It is essential to change all the email addresses to the alternate ones before deleting your Outlook.com account if you have been using the same Outlook address for any other services. You should also know this. To permanently close your Outlook.com email account, you need to close your Microsoft account. When you close your Microsoft account, your email and contacts are deleted from Microsoft servers and can’t be recovered. If you use your Microsoft account with Xbox, Skype, OneDrive, or other Microsoft services, you’ll no longer be able to access those services.

Delete or Close Outlook.com email account

To close your Outlook or Hotmail or Live email account, do the following:

When you click on Next, Outlook will request you to check ‘privacy and cookies’ statement. In addition to this, it will provide you information on – what happens to your info if you choose to close your account. Then finally it will ask you to verify your account to close it down. In the end, you will be asked to deactivate your Outlook/Hotmail account. Once you do it, your account will be closed. Read: How to Prevent Email from going to Junk in Outlook. Microsoft reserves your email address even after you have closed your account for a period of 60 days. Within this period if you would like to reactivate your account, you could easily do so. Related reads:

How to deactivate or delete Gmail account permanentlyHow to permanently delete Yahoo account.