Will I have to pay again? I have about 9 months left before renewal but my current provider doesn't offer many options / control panels.
Update: thanks for everyone's help - I've finally completed this now.
I had to:
What a pain in the a**
There is a domain transfer procedure. It's kind of complex, since it's intended to keep people from stealing domains by transferring them to another registrar (like happened to sex.com back in the 90's). GoDaddy does a good job of talking you through it (I've transferred a domain to them in the past). Of course, you're going to have to pay them to register the domain for you (though they occasionally offer discounts on domain transfers).
You probably will have to pay. If you check with your current registrar and with your target registar and see what needs to be done with them and what the costs are.
It is diferent for every registar, even though the actual process is the same.
they charge you to transfer (like 6.99?), but godaddy will then renew it for a year. You usually need to contact your current hosting and have them release it for transfer, then follow godaddy's procedure for transferring a new domain in.
You may need to pay, but when I switched from Register.com to goDaddy.com I paid a very small amount to transfer (like $10) and also renewed the domain for another 2 years. (This turned out to be much cheaper than renewing with Register.com)
This is how it works Lets say you have 9 more months for your current domain to expire you transfer the domain to GoDaddy (or to any other decent Registrar) you will be charged the price (little more or equal) to the price of booking a new domain BUT, you will have the domain for 9 months + one year (or the no. of years you paid godaddy for)
So, you choose to transfer the domain and pay USD9.99 (for a year), you will have the domains for 1 year + 9 months
I did this when I had to switch hosts from awful, unreliable Fuitadnet. They managed the domain for me so I emailed them that I wanted to transfer my domain. (I transferred to GoDaddy.)
I don't remember all of the details, but I seem to recall it was a multiple-handshake process. First, they had to get my current registrar to release the domain; this involved having an email sent to me so I could confirm I actually wanted to release the domain. Then, I got a confirmation code that I sent to the new registrar, who did something or the other and came back with a new confirmation code. Once I entered the final confirmation code, the domain belonged to the new registrar. It took a few days and for some reason my first set of codes didn't work, but I found GoDaddy was pretty good at explaining what was going on.
I did have to pay a transfer fee, but the registration retained its length. I opted to renew it because there was a discount at the time.
If you contact your current host/registrar and they should be able to help you out; this was one of the few times I actually got good service out of fuitadnet.
Yeah!! I was charged by my new registrar when I moved. Also remember you should have the secret key (transfer code) before you start your transfer process.
Depends on the host also. If you go with a company like BlueHost, for example, they'll give you free domain transfers from the losing registrar. I think, in fact, they may give you free transfers. They will and ask if you want to renew your domain with them which will cost you, though.
You must have the domain unlocked with your current registrar and make sure that your contact information is up to date.
You can then have the new registrar submit a transfer request. This will result in you being sent a notification (assuming your contact information is accurate).
You will have to follow the directions in that transfer request email.
The domain may take up to a few days to fully transfer to the new registrar.
When you transfer a domain, you are effectively extending the registration for another year so you will be charged the standard transfer/registration fee.
If you have any questions, you can always contact the company you would like to become the new registrar. I am sure they would be able to walk you through their process exactly.
Just so you know, GoDaddy as a company has a somewhat dubious reputation. I personally have never had any problems with them but I have only a few low-profile sites and have never done anything even remotely complicated with the DNS.