good email address to use as recovery email address? (not gmail!)
 

I have a gmail account and I don't want to use a mobile number for recovery..

It offers the option to add an email account for recovery, but I don't want the recovery email address to be gmail, because gmail is horrible when it comes to logging in from other locations, from an account one doesn't use much.

It could lock me out and want to send me a text or something, or require another recovery email address.. Even when I have the password, that recovery email address might want to send an email to a recovery email address.. I can't have that.

I need a free email service that is reliable and doesn't have ridiculous security procedures that discriminate based on where in the UK I am logging in from or what device I log in from! . I've had situations where I log in from home then can't log in from a friend's laptop in a cafe 20 minutes away.

Thanks

Does your home ISP provide a free e-mail account?

Unfortunately, your criteria don't work well together:

• Free
• Reliable
• No advanced security features

You don't want to use an email service which is free with poor security controls for a backup address, since that's how you lose control over all of your accounts (email, banking, websites you own, etc.). If there is any one service you should pay for, it's the email account you use as the backup address for all of your accounts. If you use Gmail you are effectively paying them by providing them access to scan your messages (as with other "free" services such as Facebook).

If you have a mobile phone or internet service at home, you probably have email accounts through those services.

No matter what you decide, be sure to consider the business model and security features of the backup email service. If the service has no obvious revenue source they are hiding their business model from you or they will be unreliable, since the cost of running an email service is significant.

Try ProtonMail. Their free account is plenty good for this. I think they are pretty reliable and also focused on security. Choose some really obscure email address like you are choosing a password and nobody will be able to guess it. Another option might be to use a Yubikey or one of Google's new authentication tokens when they become available. I don't imagine they will lock people out who are using one of those. You can also use one-time recovery codes that you could keep in your wallet.

Tutanota or Mailfence

Mail.uk and disroot.org.