Why is my renewal so expensive
After how to purchase a domain the above question is one of the most common domain purchase/renewal questions. Often including the name of popular companies such as GoDaddy, names.co.uk or 123-Reg, where registration can be impossibly cheap and then renewals sky high expensive.
You can make up your own decision on why so many providers act this way, some say that it is a bait n switch tactic, some say that the initial registration is an unpublicised offer price, and some people say or far more unfavourable comments about it.
What is the trick to getting a cheaper renewal?
We will be honest and this process will move your domain registration services from your current provider to us, where our renewal costs are likely less than your current providers. How do we know that? Because if you found this page you were likely searching for why your renewal was costing so much.
During the lifecycle of a domain it needs to be renewed every year (if you're paying annually), when you transfer a domain to a new provider you are normally charged the price of 1 years renewal by your new provider, but this DOES add 1 year to your domains registration. So if your current provider wants to charge something like £20-£25 to renew a .com domain, if you performed a transfer to Cheap Ass Domains instead, you'd pay for that years renewal instead, and have knowledge that you won't be ripped off in the future.
One common thing a lot of people do not realise, is that your domain does not need to be with the same company as your hosting. You can usually have your hosting with 1 company, and your hosting/email with a separate company. So you can usually transfer the domain away and still use the hosting/email services.
It's easier than you think
There are just a few steps pull off the renewal & transfer trick. Firstly you ideally need to perform this when there is longer than 14 days remaining on your renewal. This is because some providers that drag their heels and can take up to 14 days to complete the transfer on their side so if the domain is still in the transfer process past the expiry/renewal date then your domain may stop working while the transfer/renewal completes.
Most domain types
- Get domain transfer authorisation code (EPP Code) from your current provider. This can normally be done online with your provider, and they need to provide the code asap. Links to how to do it with providers that our users very regularly transfer from are below. You can skip this step for domains ending with a .uk
- Next with your new Auth code you can go to our transfer in page here, and enter the domain and auth code. If you are transferring a .uk domain leave the Auth Code box blank. Then click on Add to Cart
- Customise the options as required, then click continue. If you want to keep the domain using its existing web hosting & email services elsewhere make sure you enter the NameServers it needs to continue to use. If you get stuck ask us on our live chat for help!
- Run through the rest of the checkout process. You'll be asked to pay for the renewal/transfer, if you're transferring a .uk you'll get an invoice once the transfer has completed.
- Once you've paid you'll get a number of emails with links with links to click on to confirm the transfer there are separate ones for the "transfer out" and "transfer in" so you will likely have 2 or 3 links to click on.
- That's all you will then need to do. After a few days and your domain renewal and transfer will complete. You'll get an email once everything has completed.
.uk domains
- Go straight to our transfer in page here and enter the domain you're transferring in, you leave the Auth Code box blank and click on next.
- Customise the options as required, then click continue. If you want to keep the domain using its existing web hosting & email services elsewhere make sure you enter the NameServers it needs to continue to use. If you get stuck ask us on our live chat for help!
- Run through the rest of the checkout process, as there are no charges at this stage.
- Once you've completed Checkout process you need to enter the tag 'PDR-IN' with your existing provider to complete the transfer. Links to how to do it with providers that our users very regularly transfer from are below.
- That's bulk of the work then done! The domain will transfer to us. You will get an email once the transfer completes, and within 24 hours you will then get an Invoice for the renewal, which for all standard .uk domains will be for .
What happens in the future?
For future years the domain will be renewed with us, but if you want to transfer it elsewhere, then you can repeat the same trick, but we're confident that you'll be happy with our prices.
