Do you have a .com domain registered to you? If the answer’s “Yes”, you could well receive a letter from the Domain Renewal Group, of Buffalo, New York. Why have they written to you? After all, your domain isn’t registered through them.
Unsolicited
The Domain Renewal Group (DRG) is in the business of convincing you to move your domain to them, and charging you for the privilege. They are sending you the “Expiration (sic) Notice” “As a courtesy”, 5 months before the renewal is due, and giving you a month to reply. The timing is due to ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers) rules which prevent the domain being moved within 120 days of a renewal date.
Shop around
The wording of their letter has been changed over the years, and now tells you it’s an offer you may wish to take up. They also tell you, “When you switch to the Domain Renewal Group, you can take advantage of our best savings.” Currently, their one-year price is £20 (no VAT payable). This is about double the figure charged by many other domain registrars in the UK and elsewhere (though to be fair, you can be charged more by some web developers!).
One point to remember: your domain registration is completely independent of your website hosting.
Do you need to move?
Why would you want to change where your domain is registered? I can only think of two reasons:
- the price of renewal (probably not a good reason here)
- access to make changes (do you know how good they are?)
And if you have more than one domain (say you have the corresponding .co.uk, for example), you’re much better off managing them all in the same place. DRG are not licensed to register .co.uk domains.
Transfer away fees – a hidden charge
One final word of warning: if you’re contemplating moving your domain, some registrars will charge you a fee to leave them … often around £15. Have you checked if your current or future domain registrar charges a transfer away fee? Best to ask before you move, as £15 is close to 5 years of registration for a .co.uk domain.
Yes, these letters are very misleading and can often appear to be renewal letters.
Fortunately being a web developer I can spot these scams but people who don’t know much about how the web works could easily be tricked into paying the fees.
Domain names are essentially a commodity now, just pay the cheapest price. It’s not like hosting where service differs, although contract terms could differ between suppliers I suppose.