Transferring a domain: How long to wait before expiration

You’re concerned that you’ve paid some money to register your domain name with the current Registrar and you don’t want to lose your hard earned money. Don’t worry! All domain names are governed by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). One of ICANN’s policies is that when a domain is transferred to a new Registrar any remaining time left on the registration must be carried by the new registrar. Also, when transferring a domain name to a Registrar you must also renew for at least 1 additional year.

I like to use extreme examples to prove my point, so here it is. If you had registered your domain name with a Registrar for 50 years and chose to transfer it to a new Registrar you would renew with the new Registrar for 1 additional year and the new Registrar would be responsible for holding your domain name for 51 years.

Don’t wait too long to transfer your domain name. Knowing that you won’t lose the time you paid for with the original registrar, you most likely won’t wait until the last minute to transfer your domain name to a new registrar. But if you do, keep in mind that it may take a few weeks to complete a domain name transfer. You may also be able to complete a full transfer in only a few hours.  Some reasons for long transfer times include: loss of log in information for current Registrar, slow Registrars, dependance on someone else who currently has control over your domain name.

Check out our post on what’s involved in transferring a domain name.