Your domain must still be actively registered so you can initiate a transfer. Ideally, you should initiate the transfer of your domain at least 5 days before the actual expiration date. Thus, a certain amount of time buffer is available to have enough time to resolve the problem in case of any difficulties (e.g., non-delivery of the transfer email).
After the initiation of the transfer, a transfer request will be sent to the domain owner's email address. For this, the email address entered in WHOIS is used. If the data is up to date, unwelcome delays or a repeat transfer request can be avoided.
Services like WhoisGuard protect your personal information (name, address, phone number and email address) from public inspection in a WHOIS database. However, as this protected information is required for a transfer, you must ensure that these services are disabled in a timely manner.
The rule of the 60-day transfer lock was set by the respective registries and each registrar must comply with this requirement. This 60-day lock should serve as additional protection against "hijacking" or so-called "Domaingrabbern". In most cases, however, this regulation should not cause any major problems.
For some domain extensions, you can set a so-called transfer lock, which should prevent unauthorized persons from initiating a transfer for your domain. This lock may need to be picked up from your old provider before you can transfer your domain to us.
The authcode is a password that is known only to you as the domain owner and the current registrar of the domain. For a transfer, you must provide this password so that you can authenticate yourself as a legitimate domain owner.
More than 300,000 domains are managed by us every day.
A domain transfer is the process when the domain changes domain provider. The billing and administration of the domain is then handled by the new provider.
Please note that only the domain name is transferred. All data behind the domain (e.g. mail addresses, websites, DNS, ...) are not transferred!
The Authcode can have different names depending on the provider. For example, it can also appear under the synonyms EPP Key, Authorisation Key, Authorisation Code, Transfer Authorisation Code, EPP Code or Transfer Key. However, the key function of this code always remains the same - namely the prevention of unauthorised domain transfers (and for some TLDs also unauthorised changes of ownership).
Each domain has a unique authcode that is only known to the domain holder and the current registrar (provider). In the event of a domain transfer (or change of holder), this authcode is used to identify the domain holder. This prevents potential misuse.
Authcodes can only ever be requested from the current registrar/provider of the domain.
The AuthCode is normally used for a domain transfer, in rare cases also for a change of owner. However, whether an AuthCode must be used for these orders depends on the respective top-level domain (TLD). You can see whether you need an authcode on the page of the respective TLD. You can access the page of the respective TLD via the overview of all available top-level domains.
