Don’t use your ISP’s Email Address

Last Updated on January 8, 2024 by Tim FitzGerald

Most internet service providers (ISP) provide you with an email address. It’s usually how you log into their website to access your account information, pay bills online, etc, so it makes sense that they do this.

I offer the following advice:

Don’t use your ISP’s email address as your primary email address.

Switching ISPs

I hear you asking “why not?” Well, the only reason you really need is the fact that you might switch ISPs at some point in the future. If you switch ISPs, what happens to your ISP email account when you stop paying the ISP for your internet service? Some ISPs might let you keep it, but it’s not really in their best interest to provide that email service when you’re no longer paying them on a monthly basis.

ISP’s are getting out the email business

Sometimes ISP’s close, go out of business or are taken over by another ISP. Tiscali was taken over and is closing their email service or asking users to pay to keep it open. Click here. Or here. Or here.

Some ISPs (VM, Sky) are no longer providing email addresses for new customers. It doesn’t seem they have a long-term committment to provide email services. I also hear that one ISP is proposing to close its email service whilst continuing as an ISP – Click Here

Changing email providers

As anyone who has done it can attest, it’s not easy to change your email address. Think of the hundreds of friends, family, websites, retailers, etc. that use your email address to communicate with you. Do you really remember every important website or service that you registered your email address with? They probably include your bank, utilities, social networks, shopping websites like Amazon, entertainment services like iTunes and Netflix, your school, your employer, various reward/loyalty clubs for stores, and the list goes on. If you switch ISPs, you’ve got to log in to each account and update your email address. What a pain!

Feature Limitations

I have yet to see an ISP’s email service match the feature set of top email services like Gmail or Outlook. There are advantages and disadvantages in using any email provider – lets look at some issues:

Email Integrity

Are the contents of the email you send or receive secure from prying eyes? Be aware that email is generally considered to be insecure. There are new email services that encrypt the data – these are much more secure.

IMAP vs POP3

Email services from many ISPs only support the POP3 standard instead of the IMAP standard. IMAP allows you to sync your email across multiple devices like your smartphone, desktop PC, laptop, tablet, etc. Any change you make on one device, such as deleting a message, will be reflected on all of the other devices. It also supports most email functions like moving messages into folders.

POP3 is more limited; it simply downloads a copy of an email when you open it on a device and either delete it from the server (so it is only accessible on the device you first viewed it on) or leaves a copy on the server (so when you delete it from the device you viewed it on, it will actually still be on the server and all of your other devices). POP3 is not a secure protocol.

Additional Features and Services

Does your ISP’s email service offer automatic message labeling/sorting, lightning-fast search, and filtering, or value-adds like cloud storage, a calendar, or a task list? Does your provider do a good job at identifying and sorting spam emails? Look for an email provider that offers you features you can use to your advantage.

Past Performance

Yahoo’s services have had multiple security breaches a few years ago, affecting millions of users. This makes me very unsure about using it as my primary email account. Other email providers have experienced other issues. See here
Virgin Media users suffered several multi-day email outages in 2023
– see here and here

Advertising

Some email providers rely on advertising for revenue and interrupt your email experience with unwanted advertising. All free email service providers are using you as their source of revenue; usually, so they can advertise to you. The better email providers do not put advertising into their web-based email solutions or into their email applications.

A Better Email Solution

What’s the alternative? The alternative is to use an email service like Gmail, or Outlook. There are alternatives, but both Gmail and Outlook continue to add features that make managing email easier and faster. These email services also come with secure online storage for files – Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Both offer online word-processing and spreadsheet applications (Google Docs, Microsoft Office365) that provide office application functionality, with co-authoring and file-sharing capabilities.

Users of Apple products may wish to remain faithful to Apple and use iCloud.

Gmail

The obvious next question is what email address should you use? Gmail has the advantage of being a familiar name, being free, and offering lots of storage for attachments. But it’s also hard to get the email address you want, and you do sign away significant chunks of your privacy.

Outlook

If you can cope with an Outlook.com address then this would be my preference, although the same caveats about privacy apply. Outlook offers all the benefits of Gmail. Microsoft’s Hotmail email service has been incorporated into Outlook.

Email Security

Email is not at all secure. The email provider can (and sometimes does) read the content of your emails and use the information gathered for their own purposes. Email can be made more secure by encrypting the content but this is complex and not for the average user. If you want secure email there are a few providers of email services with enhanced security – notably Proton Mail.

Email applications

There are plenty of email applications for Windows, Mac, Android, or iPhone. These offer plenty of features and are often more feature-rich than the standard web-based application. Use an email application, by all means, if they offer you what you want.

Email service providers to avoid

Avoid all email service providers whose primary activity is being an ISP eg:- ntlworld, virginmedia, btinternet, talk21, talktalk, sky, vodafone, tiscali, ee, o2, plusnet. Also avoid some of the older original email providers eg:- aol, etc.

Multi Factor Authentication

What is MFA? Two-factor authentication (2FA) or Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) is a way of strengthening the login security of your online accounts. It’s similar to how an ATM works. You need both your debit card (first factor) and your PIN (second factor) to access your account and withdraw cash. The main objective is better security. If your card is stolen, they still need your PIN. If your PIN is stolen, they still need your card. Enabling MFA will help to stop hackers from getting into your accounts, even if they have your password. If you are using an email service that does not offer MFA, please consider switching to an email provider that does.

How do I enable MFA on my accounts? Here are links you can use to enable MFA on some of the most popular online services and apps:

An independent review of free email services can be found here – Jan 2023

For more of the government’s latest advice on how to stay secure online, visit the Cyber Aware website: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberaware

End-to-End Encryption

Email was not designed to be secure. Although some email providers use encrypted transport, email content is stored unencrypted. There are ways to encrypt the email content. There are also a few providers making secure email available to all by using end-to-end encryption.. It should be noted that when the email is sent to an email provider that does not use end-to-end encryption then the secure nature of the email will be lost.
If the security of the content of your email is key to you then you may wish to use one of these providers. Proton Mail is just one example of secure email providers. A list of secure email providers is available here

Passwords

Most important of all your password is key to the security of your email.
– Don’t forget to change your passwords regularly
– Be sure your password is complex and not easy to guess
– Be sure you can remember your passwords
– Consider using a password manager

Summary

I recommend not using email addresses provided by ISPs but using the email services provided by Microsoft, Google, or Apple. However, if you can’t stand the thought of not using your old and familiar ISP’s email service, then relegate it to the purpose of signing up for services and websites that you think might send a lot of spam. Then, if and when you decide the website or service is OK, you can update your account with your primary email address.

By all means, use more than one email address; in practice, it’s a good idea to have several email addresses. You can set up your email application and your web-based email reader (Gmail or Outlook) to read the emails of several addresses.

You may want to use one email address for higher security use (eg: online banking); another for online retail (eg: Amazon, eBay), and yet another for social media use, etc.

Read about a survey which claims that fear of Email Loss stops 2 Million UK Homes Switching ISP