Why do I always have to type my email address twice in web forms?

Question

Whenever a web form asks me for my personal details, it always asks me to type my email address in twice in two different boxes.

They never ask me that for the other fields, however, such as first name, last name, address, phone number, credit card number, etc.

Why is the email address so special that it needs to be typed twice to make sure I haven't made any typos?

Not only that, it's been like this since the very first web forms I encountered way back in the early 90's?  Isn't it time for this practice to go the way of the text-only browsers?

Joe · Accepted Answer

A lot of people aren't as careful as you are.

I'm on the receiving end of user-supplied e-mail addresses.  I figure that one-third of the ones I get are mis-entered.  If the confirming line can get that down to one-tenth, I'd be much happier.

Yeah, people still mess up; even in 2016.

Anonymous · Answer

Because if you type your email address wrong, you are stuffed. You can't get into you new account, you don't get the verification code, they can't contact you, you can't reset your password etc.

By typing it twice, the system compares the 2, and it's very unlikely you will make the same typo twice in a row.

It cuts WAY back on the behind the scenes admin that needs to be done when people email the organisation saying their new account doesn't work, because it was sent to the wrong email address.

Bill · Answer

If your browser is set to automatically fill in some data for forms, you might notice that only one of the address boxes gets filled in. Also, if you fill in the email address incorrectly, they may have no way to contact you about other problems.

Dale-E · Answer

They want to be sure they get it straight in their customer profile.

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Why do I always have to type my email address twice in web forms?

4 Answers