google play store account problem

I hope someone can help me with this because I'm totally stuck!

Years ago I set up two similar gmail accounts, one to use on my phone and one for just mail. Their named like: mestuff@gmail and me.stuff@gmail the same basic thing but one with a period in it.

Recently I got a new phone (galaxy 9+), and when I try to add my mestuff account, it always changes it to me.stuff instead. Even though the two accounts have different passwords. Mestuff has all my playstore history and purchases, and now I can't access it because gmail doesn't recognize peroids in addresses anymore.

I've tried everything I can think of to get around this problem. Does anyone have a suggestion, or a way to transfer the playstore account to a new address while keeping all the information and purchased games?