blog/email-alias-vs-plus-sign addendum

[JoeBoll]

I think a good one to mention on email alias vs plus sign blog page would be:

Some medium sized companies don't support sending emails to Plus-addresses, however they will allow you to enter the plus-address email in their system, thusly causing you to loose access to your account.

Notably most Canadian banks and Canada's Interac E-Transfer will allow you to enter Plus-addresses, but just won't send emails to them.

My insurance company and utility companies also had this issue. It was a pretty big deal-breaker for the plus method.

[nguyenkims]

Notably most Canadian banks and Canada's Interac E-Transfer will allow you to enter Plus-addresses, but just won't send emails to them.

@JoeBoll that's indeed an interesting info. Do you know which comapanies do that so we can put into the article?

[JoeBoll]

It's not any 'one' company, it's seriously just random wether or not you're going to have problems with a "+" symbol.

From what I can tell it's not a 'decision' they made, it's just that the system that they use/built somehow does not support sending emails that have the "+" symbol. So they just aren't following rfc5321

Some tell-tale signs of a non-compliant website are:

• Their signup/account page will allow you to enter an email with a "+" symbol. But then you just won't get email anymore. No password reset emails, just nothing.
• Their sites often (but not always) includes email length limits as well - usually around 30 characters rather than the 320 defined by rfc5321 (although sometimes they just won't tell you this)

So to tell you which ones didn't work for me, it really doesn't convey the point that it's a gamble, as my experience is very limited in the terms of scope of the internet.

And that doesn't even touch on the sites that just don't allow you to enter a "+" in your email address. Which also happens.

Most notable of all of the ones I've had fail due to the "+", Interac E-Transfer (Canadian) is the most notable. But it truly is a gamble wether the "+" will work.

[nguyenkims]

@JoeBoll thanks for the info!