The biggest problem with using these kinds of free e-mail account can be summed up in a phrase: lock-in
Internet service providers provide a vast array of solutions to import your old e-mail into their accounts. However, these same providers cannot be troubled to provide even a single way for you to export your e-mail archive into another e-mail system. Also, if you switch from AOL to BellSouth, I can guarantee that AOL's support representative will certainly not entertain forwarding your AOL e-mail to a BellSouth account. Same thing applies if you're moving from any internet service provider to any other internet service provider.
Brokerage provided e-mail accounts are just as bad. See what happens when you ask your Prudential broker if he'd be willing to forward your old Prudential mail to your new RE/MAX e-mail address. I think his answer will involve something freezing over.
Another issue is privacy. Google's highly regarded G-Mail system reserves the right to statistically analyze the content of your incoming and outgoing e-mail and use that information to improve the targeting of their internet-wide advertising colossus.
The best way to avoid having your e-mail address held hostage is to reserve a domain name ($8 to $12 a year), and buy a hosting service that provides POP3 or IMAP e-mail accounts ($20 - $100 a year). It's not free, but you will own the domain name for your e-mail address, and you will also avoid the greater expense of having your on-line identity held hostage by a sub-par internet service provider or a greedy broker who takes too large a slice of your commission.
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