How to Transfer a Domain Registration to HostM

Please read all of the following points carefully:

• The transfer of the hosting of a domain has nothing to do with, and does not require, the transfer of the registration of that domain.

  Your domain registration provider does not have to be the same organization as your hosting provider.

  If you are perfectly fine with renewing your domain registration at your current domain provider, there is no need to transfer the registration of your domain to HostM in order to host your domain with HostM.

• A domain registration transfer involves a fee that’s separate to the hosting subscription fee. The exact transfer fee depends on the domain extension and is listed on our domain transfer page (see the steps below).

• Normally, the registration transfer fee includes a 1-year extension to the domain name’s existing expiry date.

  However, if the domain expired less than 46 calendar days ago, and you subsequently renewed the domain via your current domain registrar, then even though the registration transfer fee remains the same, it will not include a 1-year extension to the expiry date. This policy applies to all registrars and is not within our control.

  For such a domain, you might wish to wait until at least 46 days after its last expiry date before initiating a domain registration transfer, in order to benefit from the 1-year extension to the expiry date.

• If you’d also like to transfer the hosting of the same domain to HostM, and not just the registration, then we recommend transferring the hosting first, because a registration transfer typically takes 5-7 calendar days to complete, and you can’t change a domain’s details such as its nameservers during that time.

If, after carefully reading the above, you would still like to transfer the registration of a domain to HostM at this time, here are the steps to take:

1. Ensure that the domain you wish to transfer has been with the current domain provider for over 60 days, otherwise the transfer won’t be successful. This is a standard domain transfer policy set by the central registry, and affects all domain providers.

   If the domain registration has already expired, but it’s been less than 30 days since expiration, you can still attempt a transfer, and it is likely (but not guaranteed) to succeed. Keep in mind the transfer process typically takes 5-7 calendar days to complete, during which you aren’t able to change the domain’s nameservers.

2. Sign in to your account at the current domain provider’s website and perform the following:

   • Ensure the domain is already using the desired nameservers. The registration transfer process will typically take 5-7 calendar days, during which your current registration provider will not allow you to change the domain’s nameservers, contact information, and other details.

   • Unlock the domain name for outgoing transfers.

   • Update the email address listed as the domain name’s administrative contact, so that important messages can be received.

   • If your domain contacts are currently masked using a WHOIS privacy service, and the publicly listed contact email for that privacy service does not automatically forward emails to the domain owner, please contact your domain registration provider to ensure that it does, or you may need to disable WHOIS privacy for that domain.

     On the other hand, if the WHOIS privacy service does not publicly list any contact email at all, it should be safe to proceed while leaving WHOIS privacy enabled.

   • Obtain a fresh auth/EPP code for that domain. This will typically cause your current domain registration provider to have it sent to the domain’s administrative contact email address.

     If your domain has already expired, you may need to contact your current registration provider directly to manually obtain a fresh auth/EPP code.

     Please note that auth/EPP codes expire after some time, which is why it is important to always obtain a fresh one when performing a transfer.

3. Visit our domain registration transfer page and follow the on-screen instructions to initiate the transfer. During the procedure, you will be asked to enter the auth/EPP code that you had obtained in the previous step.

   In some cases, you may encounter an error message once the domain registratrion transfer is initiated, even though your card is correctly debited. Should this occur, please do not retry payment.

   Instead, please open a Client Care ticket via the Client Lounge to let us know the domain you are wanting to transfer, as well as the email address of the current WHOIS Registrant contact for your domain as listed in your account at the existing registrar, and we should be able to help you push it through.

4. Upon submitting your domain registration transfer request, the domain’s administrative email contact (if one is publicly listed) should receive a verification email (usually within a couple of hours) containing a request to approve the transfer.

   Please have the email recipient follow the instructions found in the verification email to approve the transfer. If approval is not performed within 5 calendar days, the transfer will be automatically cancelled.

5. The automated registration transfer process begins, and if no issues are encountered, it typically takes 5-7 calendar days to complete.

   You will receive notification via email to let you know once the registration transfer is complete, or if there’s been an error.

6. Upon receiving email notification that the registration transfer has completed successfully, open a Client Care ticket to let us know, so that we can ensure that the domain is properly listed at the Client Lounge for you.