Lifetime account for Full or Enhanced users
 

How about a lifetime account for Full or Enhanced users for about a one-time fee of 150-200 dollars?

While this will give a great deal and convenience for the users, fastmail will have the advantage of getting a big amount upfront, which could be invested in the company for a bigger return.

I will consider such a upgrade if offered.

I was thinking about this too. I'd seriously consider.

so would I...

I believe it will be quite a bit more than 150-200 for a lifetime enhanced account. The full account may be around that pricing range. :)

But that will only happen if Jeremy and Rob approve.

I think that is pretty reasonable for now, but who knows what will happen as times goes on. I'm not saying that FM will disappear, but that Pricing will change a lot as well as features. Thats why I don't think its such a great idea. I also personally don't like paying so much up front like that. Things change so fast these days, I just don't think its right. Thats just my opinion though.

Yea I agree with you esTester. But, some people would rather pay a larger amount up front and never have to deal with payments for "email" again.

:) At least, that's the way I look at it.

OT - Imagine if you could do lifetime accounts for internet access!

Sounds good for end users but from a company point of view I would think it is not the way to go.......;)

Now that would be something. I bet most people couldn't even afford it. It would be a great way to save money if you could afford it though. They would probably give mega discounts. The only problem with that is what happens when the next faster net connection comes out. Thats the only flaw.

Stinger - Yes, and that is why most companies don't offer Lifetime accounts because overall...*that* is a major discount and in the long run the company wouldn't profit as much as the monthly payments. I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this has come up in the Runbox forum and it was stated that Runbox doesn't profit that much from the Lifetime accounts as their regular accounts.

esTester - I completely agree with you. But you can only get so fast with access right? If you're going to do lifetime, make it worth while and do lifetime on the latest technology. :)

I agree with esTester....
I've payed for 12 months, and I'll see what developes in the future. At the moment I think I've had value for money :)

If I have used FM for 1-2 years and feel comfortable, I'd love the lifetime account option. It give *you* a very good deal. Not the mail provider. It does give them big initial income, but how about for the long run? Unless they can save a big portion of the lifetime fee and invest it somewhere else for the long run.

If it is going to be made available, I'd say it should be made available for 2-3 years account, not everybody. It's more like an appreciation of the loyal account.

ady

We all will just have to wait and see what happens with Fastmail's pricing I guess...:D

We are considering a lifetime option. We're just waiting for me to finish arguing with our finance guy about what a suitable multiple of the one-year price is. I'm trying to get 6x, and he's trying to get 8x; I guess that mean's we'll probably end up settling with 7x... ;)

There were several "lifetime" internet access companies that charged a large one-time fee in the past. The problem was that all of those "lifetime" ISPs that I was aware of had very short lifetimes! The same has even happened with annual prepay ISPs that lasted only a few months before closing up shop and going away with subscribers money!:(

You might be much better off offering e.g. a 20-year account rather than a "lifetime" account. You could still offer it for the cost of 7 single-year subs, thus saving people 65%!

But by limiting it to 20 years, you don't then get into the kind of ridiculous arguments I can see coming WAY down the track where your successors or your successors' successors get sued for wanting to change/suspend the lifetime subs program.

20 years should be enough to satisfy the vast majority of people!