What do I do?

[PoorDoggie]

hi. one of my developed domains is expiring very soon. I wish to switch registrars because I want to pay less.

It expires 24th March, can I then reknew it on that day with godaddy? I don't want to backorder it as it isn't popular enough for someone to steal it, and I don't want to transfere it when it only has 5 more days left.

The thing is that I have heard many people talkng about a period of time after the domain expires when the registrar holds it, or something, I don't fully understand this?!?

Any advice would come in useful!

Tom

 

[armstrong]

For most domains, and depending on what extension the domain is, it could take about 3 to 6 months after expiration for a domain to drop and become available again for public registration. Meanwhile, your domain will be unusable. Can you afford this much downtime? If you can, then why not just register a different name altogether at a new registrar?

 

[Dave_Z]

The thing is that I have heard many people talkng about a period of time after the domain expires when the registrar holds it, or something, I don't fully understand this?!?

http://www.skymarket.co.uk/domains_name_expiry.php

Since your domain will expire on March 24, why not take a chance and start a
transfer with your chosen new registrar?

Make sure your domain's unlocked first, wait up to 24 hours for the status to
change from "Registrar-Lock" to "Active", ensure your admin contact email is
good and yours, then start the transfer. Confirm it with the gaining provider,
then confirm it with the losing one.

This happened to me when my domain was with Go Daddy and it had 5 days
left before expiration. I took a chance by unlocking it, making sure the admin
contact email is mine and good, waited a while, started and confirmed the
transfer with the new one.

The part where I prayed to God it'll push thru is between the time I confirmed
it with the gaining registrar and the time the losing registrar finally got the
transfer request and emailed me about it. Once I confirmed it, I just made a
double-check and sure enough, it went thru!

And I had 2 days to spare before expiration.

Sheesh, to think I keep telling people to start their transfers at least 30 days
before the domain expires. :D