Former TPG Telecom email customers to be slugged with extra costs after switching to The Messaging Company

Hundreds of thousands of former TPG Telecom email customers will be slugged up to $95 a year for each of their accounts after they were forced to switch to a new provider.

The listed telco last year got rid of email accounts linked to its internet brands like iiNet in a bid to simplify the business and cut costs, with customers at the time given an option to “opt-in” to a new email provider, The Messaging Company.

Previously, former TPG email customers were not subject to separate fees for email services and were not initially informed how much The Messaging Company, which is owned by Brisbane-headquartered Atmail, would charge to keep their accounts open.

The Messaging Company revealed customers will now be charged between $2.50 and $7.50 a month if paid annually from September 15. The Messaging Company on its website claims customers can save $12 by paying yearly.

Customers who have switched will have to pay separate fees for each email accounts they own.

An increasing amount of internet service providers in recent years have opted to stop providing email addresses as part of their offerings, with more customers gravitating towards free online services like Gmail, Hotmail and Outlook.

It also comes as consumers around the country are being further squeezed by higher phone bills as Australia’s biggest telcos hike prices in response to elevated inflation and rising costs-of-doing business.

Telstra most recently hit Australians with mobile phone price rises that are around triple the rate of inflation. Hikes of up to $4 would be imposed on post-paid plans from August 27, while pre-paid users will be hit from October 22.

The news comes after Telstra in March announced it would not slug customers with higher costs in July and scrapped its inflation-linked price indexation. This was the same time the telco announced it would axe about 9 per cent of its workforce, making about 2800 positions redundant by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, rival Optus revealed at the end of May new customers will have to fork out up to $13 extra for their monthly mobile plans, but the telco says they will get more data in return.