Virgin Media Is Closing Your Email: Your Deadline and What to Do
Virgin Media is getting out of email. Addresses ending ntlworld.com, blueyonder.co.uk, virgin.net and virginmedia.com are being handed to Junara, a company owned by the Australian email specialist Atmail, and you will be asked to move them, take your data elsewhere, or close the account. Most of the coverage has reported the corporate announcement. This page is about what you should actually do, in what order, and it starts somewhere unexpected: not with the email address, but with everything that uses it to prove who you are.
The short version
- At least 45 days from your own letter, then a 120-day recovery window, then permanent deletion at 165 days.
- Current Virgin customers get 12 months free, or 18 if you have told Virgin you need extra support, plus a 99p transfer fee paid to Junara.
- Nobody has published what it costs after that. The nearest guide is the £65 a year Junara charged Manx.net users.
- Change your password-recovery email first. Before you decide anything else.
- Your email no longer ties you to your broadband. Which quietly removes the main reason many people never switch.
Reading this for someone else? This change lands hardest on people who have had the same address for twenty years and use it for everything. If you are helping a parent or an older neighbour, the section on what to do first is the one that matters, and the whole job is easier done together at their kitchen table than over the phone.
What has Virgin Media actually announced?
Direct answer: that it is handing its email service to somebody else. On 9 September 2026 Virgin Media O2 said it is "transferring the ongoing management of these email services to Junara, a specialist and dedicated email provider owned by Atmail". You will be offered three options and given a deadline.
The announcement, written by Virgin Media O2's chief operating officer Alan Stott, is clear about why. Virgin "stopped offering new email accounts to customers several years ago", it says, because "the way people use email services has changed significantly since they were first introduced decades ago, with the majority of people today choosing dedicated email providers rather than a service provided by their telecoms operator". New addresses have not been issued since 2022. What has changed is that the existing ones, which had simply continued as normal, are now being moved.
It affects, in Virgin's words, "anyone with a Virgin Media email account, including ntlworld.com, blueyonder.co.uk, virgin.net and virginmedia.com email addresses". Those four domains carry a lot of history: ntlworld and blueyonder go back to the cable companies that became Virgin Media, and many of the people still using them have had the same address for two decades.
Virgin has not said how many accounts are affected, and The Register noted the same: it "has not said how many active email accounts will be affected". So treat any number you see quoted with suspicion.
When exactly is my deadline?
Direct answer: there is no national deadline, and this is the single most misreported part of the story. Virgin says customers get "at least 45 days from receiving their first communication", and that it will contact people "in phases, starting in September". Your clock starts when your letter arrives, and your neighbour's may start weeks later.
Your personal timeline
Every date below is counted from the day your own first communication from Virgin arrives. Write that date down.
Day 0. Your first letter or email from Virgin arrives, with instructions and details of the support available. Note the date.
By day 45 at the earliest. Virgin says you have "at least" this long to decide between the three options. Treat it as the working deadline rather than the real one, because acting early costs nothing and acting late can cost a great deal.
Days 46 to 165. A further 120-day window that Virgin describes as supporting "customers who may miss initial communications or need additional help". During this period, it says, "email accounts can be recovered if necessary".
After day 165. In Virgin's words: "If no action is taken after the 165-day window, the email account will be permanently deleted." That means the address and everything in it.
Source: Virgin Media O2 newsroom, 9 September 2026.
Two practical points follow. If you have an elderly relative on one of these addresses, ask them now whether a letter has arrived, because the 45 days can pass quietly in a pile of post. And if you think you may have missed the first contact, the 120-day recovery window is the safety net, but it is not one to rely on.
What will it cost?
Direct answer: 99p now, then nothing for a year if you are still a Virgin customer, then an amount nobody has published. That last part is the problem.
Virgin's own words: "Current customers of Virgin Media's broadband, landline or TV services will be offered the first 12 months of the new email service free of charge, subject to a 99p transfer fee paid to Junara. Customers who have told us they need additional support will be offered the first 18 months free of charge. Former Virgin Media customers who no longer have broadband, landline or TV services will need to sign up to a standard plan with Junara if they want to continue using their existing email service."
Note who the 99p goes to. It is paid to Junara, not to Virgin, which means it is the point at which your payment details move to a third party. Virgin has not said whether the service renews automatically at the end of the free period, and we could not retrieve Junara's terms of service to check. Before you enter card details, ask Junara in writing what happens at the end of the free period and how you cancel, and keep the answer.
