Changing e-mail address - Computers & Internet

The act of changing your email address is simple.
However, you can save yourself a lot of headaches by doing some planning before you begin.

Just as with changing your home address, one of the main challenges with changing your email address is making sure that you do not loose any important contacts.

Another challenge to is avoiding bringing your old spam contacts with you.
A third challenge is to find an email address that fits your needs.

Gather your contacts into a single list.
Remember, that you probably have a lot more contacts than just the ones currently set up on your "favorite contacts" list on your email account.

Spend some time going through you email history and identify older contacts that you may not have used in a while, but which you do not want to loose.


Think about your needs before setting up a new email account. Think about the kinds of attachments you like to send?

Do you need higher capacity?
Also think about what kind of interface your prefer.
Some prefer a simple, bare-bones interface, while others prepher something more elaborate.

Ask yourself if the address itself is important to you.
Some people are quite picky about this.

Ask yourself what you dislike about your current service.
This will help you to better pinpoint what you desire from your new service.

Check out your options.
There are a lot of free web-based email services out there.

These are great for some purposes, but if you need really high capacity, or require greater security, then you might want to look for a different type of service that you will need to pay for.

Read the privacy policy carefully of any email service you are considering.
Make sure you are not making any commitments you are uncomfortable with.

Test your new address.
Once you set up you new address, have a few close friend email you regularly for a few days to make sure it is really what you want before informing all you contacts.

Send out a single mass-mailing to all your contacts, once you have established your new address, and tested it.
Be careful to weed out all the spammers before you do this.

Keep your old email address active for a while after establishing your new address.
How long you need to do this depends upon how much email traffic you have.

The more traffic, and the more contacts you have, the longer you should keep your address active.
Generally speaking, your should plan to wait at least one month before abandoning you old address.

In some cases, you may want to keep checking it for several months.