Are free email services worth the cost?
 
The answer seems to be yes and no, depending on your needs and expectations.
 
"What cost? Free email services are free, aren't they?" Here are some of the costs I associate with free email services: 

• Spam - free email services seem to receive a disproportionate amount of spam. There are various theories about why, but the fact is you'll get more spam with a free mail service than with a regular ISP.
• Deliverability - free email addresses also seem to send a disproportionate amount of SPAM. Even though you don't send SPAM, it still impacts you. When spam filters see your email as coming from the same service as lots of SPAM, it's a strike against you, and can quickly cause your email to be blocked.
• Customer Service - for all intents and purposes, there is none. This is truly a case of "you get what you pay for". While there might be web forms and email address that will accept your question, your chances of getting a response are pretty much proportional to what you paid: zero.
• Limits and Restrictions - With most free services you must read your email through their web interface. If you want to move, forward or download your email, contacts or other information, the process is cumbersome, if it's even possible at all.

In short, I wouldn't suggest a free email service for anything that you consider important or anything that you want to keep long term.

Here's a guide: If your email account disappeared today, along with all the mail and contact information it contains, would it be an inconvenience or a catastrophe? If you answered catastrophy, then you need to stop using your free account now!
 
If your email is actually important to you, then spend a little each month to get a "real" email account from a regular ISP or mail service. Depending on the provider, each one of the 'costs' I list above will at least be diminished, if not eliminated.
 
Another 'hidden' cost of using a free account for your business is the lack of professionalism and sense of permanence portrayed to clients and prospects by an email address that does not reflect the name or domain of your company.
 
What is the place for free email? Free accounts are perfect when you don't really care what happens to them. They're great when you need to supply an email address to a company that you think may spam you later. Or if you need or want to remain anonymous or otherwise separate that email from your important stuff. Or for leaving as a contact address on a website that will probably get harvested for spam someday.
 
In other words, free email accounts are perfect throw away accounts. If you get something important that you want to save on one of those accounts, just forward it to your real email account, and you're safer.