Paying for AOL??

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My girlfriend has an email account with AOL which she uses strictly for email. She just told me she is paying some $14/month for her AOL service. With email being free these days, what is she getting for her $14/mo? Is there a way for her to cancel her AOL services while retaining her AOL email address for free?

Thanks!

Tom NJ
 
Sure she's not still getting charged for internet maybe? I have an aol account (email) and pay nothing...
 
She should just contact them it does sound like they are still charging her for internet.

I got away from AOL for the same reason when Hotmail came out. When Hotmail started putting limits on their service I moved to Gmail.

Each time, simply sent an email to all contacts to advise of the change.
 
The baseline $59.88 plan — “AOL Support Plus” — gets the subscriber:

unlimited dial-up service — which for many rural subscribers remains the only game in town — and tech support for AOL products;
10 percent off a Sprint plan (you would save about $42 per year on the Sprint $34.99/month plan);
8 percent cash back on Priceline (nothing special);
a subscription to MyReputation Discovery (a glorified Google Alert, $156 per year);
McAfee Internet Security Suite (an anti-virus software that puts popup ads on its own site, $55.99 per year);
two free wills from Hyatt Legal planning (this really makes clear the customer base AOL is aiming for);
AOL One Point, a password manager (one of many, some for no charge);
and an AARP membership ($16 per year).

An additional $24.00 per year gets you “AOL Support and Security Plus” and:
5GB Norton Online Backup (similar services such as Dropbox and Google Drive are free);
Life360 Premium (for helicopter parents who want to upgrade to spy-satellite parents. This lets you snoop on your kids for a discount; both AT&T’s and Verizon’s versions cost $119.88 per year);
DataMask, desktop and mobile (identifies suspicious phishing sites — what Google Chrome or any other modern browser does anyway, encrypts data).

Pay an additional $36.00 per year (we’re at $119.88 per year now) for “AOL Advantage Essentials” and you get Private WiFi, a VPN service for encrypted browsing. For most people, this is probably pretty overboard. But if you want it and you buy the service independently, it costs $79.99 per year for three devices.

An additional $24.00 per year gets subscribers “AOL Advantage Plus” and LifeLock Identity Theft Protection. You can get most of what LifeLock offers on your own, but AOL’s offer is a bargain compared to the $219.89 that LifeLock costs separately.

You can upgrade to “AOL Advantage Premium” for an additional $35.52 per year, or $179.40 per year total. That gets you AOL Help Me Optimize, where AOL will defragment your computer, install updates and scan your system up to four times per year.

An additional $36.00 per year gets you “AOL Advantage Premium Plus” and AOL Help Me Set Up, where AOL will configure your printer, fax machine, scanner and router.

Now we’re in the top two tiers. “AOL Total Advantage” costs $299.88 total, an additional $84.48 per year. Subscribers get:

AOL VIP Loyalty program, a.k.a. slightly faster AOL tech support;
MyPrivacy from Reputation.com, which claims to remove subscribers from advertiser lists. It normally costs $99 per year;
AOL Tech Fortress powered by AppGuard, which is an annoyingly capitalized antivirus software;
AOL Help Me Remove Viruses, where AOL will screen-share with you and run a virus scan;
AfterSteps, which offers digital estate planning, i.e. what happens to your email address after you die? Off the shelf, it costs $60 per year or $299 one time for a lifetime membership.

Finally, for an additional $36 per year — a total of $335.88 per year — you can subscribe to “AOL Total Advantage Plus.” That gets you AOL Help Me Fix It, where AOL will fix software issues, configure your antivirus and firewall settings, install those pesky drivers, reformat your drive, etc. (I’ve left out the PC protection plan, which starts at $250 worth of protection in the second tier and works its way up to $1,500 in the top tier, because it honestly seems like everything is exempt from it.)

So what do we see? A lot of virus protection and a lot of computer repair and installation stuff. There are good deals here for people who are uncomfortable with and a little paranoid about the Internet, hackers and identity theft. It seems like AOL is basically selling subscriptions to people who need tech support for when their son-in-law isn’t home for Thanksgiving to fix the router.

aol
 
aol is 100% free the only reason to pay is you get tech support which is a joke with aol anyway..
I have aol at the office but its just because i had it for so long.. I have been told aol is not very secure either and slows everything down.
 
If she cancels, AOL will look and act the same including mail as long as she still has the AOL software installed (which is free). Many don't like the AOL software but use aol.com instead. You still get your AOL mail, but in a different configuration as is the rest of AOL.com compared to the downloaded AOL version. I still use the AOL download because I am used to the layout and like the way the mail system is laid out and functions. Not a fan of the Huff Po lean but ignore what I don't like.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
I feel like I took a ride in a time machine back to 1998


No kidding. I used to remember walking out of the huge discount computer supply stores in the early to mid 90s and seeing a large shopping cart filled with their 3.5 floppy install discs that they were giving away. Then they went to CDs. I never signed up for AOL, but the CDs made great drink coasters. You couldn't beat the price for them either.
 
my MIL still has aol for email/contacts. She's pushin 70 and afraid to change. She has broadband through her cable company. She pays Aol for some kind of add on service. lame.
 
That is what I did for someone who started using AOL since 1995.

Even though she was paying she would get advertising when using email. They routinely sold her extra services. She still uses their browser.

Things work better now that she stopped using AOL products to fix the computer, speed it up, internet security, etc.
 
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