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25 Nov 2015, 07:59 AM | #1 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 6
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Are there any email services where accounts never expire?
I've been looking for email services which provide accounts that never expire. Are there any email services that are like that? I want to make an email account, but all email service providers I've come across have an expiration period, so if you don't use your account for a certain amount of time, it will be dormant and after some more time, it will expire.
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25 Nov 2015, 08:40 AM | #2 |
The "e" in e-mail
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Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown
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1) there used to be a few services without inactivity limits, announcing "an account for life". In my country for example, advalvas.be was one of those, in our neighbouring country the Netherlands there was ilse.nl . Within the year of opening an account there, the service ceased to exist.
Any provider that claims an account is "for life" should make the nuance, even if there is no inactivity limit, that this doesn't guarantee "for life" but "for as long as we keep our service running". No company can look into the future and see how long they'll be around. We don't even know how the internet itself will change within the next decade(s). 2) I am not sure whether there are some email services without expiry limits now, according to wikipedia's comparison of webmail providers there are. But Wikipedia is often incorrect. 3) If you have a paid email provider, your account will never expire even if you don't log in for years, as long as you keep paying your bills (and assuming the service doesn't cease to exist) 4) Some providers have quite long inactivity periods. For example Gmail has 9 months ; Outlook.com has 9 or 12 months (??) ; Safe-Mail has 6 months (unless this changed with the new relaunch) ; EUMX gift accounts have an inactivity limit of 12 months (which means signing in once within the year is OK to keep your account alive) ; Mail.be and ContactOffice.com have 7 months ... If you open an email account, I assume you will use it now and then? And even if it is a backup email account rather than for daily communication, I guess signing in once every 6 or 9 months cannot be that hard?! I just named some of the few providers where one sign-in per year or per 9 months is sufficient to keep your account alive. Even if your sole intention for the email account is to use it as a backup where you forward important emails to and store them there ; then indeed you don't need to open your account weekly or monthly or so, but once every half year cannot be such a burden? |
25 Nov 2015, 11:25 AM | #3 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 551
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Nothing is forever except a mother's love.
A more important question would be: "Are there any email services that will never close? ". Your best bet would be the big players like gmail, hotmail, and yahoo. I don't know what zoho's policy is but I had accounts I never signed into for a couple years and they were still intact. Zoho is a decent service actually. |
25 Nov 2015, 01:23 PM | #4 |
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25 Nov 2015, 02:10 PM | #5 |
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Irving, Texas
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I see that you posted in three threads about this topic today, so it must be important to you. I agree with the comments by the various posters. You should always keep in mind the business case for something you obtain which is marketed as "free". There is no free lunch, and no truly free email account. If you are paying a direct payment for the account, the provider has another revernue stream to allow them to keep the email account open. Free email accounts have no direct support and often have few features. You get what you pay for.
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27 Nov 2015, 05:58 AM | #6 | |
The "e" in e-mail
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Even that isn't Always the case, sadly enough, but anyways, that's offtopic ...
Quote:
More locally orientated services that have a very strong reach within their own community are also unlikely to cease operations (mail.ru for example is so big in Russia that they're as likely to stay around as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail) Of course, "nothing ever lasts forever" as Echo & The Bunnymen sing. No empire has lasted forever. We can more or less say that the big players are likely to stay around as long as the internet in its current form exists. But with technology ever evolving, it is quite hard to predict how the internet will change in the next years, let alone the next decades. So even when talking about Hotmail or Gmail, we may not be talking about "forever" but about "as long as the internet exists as we know it" When it comes to inactivity limits ... Several services have a 1 year inactivity limit, even some free ones. So logging in to your account 1x in a year is sufficient to keep your account alive. I think this cannot be such an impossible task that it's worth worrying about By this I don't mean your question is not legitimate, I would for example not sign up for a service with an inactivity limit of just 1 or 2 months. |
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7 Jun 2017, 04:48 AM | #7 |
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Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 119
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iCloud and Tutanota are the only services I'm aware of with email accounts that never expire. Yandex keeps accounts for two years before they become inactive.
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7 Jun 2017, 04:54 AM | #8 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 388
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all I can say is....YANDEX.
Nuff said. And what is the problem to log in a service once every 3 months fe?? D |
7 Jun 2017, 06:04 AM | #9 |
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Location: USA
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The thing is that even if they truly never expire, you have no way of knowing that unless you do log in once in awhile to check! Seriously, what use is a "for life" service if you don't use it and therefore have no way of knowing if it is still actively working. I am reminded of the $millions that have gone unclaimed in bank accounts that have apparently been abandoned. I'm sure at some point in the distant past a saver thought to himself "I'll put my money somewhere safe so I never have to worry about it." Then he forgets where he put it 20 years ago and never retrieves it. I suppose with email you can always have mail forwarded from that account and then have it filtered or starred or something so that once in awhile you get to notice if it is still working. I find it is useful to have some reliable newsletters and even advertising flow into seldom used accounts, just so the emails are forwarded, reminding me that the email account still exists.
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10 Jun 2017, 12:36 AM | #10 |
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Instead of focusing on a specific email service provider & retention policy, it would be easier register your own domain name.
You'll get an email address for life that's portable! Suggestions: Register a Domain | Get LuxSci - Email with great tech support! (offer code: EMD) Godaddy can host your email for free as long as your domain is registered with them. If you want email with great tech support, get LuxSci! |
15 Mar 2022, 01:16 PM | #11 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2022
Location: Taiwan
Posts: 9
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Actually Gmail got even longer inactivity periods, I've got an account that hadn't been signed in for about 3 years, and it is still working.
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20 Mar 2022, 06:09 AM | #12 |
Master of the @
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,693
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I think vfemail.net is fine for long timeframe and Eumx
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25 Mar 2022, 09:54 AM | #13 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 189
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Quote:
Tell that to Tutanota, who closed my paid account at least 2-3 months prior to due date of the next bill for 'inactivity'. |
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31 Mar 2022, 08:40 PM | #14 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown
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I'd not trust any provider that suspends inactive paid accounts. On the other hand, Tutanota gets excellent comments from many forum members, it may be a mistake that support can fix. Although I can understand the trust in them is broken for you. |
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16 Apr 2022, 09:46 PM | #15 | |
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