Domain name Renewal

UncleZen

I have a domain name with 123-reg.
They have just sent me a renewal invoice for £13.98.
On the surface, that might not seem like much, but 2 years ago when it was last renewed it was £8.38.
Thats represents a significant increase (ISTR something in the press about this, but cannot find it anymore).
So, why the increase?
Out of principle I may transfer the domain handling elsewhere. But Ive never done that before. There are many web hosting companies that will sell you domain names, but there is not much about moving an already registered domain name.
Has anyone got any suggestions?
Will there be website downtime when its moved?
How far in advance of the renewal date should I do this?
And finally, who should I move it to that wont rip me off?

victor2

That's about the going rate for what I would guess is 2 years on a .co.uk domain?
Nominet (the .UK domain registry body) increased their wholsale prices in March this year and the base price is now about £3.75 per year (+VAT) I believe. Resellers of course add their margin to that, so it would only be for special offers like hosting plus a "free" domain that you'd see better.
In theory, you should be able to move the registration painlessly, but I've always stuck with one provider for registration and hosting to keep things simple.

Chino

UncleZen wrote: »

So, why the increase?

It's probably not unrelated to the 21% increase in Nominet's directors' salaries between 2013 and 2015:

http://www.nominet.uk/about/corporate-governance/annual-reports/

kwikbreaks

If you move the domain name and are currently using 123's name servers then you'll need to change name servers too. If there is any gap in nameserver support then you may well lose connectivity.

I renewed a co.uk in January for £8.38. I see they are now listing co.uk renewal at £6.99 but I'm guessing that's per year leading to your quoted £13.98. I have 4 domains with them so my extra will be more. I think I'll live with that rather than messing about which could well be a frying pan to fire experience.