200.12 - How to Delete A Yahoo E-mail Account

A simple process for deleting your Yahoo! Mail account

So here's what you need to know before you delete your Yahoo account:

1. Even after you delete your yahoo mail account, people will be able to send you emails for 90 days following the account deletion.
2. If you delete your Yahoo email account you are actually also deleting your all the data associated with your Yahoo account: emails, address book, group memberships, photos, 360 blogs etc'. You'll also loose your Yahoo Messenger id and other Yahoo services.
3. Note that after deleting your Yahoo! account you won't be able to re-create it.
4. If you close your account, someone can potentially open a new account with the same name, thus actually taking over your email identity.
5. If you subscribed to any premium services (business hosting etc'), cancel those first—before you delete your account. Yahoo doesn't guarantee that deleting your Yahoo account will immediately cancel the billing for any premium services you're subscribed to. This is a crucial point if you are hosting your website or blog with Yahoo.

If you still want to delete proceed as following:

1. Go over your Yahoo mailbox and search for important emails you would like to keep. Send them to your other email address. Note that you if you are using Yahoo in a web client, you won't be able to export your mailbox automatically.
2. Grab your list of active contacts and update them that your yahoo email address won't be active any more (remember, mails might reach your yahoo account in the following 90 days without you be able to read them.
3. Export your contacts records to Outlook or Thunderbird.
4. Navigate to the termination page and click Terminate. An alternative approach which I recommend in case you don't want to use Yahoo email any more, is to simply stop using it. After 90 days of no activity, Yahoo will automatically close your account.

200.12
Contributing Source:
Yahoo Discussion Board
9/16/08