sbiddle:

 

surfisup1000: I cancelled all of my telecom and spark services but then xtra email address still works just fine.

So, maybe it is free now? Surely no one would pay for an email address these days.... I stopped using the xtra account mostly anyway... Just check once or twice a month in case an old colleague tries to contact me.

 

No it's not free. You were obviously lucky cancelling your account and either not facing this charge and the account not being cancelled.

 

I have a few clients who have been through this scenario over the years.  They've all changed ISP and all told by Telecom/Spark they would loose their @xtra.co.nz email address when they closed their accounts with an offer of the $20/month to keep it active.  However only a few did have that email service cut.  Others just continued passively using that mailbox.

That said I haven't had any clients move from Spark in recent months or had any casual follow up recently so Spark may have clamped down since.