Buying a Domain Name

HollyandCo

Hi 

I would like to buy a domain name / email address.  I am not interested on having a website for the moment.
Please can you recommend best company to buy through value-wise?  Also is it best to buy the address for 1 year and then renew or perhaps buy for a few years.  Some companies seem to offer cheap first year but I don't want to get caught out with expensive renewal fees.

Many thanks

Lil306

HollyandCo said:

Hi 

I would like to buy a domain name / email address.  I am not interested on having a website for the moment.
Please can you recommend best company to buy through value-wise?  Also is it best to buy the address for 1 year and then renew or perhaps buy for a few years.  Some companies seem to offer cheap first year but I don't want to get caught out with expensive renewal fees.

Many thanks

Namecheap, Godaddy, 1&1, fasthosts. There's plenty to choose from
Most domain names will probably hit you with a renewal fee. I normally pay around £10 per year for a .co.uk domain
They're normally cheap for the first year, it's the renewal what normally stings you. If you buy the domain for multiple years it's cheaper, but you'll have to fork out more in the short term (rather than being 5 x £10, it might be 5 x £7 for example)

neilmcl

I've been using 123-reg for years.

Farway

neilmcl said:

I've been using 123-reg for years.

Same here, it just works for me

And the renewal fees are unknown with everyone due to Nominet greed charges

I usually renew for a couple of years at a time, which then locks in a the current price

chunter

Depends whether your buying a .com or a .co.uk.
With .coms, you can avod the VAT by buying from a US or Canadian company. I use Namecheap. Although subject to currency flucuations.
For .co.uk's I use thenames.co.uk.
Avoid the new domains TLDS because companies offer the first year at a reduced rated.

Which is fine for the first year. Not so fine if you're caught for a 30/40 quid renewal bill each year afterwards.

What way are you thinking of working the emails - eg forwarding them on to a free email like Hotmail or Google.
If you're not simply fowarding, ie you want to send emails from that address, you'll need somewhere for those emails to sent through and received. Which means buying space on a server somewhere.
You may need to specify your needs more precisely.