How To Transfer Domain Ownership For Beginners

There are many reasons why you might want to transfer domain ownership, but regardless of your reasoning, it can seem like a long and daunting task and might put you out of your comfort zone.

Transferring domain ownership shouldn't take weeks, and once you get the ball rolling with your domain transfer you'll be able to get back to focusing on what you're on the web for...

The success of your business!

So in this domain monitor blog post I'm going to take you through just how to transfer your domain ownership, easily and quickly.

Why Transfer Domain Ownership?

There are loads of reasons you might want to transfer domain ownership to someone else. Every domain registrar offers different features and this might be the very reason you want to transfer.

You might also be looking at getting someone else to manage your domain for you. Especially if you're an online business.

As a business, you'll want to focus the majority of your efforts in generating leads and closing sales - you don't want to be held up in all the technical side with regards to your website do you.

With that said though, it's an important step, here's some reasons why you might want to transfer the domain ownership to another registrar.

Customer Support

Let's face it, you've been on hold on the phone to an organisation for what seems like a long amount of time - and it is.

Hours on the phone prevent you from doing what you love, and when you finally get through to speak to the person dealing with your query, your phone's battery dies!

Customer support when it comes to domain registrars is extremely important, they're the ones you'll buy your domain through and likely renew with, so choosing the perfect domain registrar is key - and this might be one reason you want to transfer domain ownership.

Ease Of Use

Have you had a play with your current domain registrar's dashboard or portal?

If not, give it a go, you might've only used it once or twice setting up your domain initially and likely didn't explore too much more.

But if the domain registrar doesn't have an easy to use dashboard, then when it comes to you having to make changes to your domain name you'll be left in the dark, likely needing to scout the internet for questions about the company itself!

Choosing a domain registrar that has a great dashboard will make transferring your domain ownership so much simpler, if and when you decide to do so.

Price

Whilst it's true that most domain registrars will have similar features and different ways of working, this will likely affect the price that you as a customer pay.

Sometimes, it's not really worth parting with that extra cash if they've inflated the cost just for providing some features you may never use.

And this isn't a criticism for what the domain provider is doing, it's simply something to consider when transferring your domain name to a new host.

Is transferring a domain free?

When you transfer domain ownership to a new host, you might be wondering whether you'll have to pay anything as part of the process right?

Well, you'll be pleased to know that a domain transfer itself are usually completely free.

However...

It's usually necessary to pay for a 1-year renewal of your domain during the transferring of domain ownership, so I guess is it really free?

The saying that: "nothing is free in this world" might be true in this sense.

It's also worth noting that when you transfer domain ownership to a new host, any time left on your domain will usually be added to the current expiration date, rather than the transfer date so you won't lose any time on your domain with your new domain registrar.

How long does a domain transfer take?

If you're reading this, you'll be surprised to know that transferring a domain doesn't take that long, in most cases it could be transferred within a matter of hours. In some cases though it may take up-to 5 days for a domain transfer to complete.

How can I speed up my domain transfer?

Once you start the process of transferring the ownership of a domain, unless you make a specific request to the registrar to speed the process up, then the process of transferring domain ownership can't be sped up.

If you really need to achieve this though, your best bet is to simply get in touch with the domain registrar who you're transferring away from and find out whether they're able to do this for you.

If they're not, then unfortunately you're out of luck, but in some cases you will be able to speed up some parts of the transfer request.

What about domain registration, how long does this take?

Another option you have, but I really don't recommend it is to simply let your domain name expire, let the cooling off period pass and then register your domain name with a different registrar.

Although not recommended, or if you're just registering a new domain name, how long does it take?

I can tell you from my own experience that the process of actually registering a domain name is quite simple, and it will take up-to 72 hours usually for your domain name to propagate.

All about domain name propagation

When you register a new domain, transfer domain ownership or make changes to your domain, your domain will need to propagate.

You might've read a little about this, your domain name holds DNS information, this is information about your domain such as where it was registered, when it's due to expire and other information.

Any modifications you make to your domain will mean your domain needs to propagate, essentially the process of the new information getting updated across servers worldwide

How to transfer domain name ownership with 123reg.com

Is your domain currently registered with 123reg? If so and you're looking to transfer away from them, here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Log in to your 123reg control panel
2. Head to the Domain Names section, find your domain and click on Manage
3. Click on the Manage domain locking link to unlock your domain name
4. You'll then need to click on the link to unlock your domain name, then click to go back to the control panel before returning to the previous menu
5. Then click on Request authorisation code, your code will be made up of numbers, letters and symbols
6. Once you receive your authorisation code, you'll need to hand this over to the new domain registrar

Once you've transferred domain ownership via 123reg, you would've successfully completed this.

How to transfer domain name ownership with GoDaddy.com

Your domain name might be registered with GoDaddy, if so, here's a step-by-step to transferring your domain ownership with GoDaddy:

1. Log in to your Domain Control Center
2. Next, check the box next to the domain(s) you'd like to transfer to another account
3. You'll then need to select Ownership from the domains list and choose Move to other GoDaddy account
4. Then, enter the email address of the new owner (you'll need to contact them if you're not sure)
5. Confirm the new owner's email address
6. (optional) Enter the shopper's ID, if transferring to another GoDaddy account rather than a new registrar
7. You can then choose Yes or No to whether you'd like to copy the domain contact information to a new account
8. Finally, choose Transfer domain

You'll notice that there was an optional step in there. This step is likely not going to be required if you're transferring your domain ownership to another registrar, so feel free to omit this step if that's the case.

How to transfer domain name ownership with namecheap.com

Here at the domain monitor we love the simplicity of how Namecheap operates. If you're looking at transferring domain ownership via Namecheap, then we've got the steps listed out for you below:

1. Firstly, verify that your domain is eligible for a transfer. If your domain is less than 60 days old, or has recently been transferred within 60 days you won't be able to transfer, see the ICANN policy for more info here
2. Unlock your domain and obtain an Auth/EPP code from your current registrar
3. Log in to your Namecheap account, select Domains, and in the top menu choose Transfer
4. Enter your domain name and click Transfer
5. On the next page, verify your domain is actually ready to be transferred, and enter the Auth code.
6. Click on the Add to Cart button, and then View Cart on the right of the page
7. Click Confirm Order and proceed with the checkout process

Have you been asked to prove your domain ownership?

Privacy and security are at the front of the queue when it comes to domain ownership right?

If you were just able to transfer a domain and then everything was completely fine then your customers might face being on the wrong website, and you might not even be aware of this.

Think about it, the websites and platforms we trust like Apple and Facebook, imagine if someone compromised their accounts and was able to simply transfer the ownership of their domains to someone completely random.

If you're ever asked to prove that you are the rightful owner of a domain, how do you go about doing this?

The answer to this is actually simpler than you might've thought...

Check the purchase history of your registrar and make a copy of the receipt for the initial domain registration or for the renewal.