Why does Microsoft want to charge me for Hotmail service when I have deleted almost all messages ?

I too have had my hotmail account for over 15 years and have not ever paid for it. Now I am getting messages saying I am over my Microsoft storage limit. I can neither send or receive messages. So I just switched over to my gmail account. There is no way I am going to pay for an ancient email service like hotmail.

Exactly thos, so so annoying after years and years. Doesn't matter which device you use so it has nothing to do with storage...you don't even get the emails back you've missed if you haven't realised the payment didn't go through.

That's not answering his question though. I've used Hotmail since the 90's. Why is it that we're are being charged all of a sudden for extra storage.? Since this OneDrive has been incorporated into Hotmail now you guys want to charge for it.? Why is my Hotmail even linked to it? I have picture's on my laptop and used the free one drive storage and for some odd reason it's now linked to my Hotmail account and now I can't get any of my messages wth. I've had to open up a different email account with a different provider just to get my email. Why are we even being charged for this? We are already being charged for this, that and the other already by Microsoft such as Microsoft office among many many other things that are now yearly subscriptions through windows 10/11 from Microsoft, this is ridiculous.

I can't believe in the middle of a cost of living crisis they've decided to do this now.

I've had my email for 20 odd years everything personnel is linked to it and I pay for a business email I'm not paying for both bit I'm not receiving emails or able to send..

I've also deleted so many but it's not taking the storage down one bit!