diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 9a1a4898e3..e2fe112aa5 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -287,6 +287,7 @@ sub do_edit {
 );
 
 my %config_settings = (
+    "smtpencryption" => \$smtp_encryption,
     "smtpserver" => \$smtp_server,
     "smtpserverport" => \$smtp_server_port,
     "smtpserveroption" => \@smtp_server_options,
@@ -387,14 +388,6 @@ sub read_config {
 			$$target = $v;
 		}
 	}
-
-	if (!defined $smtp_encryption) {
-		my $setting = "$prefix.smtpencryption";
-		my $enc = Git::config(@repo, $setting);
-		return unless defined $enc;
-		return if $configured->{$setting}++;
-		$smtp_encryption = $enc;
-	}
 }
 
 # sendemail.identity yields to --identity. We must parse this