Quickly Transfer a Name from Go Daddy

I have an account at GoDaddy, specifically because of the company’s high level of customer service. The one thing that irritates the heck out of me is when I buy a Godaddy-registered domain name in the aftermarket, have it pushed to my account, and then have it locked for 60 days. This is one of my biggest pet peeves in the domain business.

As a result of this policy, I will almost never have a simple domain push done when buying a name from someone who uses GoDaddy, unless I plan to develop it. When I am buying to re-sell it, which is more often than not, I will transfer the domain name out instead of doing an account push. I sacrifice simplicity, speed, and ease, to not have to deal with the transfer lock.

For those of you who are like me, I want to share a method to have your transfers out of Godaddy completed more expeditiously. This will take a 5 day transfer from Go Daddy to Moniker, Enom, Register.com, Network Solutions, or other domain registrar, and make it a 2 day process.

Here are the steps to quickly transfer a domain name out of Godaddy:

  • Domain owner needs to unlock the domain name.
  • Domain owner should then request authorization code and forward it to buyer.
  • Buyer should initiate a transfer at his or her registrar.
  • Domain owner should forward any security email that is received after the previous step to the buyer, and the buyer should proceed as directed.
  • Wait until the following business day.
  • Domain owner should log in to the domain control panel, under Domain Manager, there’s a tab  that says “Domains.” In this drop down menu, there’s a link for pending  transfers. Assuming the domain name is listed in there, he should check off the box and  then click the “authorize” button on the upper right section.
  • The domain name should be transferred the following business day.

I just did it yesterday and the transfer was completed this morning.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

28 COMMENTS

  1. The domain transfer actually completes in hours, when expedited like this. Fabulous.com also supports the same feature when they are losing a domain to another registrar.

  2. Acro

    It was great… I don’t remember a transfer going so quickly before.

    Sorry to Godaddy, but if they’re going to make people lock their names for 60 days after spending $xx,xxx on them, thanks but no thanks.

  3. @ Elliot said, “Domain owner should then request authorization code and forward it to buyer.”

    I thought, “it” = “domain.” You mean THE AUTHORIZATION CODE. Okay, let me start over. Okay, I get the gist of it.

  4. I thought almost all registrars have a 60-day lock no matter if you register with them, update whois info, transfer, and/ or push? I agree it is a pain, Thanks for the share.

  5. I transferred a domain from godaddy day before yesterday and it took minutes to have domain at other registrar.
    There is new function at godaddy something similar like at domainmonster.

  6. “Enom only locks names for 7 days after a transfer…”

    Elliot,

    Seriously that is highly unlikely.

    The 60 day lock applies to all new Registrations and Inter-Registrar Transfers and is ICANN policy.

    Locking a domain for a simple push between accounts at the same Registrar is another matter.

    Locking a domain for 60 days or any other amount of days because of changes to WhoIs is a violation of ICANN’s “Transfer Policy” with the only allowable exception being a change to the Registrant’s organization name or first/last name.

    That’s why GoDaddy gets away with locking a domain after a “push”. The push is usually followed by a change in the Registrant
    field.

    Also regarding Transfers, some Registrars (including Moniker) try to block a transfer out if a domain is x # of days within Expiration.

    That is also a violation of ICANN’s “Transfer Policy”.

    You can transfer a domain even after it’s expired (Expiration stage) but before Redemption stage.

    To GoDaddy’s credit, I have never had a problem transferring out an expired domain.

    • @ Trico

      I am only talking about purchases in the aftermarket. My understanding is that you can only push names between Enom accounts once every 7 days. When you push a name from one Godaddy account to another account owned by someone else (an account change), you agree to lock it in the new account so it can’t be transferred out of Godaddy for 60 days.

      Of course if someone knows different (actually knows and isn’t guessing) feel free to comment.

      I had an issue a couple months ago where I bought an aged name from someone at Godaddy and he did an account change to my account. I sold it shortly after and when the buyer tried to transfer to his Enom account, Godaddy prevented the transfer.

      I haven’t run into that issue with Moniker.

  7. I don’t mind a 7 day period lock after a sale, as buyer does not receive funds immediately, if there is an issue least domain can be retrieved.

  8. The 60 day lock is a pain. Everyone will need to have a GoDaddy account at end of day. But, if the industry wants to become more automated similar to the stock exchanges( which will allow for higher prices on names to occur) the 60 day rules should be eliminated. They need to take note from some of the clearing firms in the equity & options markets.

  9. The 60 day lock is only established when the contact information is changed. When you do an account change (push) and select the option NOT to change the contact information, the lock does not kick in when the domain arrives in the new account. It can be transferred out no problem. As soon as you try to modify the contact information (Name, Email, etc) you will suffer the fate of a locked domain.

    It used to be that Executive Account Managers could remove the lock, but things have gotten a bit sticky in that regard.

  10. Hi Eliot, Yes, I’ve suffered through the same problems at GoDaddy. That bloody 60 day thing is ridiculous. It certainly doesn’t help the customer.

    BTW everyone, Eliot is talking about a special rule at Godaddy when the Registry contact name is changed. In any case, you have to wait 60 days! The ICANN rule addresses a totally different situation.

  11. Maybe I am confused here? What is the big deal, especially if we are talking about Godaddy, the world’s largest registrar.

    Just tell the buyer to create a “free account” and after the 60 days they can transfer to the registrar of their choice.

    It is way harder selling some Snapname purchases when it is at some strange registrar, but I have not lost a sale because of it.

  12. Thanks a lot for the tip.

    It’s probably beating a dead horse at this point, but I agree the 60 day lock is quite maddening when flipping.

    I’ve had a couple of buyers recently who wanted domains transferred to their preferred registrars other than GoDaddy while the GD lock was still in effect. While most accepted GoDaddy after explanation, I had one transaction get quite hairy as a result…

    My account exec when asked about the possibility of overriding the 60 day lock: “We are not allowed to override this any longer due to domain hijacking. We will have to wait until after 60 days to transfer that domain to another registrar.”

    It is also frustrating that you can’t transfer a freshly regged domain into GD until after 60 days have passed, and when a person initiates a transfer for such a domain at GD, it informs the initiator of the registration date. I know that is public info, but I would prefer that the buyer be the one to find that info on their own, especially on domains won at a drop auction for which I paid $xxx or more…

  13. I have a godaddy rep, and he has stated that they used to be able to override this policy, but not anymore.

    I had a sedo sale for a domain that was on a 60 day lock at GD, buyer was from europe and wanted to transfer to a local registar, I tried every which way, nothing, nada, zilch, nice sized sale, luckily buyer transferred funds, and allowed sedo to hold until the domain could be unlocked, and moved, 2 months later deal went through, nice 4 figure sale, but money tied up for 2 months, all for what?

    60 days is a very long lock, I mean 30 days at the most for cc chargebacks…

  14. Not sure how to do it, but know that it can be done. You can set up your Godaddy account so that when someone tries to push a domain into your account with the buyers info it won’t allow the one doing the pushing to do so. They will have to check the option that leaves info as is if they wish to go through with the push.

  15. @ Gnanes

    True, but that’s part of the TOS when buying names there. I always take that into consideration when bidding and there have been a few high value names I didn’t buy because I didn’t want to have to hold them for 45 days+/-.

  16. 5 day lock at name.com but one email and they will unlock.
    I have gold.biz currently on 60 day lock at godaddy and they will not unlock even after my 2 emails.

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