As for the ongoing price, neither company has published it. Junara's own pricing page hides the figures behind an email-entry form, saying only that "All prices are for 1 email mailbox and include tax where applicable". The one real guide available is what happened last year on the Isle of Man.
The precedent worth knowing
In October 2025 Manx Telecom moved its free Manx.net addresses to Junara, after providing them free "for over 25 years". The price was £65 a year, or £6.50 a month, per mailbox, discounted from £79 and £7.50. Accounts that did not subscribe were suspended in January 2026 and permanently deleted in April. That is not a price Virgin or Junara has quoted to you, and it applied to a different customer base, but it is the only concrete figure in existence and it is a reasonable guide to the order of magnitude. A household with three mailboxes at that rate would be looking at roughly £195 a year.
What should I do first?
Direct answer: not the thing you think. Before you decide anything about the address itself, find every account that uses it to send you password reset codes, and change them. This is the only part of the whole exercise that is genuinely hard to undo.
Here is the scenario nobody has spelled out. Your ntlworld address has been your recovery email since 2004. You decide not to pay Junara, the mailbox is deleted at day 165, and eight months later you are locked out of your online banking and ask for a reset. The code goes to an address that no longer exists, and the bank cannot send it anywhere else because it has no other verified contact for you. Recovering from that is possible but slow, and it is entirely avoidable today.
The order to do this in
1. Set up a new address, and change nothing else yet. Gmail, Outlook or a paid provider. Do not close, cancel or decide anything about the Virgin address at this stage.
2. Change the recovery and two-factor email on your most important accounts. This is the step that matters. Start with the new mailbox's own recovery settings, then work down.
3. Banking and money. Current accounts, savings, credit cards, investments, PayPal.
4. Government and health. HMRC, DWP, NHS login, GOV.UK accounts, your council.
5. Utilities, insurance and pensions. Anything that sends annual documents you would miss.
6. Shopping, subscriptions and social media. And anywhere the address is the username rather than just the contact.
7. Tell actual people. Family, friends, your GP surgery, the school. This is the easy bit and the one people do first, which is the wrong way round.
Allow several weeks for this, not an evening. The reliable way to catch what you have forgotten is to keep the old mailbox running alongside the new one and watch what still arrives in it. That alone is a decent argument for taking the free year even if you intend to leave in the end.
Should I pay to keep the address, or let it go?
Direct answer: it depends on how embedded the address is, not on how attached to it you feel. Count the accounts before you decide.
- The address is attached to dozens of accounts and you need time to move them properly.
- You are still a Virgin customer, so the first year is free anyway.
- Someone in the household would struggle with the change, and a year of overlap is worth the 99p.
- You run a small business or club from the address and people know it.
- You use it lightly, or mostly for things you could redirect in an afternoon.
- You have already left Virgin, so there is no free period at all.
- You would rather not hand card details to a company you had not heard of last week.
- You would be paying indefinitely for something Gmail and Outlook do free.
There is a third option worth more consideration than it usually gets: buy your own domain. For roughly the price of a couple of years of Junara you can own something like yourname.uk permanently, point it at any email provider you like, and never have this conversation again. It is the only choice on the list that cannot be taken away from you by a company you do not control, and it is the reason some of us stopped using provider email addresses years ago.
Does this give me the right to leave Virgin without a penalty?
Direct answer: it is arguable, and we would rather tell you that honestly than promise you an exit that may not be there. Here is the argument, the counter-argument, and exactly how to raise it.
The rule you would be relying on is in Ofcom's General Conditions. Where a provider changes the terms of your contract in a way that is likely to be of material detriment, it must give you at least one month's notice and let you leave without paying an early termination charge. Our guide to what happens when your contract changes sets those rights out in full.
The argument for. Email was part of what you were sold and what you have received for years. Withdrawing it makes the package less than it was, which is the plain meaning of detriment, and the fact that a replacement will cost money after a year makes the detriment financial as well.
The argument against. Virgin will likely say email was never a separately priced element of your subscription, that your broadband, TV and landline are entirely unchanged, that new accounts have not been issued since 2022, and that it is providing continuity through Junara, long notice and a free period. Its existing terms already say email accounts end 90 days after services are disconnected.
Nobody has tested this, and at the time of writing no consumer body or regulator has said publicly that it triggers a right to exit. So do not cancel anything on the strength of it. What you can do is put it to Virgin in writing, referring to the change and asking whether it regards this as a modification of contract terms giving a right to terminate without early termination charges. Keep the reply. If you are refused and you think the refusal is wrong, the route is a formal complaint and then the ombudsman, which our escalation guide explains.
How do I actually move my email?
