How to Delete an EarthLink Email Address

EarthLink is the classic billing-trap ISP. Because it offers a paid email-only plan, many people who left EarthLink internet years ago are still quietly paying a monthly fee just to keep an earthlink.net address — often without realizing it. The single most important thing when "deleting" EarthLink email is to make sure you're cancelling the billing, not just hiding an address.

The email-only billing trap

EarthLink treats email as a product you can buy on its own. Two things follow from that:

• Leaving EarthLink internet doesn't automatically end email. If you kept the mailbox, you may have been rolled onto (or signed up for) a paid email-only plan that continues to charge you.
• Removing an address is not the same as cancelling a plan. Deleting a secondary address inside a subscription can leave the subscription — and its monthly charge — fully intact.

So before anything else, check what you're paying for. Sign in to your EarthLink account and look at the billing or plan section, or review a recent card/bank statement for a recurring EarthLink charge. That tells you whether you need a full plan cancellation or just an address removal.

Back up your EarthLink mail first

1. Add the account to a desktop client over IMAP

   In Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or Outlook, add a new IMAP account using EarthLink's published mail-server settings (search EarthLink's help for "email server settings" for current hostnames and ports). Sign in with your full earthlink.net address and password.

2. Let every folder download

   Wait for all folders to sync, then copy important messages into a local folder so they survive after the mailbox is closed.

3. Export contacts

   In EarthLink webmail, open the address book and use its export option to save contacts as a CSV or vCard file.

Move accounts off the address

Change the login or recovery email on every important service that uses your earthlink.net address before you close it — banks, your password manager, other email accounts. Search the mailbox for "verify", "statement", and "welcome" to find them. After the mailbox closes, reset emails to it bounce and you can be locked out for good.

Cancel the plan and stop billing

1. Identify the exact plan

   In your EarthLink account's billing area, note the plan name that your email belongs to (for example an email-only plan) and its renewal date and amount.

2. Contact EarthLink to cancel the plan

   EarthLink cancellations are generally handled by contacting the company directly — by phone or through the support channel in your account — rather than by a single self-service button. State clearly that you want to cancel the plan and stop all billing, not just remove an address. Be prepared for a retention offer and decline it if you're set on leaving.

3. Get a cancellation confirmation number

   Ask for a confirmation number or written confirmation of the cancellation and its effective date. Keep it — this is your evidence if a charge appears later.

4. Remove any remaining sub-addresses

   If your plan had additional email addresses and you want them gone before the account closes, remove them in the account's email-management area. Otherwise they close with the plan.

Confirm the account is closed

A cancellation isn't finished until the money stops. Check your next card or bank statement for any recurring EarthLink charge, and watch the statement after that too — email-only fees are small enough to slip past unnoticed, which is exactly how they persist for years. If a charge still appears after your stated cancellation date, contact EarthLink with your confirmation number and dispute it; if that fails, dispute the charge with your bank or card issuer.

Once billing has stopped and the account is closed, the earthlink.net mailbox is deactivated and incoming mail to it bounces. There's no forwarding, so your account migration above needs to be complete first.

Frequently asked questions