Stop paying, and it's deleted entirely.
In the quiet churn of digital life, three readers pause at familiar crossroads: the weight of an old email address, the convenience of a phone snapshot, and the search for a camera worthy of memory-making. Their questions, modest on the surface, touch something universal — the desire to hold onto what we've built, to simplify what has grown complicated, and to find quality without excess. The answers remind us that technology, for all its promise of seamless transition, still asks us to make choices, accept losses, and begin again.
- An Eircom email address cannot be rescued from cancellation — the moment payment stops, the address and everything tied to it disappears entirely, leaving no path to a quiet migration.
- The workaround exists only for the contents: Gmail's import tool can salvage old emails and contacts, but the address itself is gone, forcing a blunt announcement to every contact built over years.
- A reader's tip about photographing QR codes for Covid certificates sounds clever but carries real risk — older phones and unsteady hands can produce blur that leaves a scanner cold at the restaurant door.
- The hunt for the best camera phone under €600 lands squarely on the Samsung S20 FE at €470, a flagship-adjacent device whose price drop signals a successor is coming — making now the right moment to buy.
Tony Heery wanted a clean escape from his Eircom email account — stop paying the monthly fee, keep the address, move it to Gmail. The answer is no, and the reason is structural: an eircom.net address lives on Eircom's servers, and the moment you stop paying, it ceases to exist. Unlike a phone number, it cannot be ported. There is no graceful handover.
What can be saved is the content. Gmail offers an import function — through settings, under accounts and import — that allows a user to pull over accumulated emails and contacts before the account closes. But the address itself is lost, and everyone in that contact list will need to be told. It is, by necessity, a clean break.
A second question touched on Covid certificates. A reader named Michael McKeon had been photographing his QR code and keeping it in his photo library, with success at several venues. The columnist acknowledged the method can work, but stopped short of recommending it broadly. Older phones, weaker lenses, a momentary tremor — any of these can produce a blurred image that a restaurant scanner cannot read. The ambiguity around what to photograph adds further risk. For those with modern phones and steady hands it may be fine; for everyone else, the more formal storage methods remain the safer path.
The final question came from Mike O'Leary, seeking the best camera phone under €600. The answer was the Samsung S20 FE, then available for €470 — a trimmed version of Samsung's flagship S20, carrying three capable lenses: standard, ultra-wide, and 10x zoom. The price had fallen from over €650 because Samsung was preparing to launch the S21 FE, a successor almost certain to exceed the budget. Google's Pixel 4a 5G at €499 was noted as an alternative with strong computational photography, but it too was nearing the end of its cycle. For anyone prioritising camera quality at this price point, the S20 FE was the clear and timely choice.
Tony Heery had a straightforward question: could he dump his Eircom email account, stop paying the monthly fee, and somehow keep the eircom.net address he'd been using for years by moving it to Gmail? The answer, it turns out, is no—and the reason is simpler than you might think.
When you pay Eircom for an email account, you're paying for the privilege of keeping that address alive on their servers. The moment you stop paying, the entire account vanishes. Your eircom.net address gets deleted. All the contacts you've built up around it, all the forwarding rules, all of it—gone. There's no way to transfer an Eircom address to Gmail the way you might port a phone number to a new carrier. The address is tethered to Eircom's infrastructure, and if you're not paying to keep it there, it ceases to exist.
There is, however, a workaround for the content itself. If Heery wants to preserve the emails and contacts he's accumulated in his Eircom account, Gmail offers an import function. He can sign into Gmail (or create a free account), navigate to settings, find the accounts and import section, and follow the prompts to pull everything over. It's a straightforward process. But here's the catch: once he stops paying Eircom, he'll need to tell everyone he knows that his email address has changed. There's no graceful transition. It's a clean break.
The column also fielded a question about storing Covid certificates on phones. One reader, Michael McKeon, had suggested a simple hack: just photograph the QR code and keep it in your phone's photo library. It works, he said. He'd done it himself at several establishments. The advice columnist acknowledged the technique can function, but cautioned against recommending it as a universal solution. Older smartphones with weaker camera lenses might struggle. A trembling hand, a moment of blur—the kind of thing that happens to anyone—could render the QR code unreadable when a restaurant scanner tries to process it. There's also the question of what exactly someone should be photographing: the entire certificate, just the QR code, or the QR code plus the person's name? The ambiguity alone makes it risky to promote as a reliable method. For those with modern phones and steady hands, it might work fine. For everyone else, the columnist recommended following the more formal methods outlined in a previous column, which would ensure crystal-clear image quality and automatic inclusion of all necessary details.
The third question came from Mike O'Leary, who wanted to know which phone under €600 offered the best camera. The recommendation was Samsung's S20 FE, available at that time for €470 from DID Electrical. It's a stripped-down version of Samsung's flagship S20, but the cameras—a standard lens, a 10x zoom, and an ultra-wide option—are nearly as good as the premium model. For the price, the camera quality is exceptional. The columnist noted that the S20 FE had cost over €650 just weeks earlier; the discount existed because Samsung was preparing to launch an updated S21 FE. That newer model would almost certainly exceed the €600 budget when it arrived, making it not worth the wait. Google's Pixel 4a 5G was mentioned as an alternative, priced at €499 and known for excellent computational photography, though it lacks a zoom lens. But that phone was also about to be superseded, so buying one at that moment didn't make sense. For someone prioritizing camera quality at the €550 to €600 price point, the Samsung S20 FE was the clear choice.
Notable Quotes
If you stop paying Eir, your Eir email address and everything associated with it will be deleted from their systems entirely.— Technology advice columnist
The slightest wobble or blur as you take the photo might mean the restaurant's scanner can't read it properly and you're turned away.— Technology advice columnist, on QR code photography risks
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So if someone's been paying Eircom for their email for years, they really can't just take that address with them?
Not in any meaningful way. The address is owned by Eircom. Stop paying, and it's deleted entirely. There's no transfer mechanism.
But they can at least save what's inside the account?
Yes. Gmail has an import function. You can pull all your old emails and contacts over. But you lose the address itself—everyone needs a new one.
That seems harsh. Why not just let it forward?
Because the forwarding itself requires Eircom to maintain the account. That costs them money. Once you stop paying, they have no incentive to keep it running.
And this QR code photo thing for Covid certs—it actually works?
For some people, sure. But if your phone's camera isn't great, or your hands shake, the blur ruins it. A restaurant scanner can't read a blurry code.
So it's a gamble.
Exactly. It works until it doesn't. And then you're turned away at the door.
What about that Samsung phone—is it really the best value?
At that price point, yes. The cameras are nearly as good as the flagship, but you're paying hundreds less because a newer model is coming.