Hey all. I’m helping a friend out with a website, and his domain is expiring. He’s currently paying $34 a year for registration (with a company who’s name rhymes with “Wetwork Pollutions”). I’d like to switch the domain name over to a cheaper registrant. Is that something that you can do, or are you stuck with whoever you signed up with?
Sure you can do it. Just go to the account management section of your current host and find the transfer option. They’ll give you a transfer key (like a password) that you give to your new host, you sign up for an incoming transfer with the new host, pay them, wait a few hours/days, and tada.
Before starting the process, go to the current registrar and …
Make sure that the registrant email address is a valid and active address that he can receive mail at and make sure that the domain is unlocked.
Once the process is started at the new registrar, your friend should carefully follow any instructions that he receives by email. The steps may be different depending on where it is moving from and to. I recently sold a domain and when the new owner initiated a transfer to GoDaddy, GoDaddy sent me as the registrant an email which I had to forward to the new owner so he could enter some numbers into GoDaddy. You may have to get an EPP code from the current registrar. You can usually do that with their web interface.