Domain names

[jo strummer]

Hi chaps

had the same domain name for my company for years, just had a note through from my IT support company asking me to pay £25 to renew, they say and I quote "It is only possible to renew .co.uk domains for 2 years which we invoice yearly.". It strikes me that £25 a year for filling in an online renewal is rather expensive. Or is it a huge pain in the arse to do myself?

Is this something I can do, I have googled it but just got loads of hosting companies come up.

Many thanks

Jo

[jamesuk28]

Assuming its a co.uk that is a rip off. As you no doubt found out the average charge is £2.56/year plus VAT, min 2 years. It takes 5 secs to renew.

We offer free domain names for life with our hosting packages / web design. So shop around

EDIT to say. You could transfer the domain name out to another hosting provider.

Problems with that though are:

You cannot transfer 60 days either end of registration or renewal

You will have to change the IPS TAGS / nameservers and or get the domain name unlocked. Again we do not charge for doing this but some less scupulous providers do. The last client that tried to transfer his domain out to us got stung for £200 by his previous supplier.

Edited by jamesuk28 on Tuesday 11th September 14:01

[rpguk]

James pretty much sums it up.

In reality they don't even have to fill in a form, that side will be all automated but they will have to pay a fee of a few quid.

However the fact that they mention invoicing makes me think it's still not too bad a price. There are sites which charge a few pounds but these are running on razor thin margins and will only offer an automated self service with little or no support.

They don't send out paper invoices or offer credit either. Many managers have no problems paying the extra ten or twenty quid to have someone else deal with it rather then have to mess about with doing it themselves, especially when a domain name can be so important and valuable.

Edited by rpguk on Tuesday 11th September 16:54

[JamieBeeston]

You can transfer the domain away Free of charge, even once it's expired..

Just sign up for a transfer with someone else (you'll likely have to pay the renewal as part of the transfer) and then it's simply a case of changing the IPS TAG to that of your new provider (ask the new one to tell you, then tell the old one to change it!)

If the old ones don't play ball go to :-
http://www.nic.uk/registrants/maintain/changeregis...

There is a small one of charge, and they will force an IPS TAG change, still cheaper than paying your current place and much more satisfying.

Check out my profile / click the banners in this forum / drop me an email if you have any queries.

J