123-reg domain renewal fees - big increase

kazca

Nominet are increasing their domain renewal fees from £2.50 + VAT to £3.50 + VAT per year on March 1st.
My websites are with 123-reg who like all resellers will be affected by this rise. I paid £8.38 as usual for a 2 year domain renewal on 9th Feb. Just had advance notice of another domain renewal fee due after 1st March - £16.78, fees more than doubling.
123-reg advised me to renew manually for up to 10 years to mitigate against the rise. Might be the best thing to do but at £5.99 a year, it's a lot more than the automatic payment that works out at £4.19.


Hopefully this is a heads up for a few who may not be aware of these price rises. would be grateful for any constructive advice on this as only a couple of days to take action.

pete-20-11

I renewed a couple earlier than usual, but only for the next two years, not ten! Not enough of a discount to be worth it.

walesrob

Thanks for the heads up, just renewed my .co.uk for 4 years at 123Reg, total price £16.75 after discounts they give for multi-year renewals.

kazca

I had always just paid for 2 years at 123-reg as minimum amount to get maximum discount.
The reason for the discount is that although their charge for one year and subsequent years is currently £4.99 + VAT, they apply a 30% discount to the whole order if 2 or more years paid in advance.
The doubling in price is a result of their price going up to a reasonable, given the Nominet price increases, £6.99 + VAT per year but also the removal of the 30% discount. Not certain if this discount has been completely removed but not applied to my 2 year renewal notice.
My advice is to renew your domains now for 10 years. You will see the 30% discount applied if paying for 2 or more years. 123-reg have assured me that the balance is transferrable, so if you move to another host or domain is sold, you or the new owner will get any remaining renewal period.


It seems that there is no obligation for 123-reg to let customers know that their fees will double overnight but at least we have the opportunity of doing something about it:-)

MrA2012

Thanks for the heads up about this - they didn't inform me.

However, it looks like it's now too late. I tried to renew my .co.uk this afternoon and it initially gave me the old price, £4.99 per year with the 30% discount for more than one year. On clicking continue, though, the price changed to £6.99 per year and the discount was removed. Now that's the only price it will give me.

A bit of googling found the following page, which seems to confirm that the price should change on the 1st of March 2016 and customers should be able to renew at the old price up till then:

https://www.123-reg.co.uk/blog/news/uk-price-change/

But it seems they've put the price up four days early

ClarkeKent

Just got a Free .co.uk transfer to my GoDaddy account with an extra year, defo worth a try.

kazca

Sorry to hear that MrA2012


Here is a link to their blog...............
https://www.123-reg.co.uk/blog/news/uk-price-change/
It clearly indicates that the price rises occur on 1st March. There is also mention that the discount scheme ends on 1st March but at the same time they intimate that it will be re-introduced. When I had communication with 123-reg they told me that there were currently no plans to re-introduce the discount scheme.


I found the responses from their facebook page and website very good - a complete contrast to the way they have handled communication of the price rise and discount withdrawal.


Did anyone get an email or any personal communication from 123-reg to specifically warn of the price rises and withdrawal of the 30% discount?

System

This is the first that I have seen about this increase. I have 4 domains with them. If I'd known then I would have extended them earlier.

chunter

Been shipping all my .coms away from 123 over the past year. Looks like the rest are going too.

MrA2012

I have a support request open with them.

On the live chat, they claimed I should still be able to renew at the old price by renewing manually through their control panel. But every time I try, it gives me the new higher price that shouldn't be in effect until March 1st.

They had to escalate to a higher level of support and I'm awaiting a response. All I can do is hope they will get back to me before the 1st of March!

chunter

namecheap. I moved a .org.uk to them yesterday.
- Tenner for two years. (£8.92, $11.98).
- Took only a couple of hours for tx tbc.

Had an account. All I had to do was change the IPS-TAG on 123.

Slightly worried about the exchange rate. If brexit happens, it'll cost me two hundred quid next time.