Cancel your AOL account but Keep your Email address

"Chances are you are unaware that you can cancel your AOL account and keep your email address, AOL is not making this information easily accessible for obvious reasons."

Until now if you wanted to keep your AOL email address you had to keep your AOL account, downgrading to the minimum monthly service fee of $4.95. What a waste of money if all you use your AOL subscription for is email.

After signing up for AOL for a free trial period and canceling before the trial expired, I came to a startling revelation; AOL gave me the option to keep my @aol.com email address. Having customers who would benefit from this option I further delved into it.

I am sure by now you are curious as to how you can do this? It's rather simple actually. First of all, you will need to cancel your AOL subscription, good luck with that, chances are you will be persuaded to keep your account by the retention team. Just be strong and tell them that you would like to completely cancel your account, don't fall for their ploy to give you a free month, because chances are you will forget to call them back before the end of the free month and they will charge your account.

After you have canceled your AOL membership, you will need to go the aol.com website, and click on the link to "AOL & AIM email." Once there just enter your old AOL screen name and password. Once you have done that press the login button, next you should be greeted with a screen that gives you the option to keep your AOL email address and convert it to an AIM email address, just accept that option. That's it, you will now continue to receive email to your old AOL email address.

Here is a copy of the automated email I received from member support after converting my account: