Cancel my email address

[Giraffe]

Can someone please explain how and when I can cancel my one email address linked to my main TT Account as no longer required?

I have searched my main Account but cannot find where to delete the email address in question. I noted a message about some work going on regarding email accounts but also see a post suggesting email accounts are now accessible.

Thanks

[Giraffe]

Thanks Gondola. After having raised questioned of surprise with your initial suggestions I have taken your advice and posted a simple letter and trust this will deal with the unwanted email account. 

Many Thanks 

G

[Gondola]

Yes, agreed that having to make a request of the Data Protection team appears heavy but is easy.

TalkTalk have suspended the ability for users to delete their email accounts / mailboxes to allow unhindered migration of mailboxes from one platform to another. They've apologised for any inconvenience.

So, as you cannot delete the mailbox email address the only department permitted to make that deletion are the Data Protection team after they've satisfied that you are the registered owner of the mailbox email address. They have to be sure because deletion is a non-recoverable event.

The email address / mailbox does not auto delete when a customer leaves TalkTalk. The email address / mailbox does get flagged for auto deletion if not used for 180 days and is normally auto deleted if still not used for a year.

So, if you wish to do this then first protect the mailbox from being hijacked by creating an ultra-strong password. Then promptly 'forget' the password so you're not tempted to sign in just to see if auto deletion has happened. Then just leave it.  Asking the Data Protection team to delete is the best way to ensure there's nothing sitting there on the system linked to you. But it's your choice.

[Giraffe]

Thanks for your reply.

Your suggestion sounds a bit heavy going when all I want to do is cancel my email account.

Do you know if the email account closes automatically if I do not renew my broadband contract?

[Gondola]

Hi Giraffe 

TalkTalk have temporarily removed the ability for TalkTalk Mail users to create and delete mailboxes during the upgrade phase of migrating mailboxes, during July to September 2023, to a cloud mail platform. The following message in customer MyAccounts is currently displayed.

 Please Note - we have temporarily removed the create/delete mailbox functionality as we are performing some backend maintenance work on our email platform. We expect this work to be completed by September. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

User deletion of mailbox email addresses may not be possible in these circumstances but you can give instructions for mailbox deletion to the TalkTalk Data Protection Office team.

See the GDPR help page item  'Your Right to be Forgotten / Right to Erasure '. There's a postal address, which in my view is the best way to contact the Data Protection team, but you can initiate a contact via any of the TalkTalk contact methods.