Any tips about ducking domain privacy fees?

[sky]

GoDaddy really screws you with domain privacy fees.

To get around the privacy costs, I figure I'd just use a P.O. box or UPS mailbox.

Are there any tips, or warnings, or info anyone would like to share?

I just want to not give out too much personal info, remain legit and keep costs down.

I've rented an initial 3 months at UPS, but it's about $30/month and that's not cheap... I could buy a lot of privacy for $360/yr.

But then I wouldn't have that great business address...

 

[namenut]

I think if you reg 6 or more names, at one time, with GD you get free a PP option.

nn

 

[sky]

At renewal time you get hammered. All deals off.

 

[bmugford]

Sign up for a mailbox at UPS Store, or similar. Most of them have 24HR Access, and you will get an address like

1234 Whatever Drive
Suite #300-178

 

[notlikeyou]

Use a registrar that offers either a reasonable rate on privacy or I know a few offer it for free as well.

 

[footodors]

why couldn't I set up my own privacy domain and use it instead of having pay for it? why does the registrar have a monopoly on it?

 

[pcp]

Privacy is free at name.com.

 

[floatingworld]

The management of domain name privacy on GD is so clunky!
No charge for domain privacy at namecheap and the renewal rate is inexpensive. Also, since the privacy feature is not attached to a domain when you register, you can assign it to extend the privacy on another name instead. So, even cheaper and it is smooth to manage.

 

[Dave_Z]

why couldn't I set up my own privacy domain and use it instead of having pay for it? why does the registrar have a monopoly on it?

Nothing's really stopping you from doing that. And the registrar doesn't have a
monopoly on domain WHOIS privacy services.

I'm actually doing that myself.

 

[HBK216]

I know how you feel about Go Daddy sticking it to you privacy wise. I acquired a name into my Go Daddy account which I wanted privacy on. For all the money I have spent there (mainly TDNAM), I felt I deserved a break. Unfortunately they refused to waive the fee or give a discount on it. Since I just acquired it, I had no choice but to get the privacy for now.

However on the 61st day, I am transferring it over to my registrar of choice Moniker. They only charge a $1 for privacy which I feel is more than fair. I like the fact it is not something costs extra every time I renew a name as it carries over. I am not sure if other places are like that. I do applaud Name.com for offering free privacy. If they were my registrar of choice, I would transfer there. However I keep very few things there.

If I did not have to deal with Go Daddy by force, I would never use them. The only time I will hand register there is if they have a ridiculous coupon for 99 cents or $1.99 They will get the message from me though as within the last few hours, I have started the transfer of 11 names from them to Moniker. I am still going through to see what else is past 61 days. Most are not near renewal but I have had enough with their bullshit.

Don't even get me started on their bullshit refund policy through TDNAM. I find it pathetic I have to wait up to 30 days to get my money back on a name I did not win.

 

[htmlindex]

Personally, I would stick with a PO Box & using a phone number that's not your home one

 

[notlikeyou]

Personally, I would stick with a PO Box & using a phone number that's not your home one

P.O. Box & a Grand Central number is more than likely the cheapest route depending on how many domains you own

 

[sky]

P.O. Box & a Grand Central number is more than likely the cheapest route depending on how many domains you own

I have a GrandCentral number and have started configuring it.
Out of curiosity, how have you set up GrandCentral such that you track incoming business calls without too much invasion into your private numbers? There are various screening/SMS options, and I'm trying to figure out what is the most convenient as a small business of one person starts to pick up.

 

[notlikeyou]

You can always set GC to ring your cell, & set it to display your GC number, that way you would always know that it's business related. Assuming that you are only using the GC number for business.

 

[DanB]

Use Namecheap.com - privacy is free there.

 

[eccles]

I would switch to registrar that has "free" privacy, such as NameCheap, Name.com, 1 & 1.com (maybe NOT 1and1.com -- they make it hard for people to cancel their accounts). These may work with online coupons.

 

[sky]

I would switch to registrar that has "free" privacy, such as NameCheap, Name.com, 1 & 1.com (maybe NOT 1and1.com -- they make it hard for people to cancel their accounts). These may work with online coupons.

