# Change of e mail address **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015 "2017-03-25T18:06:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/21 "2017-03-26T20:05:00Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I use AOL as a browser most of the time. When I have problems I switch to my google browser. Thinking of just doing everything on Google. I’ve had my aol account over 25 years. I had their service back in the DOS days, but not since. I’m not sure I follow when you say you use their browser now. I use chrome to check my AOL email. No need to change email address. I also can use seamonkey to check my gmail or any of my other various accounts. Also Thunderbird can go and get the mail from most of my accounts if I want to set it up to do so. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/22 "2017-03-26T20:11:30Z")
> [@PoppaSan](#): > > I’ve had my aol account over 25 years. I had their service back in the DOS days, but not since. I’m not sure I follow when you say you use their browser now. I use chrome to check my AOL email. No need to change email address. I also can use seamonkey to check my gmail or any of my other various accounts. Also Thunderbird can go and get the mail from most of my accounts if I want to set it up to do so. I browse the internet while on AOL is what I should have said. They use a google assisted browser but AOL seems to affect how well they run. I can’t play scrabble on facebook while signed into AOL for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/23 "2017-03-26T20:58:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That might be, with a company dedicated to providing e-mail service. But if we’re talking about the IT department of a company that does something else, it’s a different story. Each time I graduated from a university, for instance, it was over a year before anyone got around to deactivating my old account. It’s not even a given that your previous e-mail provider has a procedure in place that prevents your previous e-mail address being assigned to a new customer later (with addresses based on name and firstname/lastname combos that are common that’s a real risk). In that case people who send e-mail to your previous address won’t even get a bounce. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/24 "2017-03-26T21:19:16Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > On the other end of the spectrum, if anyone leaves where I work (quit, fired, or whatever), their e-mail is deactivated immediately as a security precaution, generally before they leave the building. That’s one reason I insist that employees have a personal email address, in addition to their company account. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/25 "2017-03-26T21:23:23Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > On the other end of the spectrum, if anyone leaves where I work (quit, fired, or whatever), their e-mail is deactivated immediately as a security precaution, generally before they leave the building. Which is why we so often hear, “ **Engineer\_comp\_geek** _has left_ the building!!!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/26 "2017-03-27T02:12:38Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I suggest you go a step beyond **AnalogSignal** ’s suggestion: get your own domain and set your email to that domain, which then forwards to Gmail or whoever. That’s a fine solution when you first create your first email address. It doesn’t solve the OP’s problem that after 25 years and gosh knows how many people, businesses, websites, etc., having his address, he wants AOL to forward [HoneyBadgerDC@AOL.com](mailto:HoneyBadgerDC@AOL.com) to someplace else forever after at no cost to him. Agree that once he is using his own domain name he can later change his email supplier from Google to Apple to Microsoft to Comcast to … transparently. But that first step is a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/27 "2017-03-27T14:51:55Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I browse the internet while on AOL is what I should have said. They use a google assisted browser but AOL seems to affect how well they run. I can’t play scrabble on facebook while signed into AOL for instance. You are doing AOL dialup for your internet? Or you’re running the AOL desktop? AOL toolbar? AOL app? Like I said, I’m not fully following where you are leading. BTW I see they also have a Firefox branded browser. All of which is not important if you are leaving aol for another provider. You can keep your AOL email unless they change the rules. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015/28 "2017-03-27T15:32:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But that first step is a bitch. Which is why some of us took it the second time an ISP folded, jacked its rates, merged or otherwise forced us to lose that critical online anchor. I’d guess that a GMail address will be good for pretty much the life of email, but that’s a latecomer and it can be difficult to get it away from sources you don’t want to use it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-of-e-mail-address/783015.md?page=1)