UK ISP BT to Close Unused Yahoo Email Accounts After 150 Days

ISP BT Retail has changed the terms of its Yahoo! Mail (e.g. @btinternet.com and @openworld.com addresses) based email accounts so that, effective from 17th June 2013, any customers who have not used their mail accounts for more than 150 days will find the account closed.

The change, as spotted by Thinkbroadband, means that BT will delete the email address and all the contents of your mailbox (e.g. calendar, messages, contacts and notes). The ISP has also flatly warned that “you won’t get them back“. Apparently customers who just use their email address (e.g. john@btinternet.com) to log in to BT Wi-fi, but whom don’t use BT Yahoo! Mail, will not be affected.

BT Statement (Email Policy Changes)

“All BT Broadband customers have a BT Yahoo! Mail address (usually ending in @btinternet.com or @openworld.com), but not everyone wants to use it. So we’ve decided to close email accounts that haven’t been used for more than 150 days.

Don’t worry, your email account will keep working as long as:

• You continue to log in and use it from bt.yahoo.com, or

• You continue to log in and use it from your computer email software (such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird), or your mobile email software, or

• You have Auto Forward set up.”

The somewhat controversial move follows shortly after Sky’s Yahoo! Mail migration blunder and wider concerns over the security of the Yahoo! Mail platform in general, which resulted in some accounts being hacked.