Old BTOpenworld dial-up account

I have an old free BTOpenworld email address ([email protected], same as xxxx.btinternet.com). To keep this alive I have to connect to my account by dial-up every 90 days. This is a bit of a pain.

My ISP is Plusnet. Now they are owned by BT, it it possible for this requirement to be removed?

Alternatively, there used to be a facility whereby I could change this free email account to an upgraded one by paying a small amount (£1.50???) per month that would remove the dial-up requirement.

Can anyone advise on this? BT Care maybe?

I have not dialled in to my set for quite a while and they are still active.

Rather than access mine, I have it set to auto forward to one of my current email accounts and have just checked that it works - it still does.

The problem is not getting emails, it is losing the account. I can get emails using Outlook or by webmail with no difficulty.

A friend of mine went from BT to Virgin Media and he got an email from BT saying "You have not used your account for 60 days etc..." and that if he did not dial-in within 30 days the account would be deleted. He did not dial in and indeed the account was deleted.

This is what I am trying to avoid.

I have not dialled in for quite a while ...

As for the £1.50 option, it was there at the end of last year you just need to find the web page.


The reason I forward mine to my other account is that if an email comes in, any reply goes from a newer email address and gets that through to all recipients, who next time, may use the new address. It seems to have worked as I have checked my 2011 inbox and there are about 8 users (6 junk mail) using my old address.

Have you tried the link near the bottom of this page?

All sorted. I use the link on the BT page you suggested but they only had a facility for DD payments. No problem, I called them and arranged CC payment, £1.54 a month.

Now no need to access the account by dial up but I still need to access it in some way (Outlook, Webmail, Mobile) ever 90 days to keep it active. This is fine as I do this daily anyway.

You sure you have to access it every 90 days, when you are paying for it? I thought that was just when it was free.

Yes, I thought that was odd as will. I asked several times, why do I have to access it if I am paying for it? BT support said as long as I access the account by any method every 90 days the email will be kept alive otherwise it will be deleted.

So it seems the only benefit for my £1.54 is I no longer have to dial-up every 90 days. I access the account many times a day anyway so this is not a problem, but it is odd when I am paying.

I would like BT Care to confirm this requirement.

Edited by Nick_Russell (Thu 05-Jan-12 17:00:37)

I have just read the T&Cs for dial-up and Premium mail.

Dial up states -

16. If you do not use your email account for a period of ninety days or more, we may end your email account(s) or products. If we do this we will give you 14 days notice before we do this.

The Premium Mail T&Cs make no mention of the 90 days.

Clear as mud!

I think it would be just a half-trained person you were talking to. You'll never know . Your executor might find out 90 days after the bank rejects the direct debit having been notified of your death.