Transferring a domain name should be a pretty straightforward process. You find your domain, you fill out the details, you wait a bit, and boom, all sorted.
But there always seems to be one sort of snag or another to make it complicated. Here are five things to check when you’re transferring your domain.
Make sure your domain is unlocked
We can’t transfer a domain over if it’s locked at your current registrar. If you’ve been thinking about transferring it, you might have already unlocked it, but it always helps to repeatedly check, especially if, like I recently experienced, the icon for “Domain Locking” is something like this:
The domain was still locked, by the way.
It only takes a second to double-check, and you can do it right before you get the authorisation code.
Check the authorisation code, especially with special characters
When you transfer over a gTLD, you need an authorisation code. And you would think just copying and pasting that code would be pretty straightforward, but it always helps to check.
I was recently transferring another domain, and I thought everything was going smoothly, the domain was unlocked, I entered in the authorisation code, I paid for the transfer, but it just didn’t seem to be finalising.
It took us over a week to actually notice that the authorisation code started with a :. And that I had been reading the authorisation code page as
Rather than
So check your code when you paste it in. Make sure you have all the right characters in place, and you aren’t missing anything.
Check the IPSTAG for your UK transfer
But maybe you don’t need an authorisation code. Maybe you have a .uk domain and you’re transferring it over. It is a lot easier (and free!), and all you really need is the IPS tag for the company you’re transferring to. And most companies list their IPS tag in several places to make it easy for you to transfer over.
We, in fact, have our IPS tag on our Domain Names page.
In our Support Knowledgebase.
And when you search for your domain in order to move it over.
And, yet, every once in a while, we get a customer saying their transferred domain isn’t showing up in their account, and it’s because they got the IPSTAG wrong. So take an extra second to make sure you have the right IPS tag before you hit that “Transfer” button.
Make sure your contact details are correct
You’ve checked the authorisation code. Everything’s unlocked. You are absolutely sure that you are ready to transfer things over.
But what if something goes wrong, and a company needs to get in touch with you? Where does that email go? Does it go to an account you check regularly, or does it go to one you’ve turned into a dumping ground and never bother to look at?
Sure, most of the time, emails that come in about your domain are spam. It’s an unfortunate fact of life. But when you’re transferring domains, you need to make sure that the contact information on there is accurate and going to a place you’ll pay attention to. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so log into your current domain registrar and just check those contact details.
Make sure you own the domain
You would be surprised how often this comes up. Maybe you had your design agency buy the domain. Maybe you needed a credit card and got a friend to buy it. Maybe it was a Christmas gift. Whatever the reason, if you didn’t buy it, it doesn’t matter what the name is, that domain is not yours. You can’t transfer it over yourself, you need to talk to whoever purchased it, and get them to do the work.
If they want you to own the domain, then you need to get them to do the work. They need to unlock it, get the authorisation code, change the IPS tag, whatever. And if you have a good relationship with them, that should be pretty straightforward.
But we can’t talk to them for you, we can’t make them move it over, we can’t do anything. All we can suggest is that you wait for the domain to expire, and then buy it yourself.
So you’ve checked everything? You’re ready to go? Great. Search for your domain and transfer it to us today!
