thinking of deleting your Hotmail account?

I have been using Hotmail for almost a decade now. But once you start using Gmail for your personal emails you don't want to use Hotmail anymore. Besides YahooMail and Yahoo Messenger are more user friendly than Hotmail and MSN Messenger. So I was thinking of deleting that account instead. I came across this website called Ask Leo which explain how to delete Hotmail account.

1. Click Help on any Hotmail page.

2. Type Close Account in the keyword search section of the Help screen.

3. Click the Close Your Hotmail Account tip within the Help screen.

4. Click the Close Account link that is highlighted in blue.

5. Read the instructions. When you are satisfied that you understand the terms associated with an account closure, click Close Account.

As I read on, I begin to think that it is quite true that if I close the account, someone else could open a new one, using my old account name. So maybe I should just leave my Hotmail account as it is and simply just don't use it (perhaps just check it once in awhile to make sure it is active).