Switching internet provider? How to keep your email address
Leave KPN, Ziggo or another provider and you often lose your email address after six months. What are your rights, and how do you avoid this for good?
By Daan, September 28, 2026. 3 minute read.
A cheaper internet and TV subscription is tempting. But many people don’t switch, for one reason: their email address. They have used it for twenty years, and everyone knows it. It is only natural that you have doubts about that.
What happens to your email address when you switch?
An email address ending in, for example, @kpnmail.nl, @ziggo.nl, @planet.nl or @home.nl belongs to the internet provider. Not to you.
If you switch, Dutch law says your old provider must still give you access to your email, or forward it, for six months. After that it stops. Some providers let you keep the address for longer if you pay, others not at all.
The problem with six months
Six months sounds like a long time. But in practice, within that time you have to:
- save all your old emails;
- bring your address book across;
- pass on your new address to family, friends, your bank, your health insurer, the council, your GP, online shops and clubs;
- set up your email again on all your devices.
Forget one organisation, and you might miss an important letter.
The solution: an email address of your own
The best thing is to switch once to an email address that is yours. For example jan@familiejansen.nl. An address like that does not depend on your internet provider. After that you can switch provider as often as you like.
Your email is then kept by an email company that does nothing but email. I choose a European company for this, so the strict European privacy rules apply and there are no adverts in your inbox.
What does your own email address cost?
With me it costs €50 as a one-off for moving everything over and setting it up, and then €6 a month for your address, the mailbox and my upkeep. For comparison: after you switch, KPN charges €7.75 a month just to keep your old address, with a one-year contract (2026 rate).
How I help
- I arrange your own address and the mailbox.
- I move all your old email and your address book across.
- I set everything up on your phone, tablet and computer.
- Together we pass on your new address to the most important organisations.
- Your old address keeps forwarding for as long as it can.
After that you can switch to whichever internet subscription you want, without any rush.
Tip: start before you switch
Have you already decided to switch? Then sort out your new email address first. That way you have the full six months to pass everything on, and you don’t have to hurry.
Would you like me to arrange this?
Switching away from KPN, Ziggo or another provider? Then you often lose your email address. I give you your own address that always stays yours, and move all your old email across.