Based on the examples kind namepros members listed for me above,
I just went ahead and registered a new hyphenative .INFO domain for 3 years at
GoDaddy ($1.19 for the first year).

Domain Administrator
DOMAIN-PRIVACY.INFO <---- The name I chose is better than this
xxxx UPS-store-location Drive
Suite xxx
UPS-store-city, CA xxxxx
[email protected]
xxx-xxx-xxxx

phone # is a free grandcentral.com number, which has a lot of powerful
screening/forwarding options (if you haven't looked into that neat free
Google sponsored service and the free phone # they give you, you really should
check it out).

Now I have legit WHO IS information for all of my domains that effectively
obfuscates my personal details, separating my business from personal life.
It keeps me less prone to domain theft and stalking, but I don't have my money
'extorted' by GoDaddy to accomplish what I believe is a necessary security option.

And I'm thrilled that, after the past few years of being gouged by GoDaddy for
privacy or using more expensive registrars like Answerable.com, but offer
'free' privacy in exchange for higher reg fees, that I've found this cooler alternative.

Rather than throwing money away for WHO IS privacy alone, I'm investing the
money is a UPS box, which unlike a P.O. box allows me to receive mail from all
carriers and gives me a real street address and a professional sounding 'suite #'.

The UPS store will accept packages for me when I'm not home. So although that
runs $90 for 3/month [small discount for annual rate (about $320/yr)],
it's really not much annual overhead for a small home based business and offers
some real conveniences and advantages beyond WHO IS abstraction.

===============================================
:hehe: GLOAT NOTE: (About my registrant "Organization name")
===============================================
When I was searching for .ME and .INFO and .ORG names that I thought
would be a great 'organization' to list my domain registrant info under,
I found that most of the 'good' domain names were taken...
PROXY.ORG, DOMAINPROTECT.INFO, DOMAINMANAGE.INFO, PROTECT.ME,
COVER.ME, etc... that kind of thing. I tried lots of names, many better than
those, and they were all taken.

So I admit I'm feeling a bit smug for finding a great hyphenated .INFO domain
that is really cool sounding for this purpose (DOMAIN-PRIVACY.INFO which
I showed above isn't nearly as perfect as I think the one I found is, so be
creative).

So, for anyone deciding to go this route of making their domains private,
consider hyphenated domain names for the organization, because,
in this case it makes the domain registration WHO IS info more readable
at a glance and even professional sounding. And since people won't be typing
it into their browser often like a normal website, the hyphen isn't a liability.
And, since it is an inexpensive domain that you'll probably want to keep forever
for privacy, whatever impact the hyphen has on potential resale value is moot.

Conclusion: Using a hyphen you can still find a lot of cool sounding organization
names to use for domain privacy. And that is my hot tip for the day.

 

[gazzip]

Privacy is free at Answerable.com




.

 

[sky]

Privacy is free at Answerable.com
.

Yeah 'free' when you pay a few bucks more for the domain when you register it at answerable.com than the GoDaddy renewal feel (for the domain name itself w/o options). I know about this because I have several domains at answerable that I transferred from GoDaddy near renewal time late last year for this very reason.

However, the more I think about it, the more I think the overall value proposition is better in paying for a P.O. box or a UPS mailbox, because then you aren't just throwing your money away on higher renewal or privacy fees per domain... You can use the P.O. box or UPS mailbox for other kinds of business mail and privacy etc... I'd rather invest that money into having flexibility and a business appearance.

And if you have a lot of domains it makes sense.

If you have 100 domains you're paying an extra $3-$4 a year to renew at answerable, or paying GoDaddy's exorbitant $6.99+ annual privacy renewal, you might as well take those $300+ and instead get yourself a cool business mailbox with your own business 'suite #' and have someone who can sign packages for you when you're not around, and also present to the world that you're a business with an 'office'

 

[danBoT]

could get a pay as you go phone for the number just put $10 on it ever like 3 months or so i think is the expiry on them. But domainsite.com has privacy for $0.50