# Email Forwarding? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 11, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-forwarding/681102 "2014-02-11T23:39:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-forwarding/681102/1 "2014-02-11T23:39:48Z")
So, let’s say I’ve been a customer of Big Nasty Corporation for years, and my email is associated with their system. [myname@bnc.com](mailto:myname@bnc.com) Let’s say they’ve pissed me off once too often, and I want to go to, say, gmail. Is there a way to keep [myname@bnc.com](mailto:myname@bnc.com) even if I cancel my account with bnc? Are there forwarders that will forward this to [myname@gmail.com](mailto:myname@gmail.com), so I don’t have to go to the hassle of telling all my friends to change? (Is it free, or does it cost?) Any experience? ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-forwarding/681102/2 "2014-02-11T23:47:23Z")
Big Nasty Corp owns [bnc.com](http://bnc.com), and controls the name servers and mail servers associated with that domain, so no. Your best bet is to keep the [bnc.com](http://bnc.com) account for a transition period of a few months. During that time, you can have [bnc.com](http://bnc.com) forward your mail to gmail while you notify all your friends, colleagues, online accounts, etc of your new email address. Only then can you dump the old account. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-forwarding/681102/3 "2014-02-12T00:24:55Z")
I was afraid that was the case. Otherwise, someone would have to “intercept” the incoming mail before it got to bnc. But, in the information age, anything _might_ be possible. I’ll follow your advice, and keep my bnc account for a while. Thank’ee! ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-forwarding/681102/4 "2014-02-12T00:47:44Z")
My parents switched from Time-Warner Cincinnati to Time-Warner Northern Kentucky (approximately 30 miles away). Even though it’s the same company, they each had unique mail servers and they were given 30 days to notify their contacts of the new account.