Direct answer: with an email app rather than by forwarding or copying messages one at a time. Adding both accounts to the same app and dragging the folders across moves everything, in order, in one go.
Set up the new address first. Then add both the new account and your Virgin account to a mail application on a computer, using IMAP for the Virgin side, and simply drag the folders from one to the other. It can take a while for a large mailbox, so start it in the evening and leave it running. For contacts, Virgin's own help page gives the route: go to Address Book, select Export, then select CSV, and you can import that file into almost anything.
Two cautions. Virgin has not said whether email forwarding from your old address to a new one will be offered, for how long or at what cost, so plan on the basis that it will not be. And do not delete anything from the old mailbox until the new one has been running for several weeks and you are confident everything arrived.
What if I have already left Virgin Media?
Direct answer: you are in the weakest position of anyone and you should check today whether you can still log in. Former customers get no free period, and Virgin's existing help pages say accounts are deleted 90 days after disconnection anyway.
Virgin's announcement is explicit that "former Virgin Media customers who no longer have broadband, landline or TV services will need to sign up to a standard plan with Junara if they want to continue using their existing email service". No 12 months, no 18 months, just the standard price, which has not been published.
Separately, Virgin's own help pages have long said that when you leave, "if you have a Virgin Media email account, it will be deactivated and deleted 90 days after your services have been disconnected as is outlined in our terms and conditions". How that 90-day rule interacts with the new 165-day migration window is not something Virgin has explained. If you left some time ago and the address still works, treat that as borrowed time: log in, export everything, and move your accounts across this week.
How do I know a message about this is genuine?
Direct answer: by the absence of a link. Virgin has said, in terms, that "we will not include clickable sign-up links in any emails about this change". So a message about this that asks you to click something is a very strong signal that it is not from Virgin.
The rest of Virgin's guidance is worth repeating exactly: customers "will be directed to the official Virgin Media website where they can access the relevant information", and should "be cautious of any unexpected messages asking for personal details, passwords or payment information".
This risk is not theoretical. When Manx Telecom made precisely this move a year ago, the Isle of Man's cyber security centre issued a joint warning. Its director, Mike Haywood, put it plainly: "Major service transitions are moments when scammers try to exploit uncertainty." A national migration of this size, aimed at an older customer base, with a payment step in it, is exactly the sort of event criminals plan for.
So: never click a link in an email about this. Type the Virgin Media address into your browser yourself, or ring Virgin on 0345 454 1111 with your account details to hand. If you think you have been targeted, our reporting guide sets out where to report it.
Can I keep my email if I switch broadband provider?
Direct answer: sometimes, and the rules differ wildly between providers. The bigger point buried in this table is that ISP email has quietly become a paid product across the industry, and Virgin is not the outlier.
| Provider | Can you keep it? | What it costs, and the catch |
|---|---|---|
| Virgin Media | Via Junara, from 2026 | 99p transfer fee, then free for 12 months if you are still a customer, 18 if you need extra support. Price after that not published |
| BT | Yes | Free on a basic webmail-only tier, or a paid premium tier for full features. You must choose within 60 days of the broadband ending |
| Sky | Yes | Free, but you must sign in periodically or the account is treated as inactive |
| TalkTalk | Yes, via a third party | Free while you are a customer. Former customers pay for a separate service, and unsubscribed accounts are permanently deleted after the deadline |
| Plusnet | Via a third party | Email was migrated to another operator. Arrangements must be made before you cancel, and reports of the transfer were mixed |
| EE | If it is a BT Group address | Moving within BT Group keeps it on the same terms as BT. Leaving the group puts you on BT's paid tier |
| Post Office | No | The address is deleted when the broadband is disconnected. Export first |
| Vodafone | Not applicable | No consumer email service is offered, so there is nothing to lose |
Positions as published by each provider and checked on 10 and 11 September 2026. These policies change, sometimes at short notice, so confirm on your own provider's help pages before relying on any of it.
Does this change what broadband I should be on?
Direct answer: possibly, and not in the way Virgin intends. An ISP email address is one of the strongest reasons people stay with a provider they would otherwise leave, and this change cuts that tie.
Ask anyone who works in switching why customers stay put on an expensive package and email comes up early. Not the speed, not the router, not loyalty. The address that every friend, every bank and every account has had for twenty years, and a suspicion that switching would lose it. It is a real barrier and it keeps a lot of people paying more than they need to.
