on this forum are not in the flush of youth.

As regards your comment "Ah yes, he can pay, but I don't see why he should, since he was overpaying for over seven years and BT wasn't complaining then. There were no reminders that he should review his account and I can guarantee you that he didn't even know he can download an app for it.  

Unless I am mistaken, emails are sent out when a Fixed Term Contract is coming to an end so that would be up to him to review his contract and decide whether to renew or not. As a business man I would think that he does this with other accounts that his business may have.

 While BT do have an email app, 

What is the BT Email app and how do I get it? | BT Help

there is no requirement to use it and in my opinion it is not a very good app, there are many far superior free email apps available.

As regards "No forwarding is a really sad move as it forces people to either keep on paying an absolutely extortionate amount to retain a standard feature, or not being able to expand and transfer their emails onto another platform after the deadline". 

As for paying for the email account after you leave BT, BT is one of the few providers who let you keep your email account free of charge. Other providers give you a period of grace then just delete your account and contents with no option to keep it.

There is no time scale with how long you can keep your BTMail Basic account so users can take as long as they like to transfer to another email service if that is what they want to do.

As you obviously feel aggrieved by this and as I doubt you will get the answer that you are looking for I have nothing else to add to what has already been posted so I will now bow out of your thread.