Want to save old emails and discontinue service provider

you could create an account on a free service like yahoo, and forward the e-mail there...

There is a help page here that explains how to set up Outlook Express with the Bell email. Get that set up and you should be able to use Outlook Express to retrieve and save your emails to your local hard drive.

They have screen-shots to help you with the set up.

http://service.sympatico.ca/index.cfm?method=content.view&content_id=9324

Here's Microsoft's version of the same instructions:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/mailserver.mspx

Are you using a web page to get to your email or a program like Windows Live Mail? If you are using a program that downloads the messages like Windows Live Mail, the messages are already on your computer, so you don't need to do anything. When you set up your new account, just add that account to the program and you are set. If you are using a web page, there are probably options on the page to download the messages in a text format or you could just forward them to the new account.