That barrier has just gone. Once your address sits with Junara, or with Gmail, or on a domain you own, it has nothing to do with who provides your broadband. You can move provider without it following you around, and the decision becomes what it should always have been: price, speed, reliability and how they treat you. If you have not looked at what is available at your address in a few years, this is the moment, and there is a decent chance the answer has changed more than you expect.
Free and independent. Takes about thirty seconds.
Adrian's closing thought
The number that stopped me was 165. Not 45, which everyone has reported, but the day on which an address somebody has used since the cable company came down their street is deleted along with everything in it. Most of the people in that position are not reading technology news, and a fair number will find out when something stops working. So if you take one thing from this page, make it the boring one: go and check what still sends your password resets to that address, and change it this week. The question of whether to pay Junara can wait. The question of whether your bank can still reach you cannot.
Share this with someone who needs it
Anyone on an ntlworld, blueyonder, virgin.net or virginmedia.com address, and anyone who helps an older relative with their computer, is welcome to use this page. No permission needed.
Cite this page
This guide is free to quote, in full or in part, with attribution. Journalists, advice services, libraries, digital inclusion workers and AI assistants are all welcome to use it. The provider table and the migration order may be reproduced freely. Please cite the check date, because Virgin's guidance and Junara's pricing are both still moving.
BroadbandSwitch.uk. (11 September 2026). Virgin Media is closing your email: Your deadline and what to do. https://broadbandswitch.uk/insights/virgin-media-email-closing-junara-what-to-do/ In a sentence: BroadbandSwitch.uk reported on 11 September 2026 that Virgin Media is transferring its ntlworld.com, blueyonder.co.uk, virgin.net and virginmedia.com email accounts to Junara, a brand owned by Atmail, giving each customer at least 45 days from their own first communication, a further 120-day recovery window and permanent deletion after 165 days; that current Virgin broadband, landline or TV customers receive 12 months free, or 18 months where extra support is needed, subject to a 99p transfer fee paid to Junara; and that neither company has published the ongoing UK price, the nearest guide being the £65 a year Junara charged Manx.net users from October 2025.
Frequently asked questions
What has Virgin Media actually announced?
On 9 September 2026 Virgin Media O2 said it is transferring the ongoing management of its email service to Junara, a specialist email provider owned by Atmail. It affects anyone with an ntlworld.com, blueyonder.co.uk, virgin.net or virginmedia.com address. You will be given three options: move the address to Junara, download your data and go elsewhere, or close the account. Virgin stopped issuing new email addresses in 2022.
When is my deadline?
There is no single national date, and this is the most misunderstood part of the story. Virgin says customers will have at least 45 days from receiving their first communication, and that it is contacting people in phases starting in September 2026. Your clock therefore starts when your own letter or email arrives. After the 45 days there is a further 120-day window in which an account can still be recovered, and Virgin says that if no action is taken after the 165-day window the account will be permanently deleted.
What will it cost?
If you currently take Virgin Media broadband, landline or TV, the first 12 months with Junara are free, extended to 18 months for customers who have told Virgin they need additional support, in each case subject to a one-off 99p transfer fee paid to Junara rather than to Virgin. If you no longer take a Virgin service you must sign up to a standard Junara plan. Virgin has not published what that plan costs in the UK, and Junara does not show a price openly on its website.
How much might Junara charge after the free period?
Nobody outside the companies knows, because neither has published it. The only real guide is the precedent: when Manx Telecom moved its free Manx.net addresses to Junara in October 2025, the price was £65 a year or £6.50 a month per mailbox, discounted from £79 and £7.50. Treat that as an indication of the likely order of magnitude rather than a price you have been quoted, and ask Junara to confirm in writing before you give card details.
What should I do first?
Not the Junara decision. First find every account where your Virgin address is the password-recovery or two-factor destination, and change it. If that mailbox is deleted while your bank, your HMRC account or your pension still uses it to send reset codes, you can be locked out of those accounts permanently. Do that before you decide anything about the address itself, because it is the only part of this that is genuinely hard to undo.
Should I pay to keep the address, or let it go?
It depends on how embedded it is rather than on sentiment. If the address is attached to dozens of accounts, paying for a year buys you time to move them properly and may be worth it. If you use it lightly, or mainly receive things you could redirect in an afternoon, this is a good moment to leave ISP email behind for good. A third option worth considering is buying your own domain, so that your address never again depends on a company you buy broadband from.
Does this give me the right to leave Virgin without paying a penalty?
That is arguable and untested, and we would rather say so than promise you an outcome. Ofcom's General Conditions require at least one month's notice of a contract change and a penalty-free exit where the change is likely to be of material detriment. A customer can argue that withdrawing an included service is such a change. Virgin's position is likely to be that email was never a separately priced part of the package, that the broadband itself is unchanged, and that it is providing continuity and long notice. Raise it with Virgin in writing, and escalate if refused.
