How it works

Step 1

You make contact through the "Make an Offer" page saying which domain you would like and whether you are agreeing to the list price or making a near offer.

Step 2

Once we have received all the information required on the "Make an Offer" page, we will get back to you quickly. If you have offered the list price, you will receive an acceptance e-mail. If you have made any offer below the list price, we will reply either agreeing to or declining your offer. If we decline it, we will explain why. We may also come back with a counter offer.

Step 3

Once a price has been accepted, we will send you an invoice which we would normally expect to be paid by BACS or wire transfer. The accompanying e-mail will contain full step-by-step details of the upcoming legal and technical transfers.

Step 4

Once payment has been received, we will initiate the transfer. Depending on the extension of the domain (.com / .co.uk etc.), the process will vary. For non-uk domains, we will change the registrant details at our end and include your nominated e-mail address. Then you will receive an e-mail from the registrar allowing you to complete the transfer and get full control over your name. The transfer cost is normally paid by the buyer and the exact cost will depend on who your host / registrar is. It is usually similar or identical to the cost of one year of registration. Very often, an extra year of registration will be added on by either the receiving or losing host which, essentially, can make the cost of the transfer free.

Because a large proportion of our domains are .uk, we shall now set out the uk transfer process in detail.

For UK domains, we will initiate your transfer at Nominet (the not for profit company which governs .uk domain names) and you will receive an e-mail from them asking you to accept the transfer.

The Nominet transfer is quick and easy and can be completed in around 10 minutes. The buyer normally pays for the cost of the transfer. Currently, it costs £10[TEN] +VAT to legally transfer the registration of a uk domain from one person or entity to another. This small fee can be paid online directly to Nominet during their online transfer process.

Step 5

Now the legal transfer has been completed and a whois search will show a change on the "Last Updated" line of the record. The final part of the process is to sort out the technical transfer of the domain so that you can have full access to the domain. For UK domains, this will involve knowing the ISP TAG (most often simply referred to just as the TAG) of the company you want to host your domain with. The IPS TAG is a way of Nominet giving control of a domain name to a certain registrar or host .

You request a transfer in of the domain through your hosts control panel. The TAG associated with the domain you've purchased can be changed by you during Nominet's legal transfer but, if that hasn't been done, it should now be changed from the TAG we use so that it matches the TAG your host says you need to change it to. If you didn't do it during the Nominet process, let us know and we can do it for you. Once the TAG has been changed from the one we use, we will immediately lose all technical control over the domain and, if you have requested the transfer in at your host, your host should receive the handshake and put it in to your control panel / account. The TAG holding company associated with your domain will then be the organisation that should issue you with renewal invoices when domain registrations get close to their renewal dates.

So...how long does this all take?

It may all sound rather complicated and involved but Steps 1 through to 5 will normally take around 24 hours, taking in to account that people are not always in front of their computers or smartphones. However, if both parties are online and proactive, it can take little more than an hour or two from negotiation and payment to being in full legal and technical control of your new domain asset.