I have a dispute (since Feb 2016) with the Australian telco (Telstra) who has installed an internet connection that is not working which they refuse to fix, in the process the home phone is permanently disconnected guaranteeing that nobody else can provide Internet access. Nothing else is available in my area (Kambalda WA Australia).
I'd like to get a paying (quality) email account without phone number, without prior email details which I could access from the local library but I also want to pay for it from my debit card since I am in the process of cancelling my credit card as the same telco has been charging inexplicable amounts without authorisation a few years ago ($40 followed by $20) and without any reason.

Can anyone suggest suitable providers (I dont care about their location)?

I have found a few (one seems to be very good: protonmail) but they need to charge through a credit card or paypal, who also needs a credit card.

Thank you for your help.

Why not open a new credit card account and use that? If you're credit worthy you don't even have to use the same bank.

Giving people your debit card info risks direct hacks into your bank account. At least with credit cards you have the opportunity to dispute transactions before you pay.

Also are you disputing the charges that have appeared from Telstra?

https://posteo.de/en

been using that for years, paying the 12€ every year per bank transfer. get lost, paypal & co!

Thank you for the answers.
Although my credit card account is in credit (the bank owes me money rather than me owing money to the bank) and my credit rating should be top-of-the-class no bank will give me a new credit card because of my age (77). I did not intend to give the details of my debit card but instead make a periodic automatic payment. Regarding Telstra, they never issued a bill, instead they regularly phone me (no legal trace) trying to get payment for an Internet connection that does not connect and a phone that they have disconnected, they have never asked me what I was disputing. I assume they are aware that I have a strong case because their web site that one queries to find if Internet is available at a specific address splashed the message: "Good news, .. is available at your address.", they even sent their proprietary modem after I moved to that address on that promise but it appears their exchange cannot take a new connection and they save the maintenance/repair money for the new coming NBN (in 2 to 3 years in my area). It also appears that they hope I go away by wearing me down by doing strictly nothing official.
Here in .au services are getting terrible (the bank -60km away - ignored my letter advising my change of address, the subject of another official complaint (they have no website provision for that purpose) and the electricity provider do the same regarding other personal details, yet another complaint). But in the case of the electricity company, they ended up paying over four hundred AU$ that were not claimed, which shows how stupid their attitude is getting in order to avoid paying an employee to responsibly study the validity of a complaint.

I get an
when I try to connect, I will try again later (from the local library).

Look for a prepaid debit card, not sure about in your country but there are certainly plenty available in other places. I used to work for a company that did them and ran a few programs in Europe.

A quick Google search shows that your national postal service offers one: https://auspost.com.au/money-insuran...a-prepaid-card

For anyone that does any form of purchasing online I'd certainly recommend one of these. I use mine all the time, especially as there's no fee to issue a new "virtual" card and re-issuing the virtual doesn't affect the physical card I have.

Question: why do you want a paid email service instead of one of the free ones at sites like mail.google.com or mail.com?

https://runbox.com

I have been satisfied with Runbox for nearly three years. $19.95/year is reasonable for what you get, and if I recall you get 2 years for the price of 1 when you first sign up.

I've used both my credit and debit cards to pay for hushmail.com and they haven't ripped me off yet. Well, they've not charged anything but their quoted price and the service works.
I also have a hosting provider here in the UK and it's cheaper, I think, to have a domain of my own and mail accounts and I pay with both cards also.
Lots of options out there.

Even if THEY don't rip you off, the potential someone might hack them and get your debit card info is there. As I wrote the OP why risk direct access to your cash when you can instead use a credit card and have the opportunity to dispute before making payment for charges on it?

"Needs must"? Yes, I agree, credit card is safer but thinGs like clearing payment information from your account after payment and having some kind of banking laws help also.
It also depends upon how much one's current account contains - - there's no reason to have everything in it.

I haven't checked lately, but I think the credit card issuer may offer one-time-valid-only virtual credit cards.

As to the age thing I'd have thought Australia like the U.S. would have protections to prevent against age discrimination.

As someone else noted, you might be able to use a prepaid card or even a guaranteed credit card. (The latter essentially requires you to keep a certain amount of money on deposit with them that is used as collateral against charges on the credit card. Your limit on the credit card is equal to what you have on deposit.)

In the U.S. most states have Government consumer complaint agencies you can contact if not getting any joy from the company you're fighting. On checking just now I see Western Australia indeed has a similar agency. This page gives a checklist then contains links for filing complaints.
https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consu...aint-checklist
Such agencies of course operate at the speed of government but often enough they WILL get resolutions to issues.

If you have a local TV station (or even radio station) they sometimes have folks who spend their time working on issues on your behalf. They do it because it lets them report the story.

In the US when you close a credit card that has autopay, the end result usually is you have to pay a lot more. Better get that dispute fixed.

I too wonder why a cash type of pre-paid card wouldn't work or simply use a free service.

Regarding bodies to complain to:
In .au they have no authority to impose a solution, their mediation is purely voluntary on the part of the supplier who knows it and takes advantage of it as much as possible, doing nothing while pretending to follow this "code of conduct". I have 3 current disputes that follow that line of thought. Some ten years ago the state of WA in .au had what was called a "Small Claim Tribunal" which was effective as a real magistrate could make binding recommendations for disputes lodged with that body but the state government abolished it probably following pressure from big businesses (donations), Claims had to be lodged with another government body that only had negotiating powers. TollIpec (a carrier) had an agent who allowed someone to forge my signature and collect a paid-for parcel containing a couple of pulleys and belt (the post office asks for proof of identity but TollIpec did not). It tooks weeks to find what had happened and months of sustained complaint to that body but TollIpec dragged it on all sorts of excuses to do nothing and not offer a refund and this government body had to finaly accept my view that my only option was to take TollIpec to court.
Even if there are laws, those people know very well when these laws are not enforced and they only need to delay - indefinitely - to succeed at not applying them.
It would be interesting to know if laws in the US are more efficient.

I can't really say but the reality is that in general big companies don't like it when they get many complaints with government agencies so often enough the fact you went that route is sufficient. We also have the Better Business Bureau which grades companies on how they address complains. It seems to be less effective but often you can at least learn what companies have low grades with them.

I'm *ahem* ASSertive enough that most disputes I have usually get resolved simply because I won't take no for an answer and often have enough documentation to overwhelm the low level folks that are putting up roadblocks.

Back when I worked in the hotel industry one could call the central reservations number for most chains and get to a guest relations person. Even though most hotels in a chain are franchised, that department had the right to do quite a bit including giving free rooms at your hotel to satisfy guest complains. Whenever we got a call from that department we would do our best to solve the complaint with the guest to avoid having them give away more.

Once I and my co-workers were having similar issues with one of the big phone companies on our ISDN connections. Front line support was generally of no help. I found that company had a number for "Office of the President" and called same. Within a week our issues were solved.

My family once had me call a cell phone company to get rid of a recurring charge. They claimed it was a legitimate charge my family signed up for from a 3rd party and they were merely passing it on (as if they got no part of that money for collecting and remitting it to that 3rd party). I simply asked them to transfer me to the fraud department. The speed at which they backpedaled and agreed to not only stop the recurring charges but remove those already made to avoid sending me to the fraud department was quite amusing.

On checking just now I find this interesting link for Telstra:
https://service.telstra.com.au/custo...ntact-ceo-form
Perhaps submitting your complaint there will get some action.