So many people I have met are paying an ISP they no longer need or even use, just because they feel “locked in” or fear change. This is because they have used the email address associated with the ISP for so long and feel it is too hard to change or lack the time or knowledge. They continue to pay monthly just to keep their email address.

I have met many people that have AOL, EarthLink, or another provider they pay, even though they are also paying for and using broadband from a telco or cable company. This adds up to some nice monthly payments being “shelled” out, mostly ones that are not actually needed. The ISPs of course love this. This is great way of getting that credit card payment from them every month. Many of the ISPs are keeping their customers this way, especially the ISPs that are not successfully competing with high speed access.

Few ISPs have anything really “exclusive” anymore these days. Email is the one way they keep you coming back and paying every month. You can bookmark a home page using just your browser to get your weather, news, entertainment, comics, email, address book, maps, IM, etc. Try Yahoo! or My Yahoo! and create your own page free.

I know people that own a business with their own domain and website and still have an AOL email account on their business card! They are too afraid, or lack the time or knowledge to even change their email address when they already have a registered domain for their business. Nothing looks funnier than a business with an AOL email address. You tell me what gives a better impression to a prospective customer, stevejobs@apple.com or stevej761425@aol.com? Kind of makes you think they just may be working out of their bedroom instead of a more established business.

I did some work for a large real estate company were everyone of the over 75 salesman used an AOL, MindSpring, EarthLink, or other email on their company card. The real estate company had a domain name, a website, a large building, and no company email! That means when a salesman left the company to maybe work for the competition they were taking their email with them.

ISPs today usually make it only possible to send email via their own email server by closing port 25 traffic, except to their own mail server. Many of them have closed port 25 without even warning or explaining it to their customers. When the email send stops working and the customer calls for help they just say you must use our email. Of course this action is also to stop spammers, as some spammers have been known to “relay” spam this way. But the result is the same, uninformed customers are “locked in”.

The telcos and wireless phone providers used to have a similar system by making you change your phone number when you wanted to switch providers. That kept customers loyal to them, like it or not. But that has changed and now you can keep your phone number and still switch providers in most cases. At least you can get them to give you an automated recording telling people your new number, even if you do sometimes have to pay for it.

Since email is associated with your ISPs domain name having a “bring it with you” email is harder and not very likely anytime soon. Examples are someone@AOL.com, somebody@EARTHLINK.com, etc. No ISP lets you keep your email address when you cancel. Even though some of them actually supply new users a “free” email to use! I know of no major ISP that will relay your email for you if you switch. This is a major part of their “lock in ” model.

I never have used my ISPs provided email account. I have change ISPs several times with no affect on my email because my email has always been independent of my ISP. Webmail is the best answer for most people. Webmail is accessed through a website with a browser and not an email client. Webmail does not need access to port 25 to send email. It uses port 80 and no ISP would have the guts to block port 80 as this would stop all browsing of the Internet. Webmail is really good if you are on the road, allowing you to access your email from any computer with a browser and Internet connection.

There are free webmail accounts from Yahoo!, Google Gmail, Hotmail, and several others. Even AOL offers free email to their AOL IM users. But they will not covert a AOL members email to a free account when they cancel. Most of these are free solutions.

For solutions that will cost you something. You can get an email account with webmail and several other services by using Apple’s .Mac. This will cost you $99 an year and when you stop paying, no more email. Or if you are savvy, register your own domain and set up a blog or regular website and use your own domain. Changing hosts is easy than changing ISPs, as at least your registered domain goes with you. Registration of a domain name and hosting can be found pretty cheap today. Many hosting companies even register a domain name free for you when you sign up for hosting.

So what is the answer if you are in this situation? Well take a deep breath and simply realize if you change your email address, life will still go on. Trust me! Have you ever moved? Did you keep paying rent for your old house just so the post office kept delivering your mail there. Or did you tell people you moved? Of course the Post Office can help in this example, your ISP probably will not!

I suggest you get a free webmail account from Yahoo!, Google, or another email provider. Setting up a Yahoo! account is very easy, it will only take you a few minutes. While you are at it set up a My Yahoo! account so you can have your own portal page you can use as a “home” page with your browser. Once you have it setup just send a email to your friends and family announcing your new email address. Copy and paste will be helpful here. Overlap your new email with your old one for a few months, informing everyone that your email address is changed when they send you something to your old address. This is not that painful and may save you over hundreds of dollars a year!

If you are an AOL customer, you can also change your account to a “bring your own access” plan (AOL Keyword BYOA) which they charge just $14.95. As it makes little sense to pay for unlimited dial up plan if you already have broadband. This AOL plan gives you unlimited broadband and 10 hours of dial up if you need it for traveling.

I have an AOL account myself that I pay just $4.95 a month for. It allows me three hours a month connection time. Of course you can check AOL email from their website at http://www.aol.com and this does not incur any charges. I do not use my AOL email at all, never have. I keep this AOL account just so I can test websites I build in AOL for customers, or if I am stuck in a strange place with nothing but dial up. As this rarely happens anymore as I have WiFi, an EVDO email enabled phone, and a Verizon EVDO Aircard for my PowerBook.

If you migrate your email so you are not “locked in” to an ISP you will be freed from paying for something you do not really need. This allows you to shop for the best high speed broadband deal and not have to worry about your email.

AOL and others really do not have much in exclusives. AOL is NOT the Internet and IS NOT really easier to use than say a “browser”, try it I swear this is true. Pay for what you really need. Get away from the crutches and learn to run.

So if you are in this position, stop procrastinating, do it today. Change that email. With the cost of fuel today, you could use that money you will save.

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