Do I Have to Log in to My Free Email Account to Keep It?

If you want a free web-based email account, you have to use it—or lose it. To keep an old address around and alive, it is enough to log in from time to time. But how often is "from time to time"?

The interval at which you need to check your free email account to keep it from falling dormant and being automatically discontinued, cancelled or even deleted varies from service to service. Here are the log-on requirements of the most prominent:

• AIM and AOL Mail: 90 days (cancel manually)
• Bluebottle: 90 days
• FastMail (Grandfathered free Guest Accounts): 120 days
• Gmail: 9 months (cancel manually)
• Inbox.com: 90 days
• Mail.com: 12 months
• My Way Mail: 90 days
• Outlook.com: 270 days
• Riseup: 6 months
• Yahoo! Mail: 12 months (cancel manually)
• Yandex.Mail: 6 months
• Zoho Mail: 120 days

(Updated June 2014)