Eircom.net users face charges to keep using email accounts

Eir is to start charging thousands of email users €5.99 per month to access their accounts in the coming weeks.

The charge for users with @eircom.net email addresses will be introduced from July 1 and will set customers back just under €72 each year for a service which has previously been free.

If users don't provide payment details, their accounts and all the emails associated with them will be permanently deleted 60 days later.

The charge was originally due to be introduced in March but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

However, Eir is now in the process of contacting users with @eircom.net email addresses to inform them of the planned charges, which will cost customers €71.88 every year.

While the company declined to confirm how many active users it has, it is understood to be in the tens of thousands. Eircom.net email addresses are particularly common for small businesses, community and voluntary associations, and schools.

In many cases, they have been active for almost two decades and, for that entire time, the service has been free.

It is understood the email service is costly to provide and Eir does not make any money from it in its current format.

Some frustrated users have taken to social media to criticise Eir's decision to introduce the charge, complaining it will cause havoc for people who will have to change log-in details for dozens of websites.

A spokesperson for Eir said it is "currently contacting customers" to inform them of the introduction of the €5.99 per month charge, which will be effective in less than three weeks.

"The charge will be used to invest in the maintenance and improvement of the service going forward," they said.

"If an account holder does not login to their account when prompted and add payment details, they will not have access to emails and the account will be permanently deleted 60 days later."

From July 1, Eir will start to migrate accounts to the new paid service. This process could take up to two weeks to complete.

Once Eir has migrated an account, customers will be prompted to enter payment details to access, send and receive emails.

If customers do not provide these details within 60 days, the account and emails will be deleted permanently. This process is non-reversable.