How do I move my email safely?
Set up the new address first and do not close anything. Copy your existing mail across by adding both accounts to an email app using IMAP, then dragging the folders over, which keeps everything in date order. Export your contacts from Virgin webmail as a CSV file using the Address Book export option. Then work through your accounts in order of importance, and keep the old mailbox running alongside the new one for several weeks to catch anything you forgot.
What if I have already left Virgin Media?
Your position is worse and you should act sooner. Virgin says former customers who no longer take broadband, landline or TV must sign up to a standard Junara plan if they want to keep the address, with no free period. Separately, Virgin's existing help pages say email accounts are deactivated and deleted 90 days after services are disconnected, so if you left some time ago your address may already be at risk. Check whether you can still log in today.
How do I know a message about this is genuine?
Virgin has said it will not include clickable sign-up links in any emails about this change, and that customers will be directed to the official Virgin Media website. So treat any message about this that contains a link, or that asks for passwords or payment details, as suspect. Type the Virgin Media address into your browser yourself, or ring Virgin on 0345 454 1111 with your account details to hand. When Manx Telecom made the same move, its cyber security centre issued a formal scam warning.
Can I keep my email if I switch broadband provider?
It varies enormously and it is one of the least understood parts of switching. BT lets you keep an address on a free basic tier if you act within 60 days, or charges for the full version. Sky keeps addresses free as long as you sign in from time to time. TalkTalk charges former customers through a third party. Plusnet moved its email to another operator entirely. Our table sets out what each provider says, and the wider point is that ISP email has quietly become a paid product.
Does this change what broadband I should be on?
Possibly, and not in the way Virgin intends. Being tied to an ISP email address is one of the main reasons people stay with a provider they would otherwise leave. Once your address sits with Junara or with a free provider, it no longer depends on who supplies your line, and switching becomes a straightforward price and service decision. If you have not compared what is available at your address recently, this is the moment.
References
- BT. (n.d.). What happens to my email address when my BT Broadband service stops? Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.bt.com/help/email/what-happens-to-my-email-address-when-my-bt-broadband-service-st
- Junara. (n.d.). About us. Retrieved 11 September 2026, from https://junara.com/about-us/
- Junara. (n.d.). Frequently asked questions. Retrieved 11 September 2026, from https://junara.com/frequently-asked-questions/
- Junara. (n.d.). Pricing. Retrieved 11 September 2026, from https://junara.com/pricing/
- Manx Telecom. (2025, October 21). Manx.net transition: Protecting Islanders from scams as email service moves to Junara. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.manxtelecom.com/news/press/manx-net-transition-protecting-islanders-from-scams-as-email-service-moves-to-junara/
- Ofcom. (2025, January). Ofcom's guidance under General Condition C1: Contract requirements. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk
- Robinson, D. (2026, September 9). Virgin Media offloads email services to third-party provider. The Register. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/09/09/virgin-media-offloads-email-services-to-third-party-provider/5295230
- TalkTalk. (n.d.). Email transition FAQs. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://help-centre.talktalk.co.uk/Email/Find_info_or_guidance_about_my_Email/Email_Transition_FAQs
- Three FM. (2025, October 21). Manx.net email addresses to cost £6.50 a month next year. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.three.fm/news/isle-of-man-news/manx-net-email-addresses-to-cost-6-50-a-month-next-year/
- Virgin Media. (n.d.). How to manage my email account. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.virginmedia.com/help/broadband/manage-email-account
- Virgin Media. (n.d.). Why is my email account being closed? Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://www.virginmedia.com/help/broadband/email-account-closure
- Virgin Media O2. (2026, September 9). Helping customers understand upcoming changes to their Virgin Media email services. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/helping-customers-understand-upcoming-changes-to-their-virgin-media-email-services/
Written by Adrian James, Broadband Editor at BroadbandSwitch.uk (LinkedIn). Reviewed by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith (LinkedIn). Published 11 September 2026, last verified 11 September 2026. This is a developing situation: Virgin Media has not published the ongoing Junara price, the number of accounts affected, how to register a need for additional support, or whether email forwarding will be offered, and we have said so wherever it applies rather than filling the gaps. Provider email policies change frequently; confirm on your own provider's help pages before relying on the table. This guide is information, not legal advice. BroadbandSwitch.uk has no commercial relationship with Virgin Media, Junara or Atmail.