Changing your email address is never fun, but in certain circumstances it is a necessary evil. If you ever need to make a change, there are several things you need to consider. Follow this checklist to ensure you don’t lose data, keep up with your old contacts, and avoid security risks.

There are many reasons someone might decide to endure changing their email address. These include:

• changing your internet service provider (ISP) and losing your email address.
• moving to a more professional and business like email address. ie changing from an address similar to
  
  yo**********@ya***.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  to
  
  yo*@yo**********.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  .
• having to stop using your work account for personal messages.
• losing access to your current address and unable to recover the account.
• being a victim of identity theft.
• using a more “grown up” address and not something you thought was cool when you were 15 years old (ie
  
  ho*******@ho*****.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ).

Whatever prompts you to move, try following these tips to avoid missing email and risking account compromise.

1. Notify your direct contacts of the change

You will probably be amazed at the number of people you have in your contacts folder. Still, you can make the change easier by letting your friends and family know that you have a new email address.

When you send out a message to your contacts, respect people’s privacy by send your notification email with their names in the blind carbon copy (BCC) line. This way each receiver won’t be able to see who else you emailed.

2. Notify companies and organisations that may use the address

Can you remember all the places that contact you via email? There are companies like:

• banks and finance companies
• utilities companies (electricity, gas, internet).
• state and federal government agencies.
• your local council.
• superannuation funds.
• phone companies – for both landlines and mobile phones.
• the company you work for.
• travel organisations (airlines, motels, hire car, frequent flyers organisations).
• yours or your children’s schools, kindergartens, universities and other higher educational institutions.
• the variety of online websites you may log into either occasionally or once a year (social media, streaming services, online shopping, online gaming, news site etc).
• games, app and application purchases.
• online and offline subscription services.
• suppliers.
• store loyalty card organisations.
• sporting organisations.
• Internet domain names registrars.

This is only a small sample as depending on what you do and where you frequent the list can be endless.

3. Migrate your old email

Depending upon your old email provider and the new provider this migration may be fairly simple or very complex.

In some programs and email systems you can simply export your old emails and then import them into your new system. With other setups you may need to convert the export format and do some other “tricks” to successfully migrate the data.

4. If possible, check accounts using that address

Do you use a password manager (if not you should be, see our blog article on password managers for more information)? If so, this is an excellent source of where your old email account is is use. Go through the entries and update your email on all those accounts.

5. Do not move on too quickly

You may be ready to move on, but don’t make the common mistake of deleting that old email account too soon. If you can, hold onto your old email as long as possible. You do not have to continue using it, but if you still have access, you can:

• check see what emails are still coming in to your old account. This enables you to update other providers still using your old email that you may have forgotten about.
• you can setup forwarding from the old to new account.

6. Inspect your “Deleted items” and old emails

To help you remember other services connected to the old email address, review your trash and sent emails.

Also try and remember any accounts that may use that old email address for recovery. For example, you may have set the old email account as a backup for PayPal, banking, or other online services. If you do not change the recovery address, you may have difficulty regaining access to that account in the future.

Do you need help making the move?

There are many little things to take care of when you change your email adress which can make this a big deal. Our IT experts are here to help and we can set you up for you a simple and secure email service to satisfy your current and future needs. Contact us today for a stress free experience..