Can I move my iCloud email address to a new Apple ID?

Question

Hi,
My wife and I have just recently bought iPhones. I've had an iMac for years and an iPad for a couple of years now, so we now have the multiple users/devices issue, or conundrum if you like.
I had an iTunes account since I've had my iMac so all purchases are made on that, so we want to be able to share that account for that purpose. I never did setup another Apple ID for myself though, so I've actually been using email on that main account.
My wife now has her own Apple ID as she has her own contacts and calendars, etc, but we do share some info.
So, now I need a better way of doing this and I think I know what to do; setup my own Apple ID/iCloud so we both then have our own personal accounts and then use the main iTunes account for purchases.
However, I have some questions;
I'd like to keep the old email address. Can I transfer that over to my new, personal Apple ID and use it for my iCloud email? *really want to know about this*
Contacts and calendars; I guess they can be exported and imported into the new account, yes? I know calendars can be shared so if we need to we can do that, but how do you share a group of contacts? If we maintain, on the main account, a group of shared contacts that will work fine; we can both access them and edit them, but how do we add new contacts to that group from our iPhones? I believe you can't add a contact to a group on the iPhone? Is there a workaround for that?
Or is there a better way that I'm missing?
Thanking you in advance
Lee

Answer 1

Hi, thanks for your reply.
You can't transfer your iCloud email account to another ID.  You could create a new iCloud account and still add your existing iCloud account as a secondary account on your phone (in Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>Add Account>iCloud) but the email on that account would be restricted to fetch.  (Push email is only supported in the primary account).  If you want to maintain your curent iCloud email account as push, you might want to keep the current iCloud account for yourself and just set up a new iCloud account for your wife.
I'm slightly confused. My current email address is currently tied to my main iTunes Apple ID. I was going to setup a new iCloud account (that's the same as an Apple ID isn't it?) and use that for my mail. I can't use my current one as a secondary cos photo stream won't then be available.