how to choose a new email address and stress free changing?

[southamericarewards]

I need to change email address for the first time. What do i need to think about as I dont want to have to change it again. Easy to spell out, not personally identifying but obviously available? What is the most stress free way to change? It feels daunting to me as a non techy person.

Let's rewind - why do you need to change your email address?

Let me guess, is your current email provider BT?

Gmail is very easy to change to.
Just Google Gmail and go from there. Perhaps use your first and last name reversed; [email protected]
Then choose a password you'll remember, perhaps your postcode and off you go.

Just choose some random words and some numbers eg [email protected] or thegreentop864 etc

Thank you, my email is an unsupported one that I have had since emails started so I know I have to change before they cancel the service totally. my married name is too tricky to spell out each time I need to give out my email so I need something else but it doesnt feel right to be random or to be my maiden name!

Once set up what is the easiest way to start transferring as 4 different schools, every retailer, all the kids clubs, banking, ebay etc etc all use the existing email.

Sorry no advice on the transition, apart from to say keep the old one going for white some time to catch everything!

With regards to the new name, do you have initials which can help? If the surname is too tricky, can you utilise your first name e.g.

LouiseHBG@
MrsLouiseHBG@
MrsLBHG@

Are your first and middle name unusual enough to work together. Obviously almost every variant of Emma Louise will be taken, but it’s it’s more unusual then that, maybe with your last initial (or initials if it’s a double barrelled surname). IsadoraBeatriceSB or similar would works and be easy to give out.

An overlap where you have both is good. I amended mine on everything I could think of then monitored the old account for 3 months and changed any important emails that came to the old account. I took the opportunity to unsubscribe from any non important emails that came to the old account. By 3 months the old email had virtually no traffic and everything was junk.
The important ones to target first are annual insurances as you may miss a renewal if you monitor the old account for only 3 months

Set up forwarding and an auto reply, with your new email listed, on your old account.

thank you, my understanding is that my old account doesnt have ability to forward as taken over by virgin and they make it as difficult as possible to leave. also doesnt have the ability to transfer old emails in bulk

I have managed to set up a gmail account! It doesnt accept transfer of information from old accounts though. is there a way to transfer contacts/old emails? Thank you

Can you set up a mail client like Thunderbird and sychronise your mail to it? (use the option called "imap")?

Once you have the mail downloaded into imap folders you can then disconnect the old email and connect to your gmail account. Gmail will allow you to sync the saved imap folders into your gmail account.

Thank you for this suggestion. I have absolutely no idea and am scared of losing information but will find someone technical and ask if they can do this. Would this be contacts and emails (in their folders)?

I had the same issue when without warning I lost access to my blueyonder account for 3 weeks. After lots of frustrating phone calls Virgin fixed my access but I now have to access it by logging into Virgin Media - very clunky.

As you say, there doesn't seem to be a way to auto redirect so I have been slowly manually changing it to gmail on accounts etc - a real pain

You might like to consider registering your own domain, then you legal own the entire address and no-one can take it away.

There are many companies that will do this, but I have used.
https://www.ionos.co.uk/
https://hostinguk.net/
https://www.lcn.com/

It also means you can move the hosting to a different company if want.

So far as copying the mails, there are several ways, but one of the simplest ways is to add both accounts to a mail client, and just copy the emails from one folder to another.

You will indeed need to change the address on no doubt endless accounts, I would just blitz it and monitor the old account for traffic.

I'm in the process of leaving virgin too. Lucky enough to have an unusual first name and surname combo so was able to just use that. My relative with a common surname uses the LOUISE example above with initials from her middle and last names and the day (eg 16) of her birth. I started by handing out my new address to any new contacts and then making sure to use the new address when I placed an online order or gave it out for a receipt. Gmail is useful because it groups the retail emails together in a 'promotions' folder. I would do an email to all proper (ie not retail) contacts well before you close the Virgin account, just saying you're changing your address to [email protected] with immediate effect.

@IntheSnowySnowyMountains thanks for this. Have you found an easy way to transfer your contacts or emails from virgin, one that I could understand!

@southamericarewards When I switched from using my yahoo account to gmail, I kept them running in parallel, gradually changing the address on different systems. For friends, I didn't send out a mass-email, I just started using my new account, and they would reply to it. But I did put an auto-reply on my yahoo account to say it was no longer in use and please would they update their address books with my new address.

All my old yahoo email is still in yahoo, but I no longer get emails to it or send anything from it.

There are some websites, like Gumtree, that use your email address as a user-id and won't allow you to change it, which is a pain.

p.s. If you tell us who your current email provider is we might be able to help you with the import question.

Thank you. Yes I had said the email provider is virgin who dont support blueyonder/ntl anymore. Not sure I can have auto reply. Does anyone know?

Only by googling:https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Auto-reply-option-for-Blueyonder-email/td-p/4856263

Maybe if you start a new thread with blueyonder in the title you'll get some experienced users to help you. But otherwise, google is your best bet.

Can't you just set up a rule so they get forwarded (alternatively if it stops they'll bounce back to the sender). I wouldn't worry too much, nothing super urgent will come by email