Is OnlineNIC best now? Want to move 700 domains from OpenSRS

[mmerlin]

Hi everybody,

I want to move my 700+ domains from OpenSRS, since they won't change their pricing much from the $10/domain/year.

The best that OpenSRS will do for me is $9.75 and that's only for the next 3 months and only because I asked.

I am looking at moving most of my domains elsewhere but haven't decided yet. It seems the main contenders are
- onlinenic
- dotregistrar
- wild west domains (godaddy)
- enom
- stargate

I am looking for the best priced registrar that allows free ownership transfers.

I dont want or need domain registration service reselling, I just want to sell the domains I own freely and easily. The vast majority of domains I manage are owned by my company. I can keep the OpenSRS interface for managing my clients domains if necessary.

Onlinenic have assured me in email that there are no fees to change the registrant (ie to sell a domain to someone else). This seems like a new policy for them, because I have read elsewhere on this messageboard that they used to charge $30, and then later it seemed they waived the $30 fee and made you purchase an extra year of registration on the domain to transfer it, but now it seems there is no additional cost when transferring a domain to someone else.

Can anyone else who is with Onlinenic confirm that they truly are allowing transfers for free? If so then I think I will be going with them based on the pricing offered.

Here is what I see as being the current pricing of the various registrars. Please correct me if any of these are wrong.

• Onlinenic
• $6.69/domain/year
• minimum order 100 domains (for this price)
• free domain ownership transfer
• no additional fees

• DotRegistrar
• $6.99/domain/year
• minimum order 600 domains (for this price)
• free domain ownership transfer
• no additional fees

• Wild West / Godaddy
• $6.75/domain/year
• no minimum order for this price
• free domain ownership transfer
• annual fee of $99/year, plus an additional 2.5% of payments, plus $0.25 per credit card transaction.

• Enom
• $6.95 to $7.30/domain/year (effectively)
• no minimum order for this price
• free domain ownership transfer
• $100 setup fee through a reseller (for example)

• Stargate
• $7.95/domain/year ($7.75/domain to transfer to them)
• no minimum order for this price
• free domain ownership transfer
• no additional fees

For my requirements it seems that onlinenic might be the best value.

I guess my main concern is whether or not they charge any transfer fees or additional charges. Or maybe I am missing something and I should be going with another registrar? Any wise souls out there care to give a little friendly advice?

Thanks and regards,
Michael Merlin

 

[Marty]

The $99 fee is that you state for godaddy and enom is for their black label reseller programs. Also, the prices differ depending how you deal with enom.

 

[PrimeDNR]

Get enom top-level subaccount for US6,950.

You can resell domain be pushing into your retail subaccount. You can create unlimited sub-accounts at 8.95 free.

You can collect transfer fee by just pushing the domain into the buyer's retail sub-account.

You may reselling domain at any price above 8.15 to cover your cost.


No 99 per year if you don't need PDQ.

Use free Registry Rocket .


It saves you if you paid by cheque for the 3% surcharge for credit card.

i.e. 6.95 exactly for each domains.

Your domain need renew so it is approximiate good for 1,000 domain deposit (of US$6,950).


Regards

- PD -

 

[StockDoctor]

I think you'll find that most of the transactions done here at the forum (or wherever you may be selling) to be pushed via Enom.

They offer both quick and easy transactions. I for one will pay a slightly higher price (to the seller) for a name held in another Enom account to save the transfer fees.

I'd be glad to talk to the VP over there to see if you could work a deal to lower your renewal costs. Doc

 

[tonyk2000]

It is very good that people leave TUCOWS. They have more than enough opportunities to lower prices and I hope they will do so someday. $10 reselling acct is nonsesne now!
I wish TUCOWS were selling domains up to 6.5-7 ... We need more competitors to ENOM, well I'm not great fan of ENOM
When you choose new registrar, consider old players on the market. And YOU MAY BE ABLE TO SECURE A PRIVATE DEAL WITH YOUR NEW REGISTRAR... YES IT IS POSSIBLE.. Do not take prices your quoted _too_ seriously.. If I had 700+ domains to transfer, I would be able to transfer it at $6.5-$7 rate and NOT TO ENOM, without hidden fees

 

[tonyk2000]

Also, if you need whois to be readable for possible buyers, never transfer your domains to stargate or godaddy... I noticed whois at onlinenic is also bounced/now working too often.

 

[DomainEmpire.com]

DotRegistrar deleted, during the last 2 years of experience with them and in diff. moments, 2 of our domains without any real explanation, we're working to transfer out all our remaining names towards OnlineNic but, important:

- At OnlineNic I heard ownership transfer will be 100% free sooon ... until I'll not see it official, I'll not move there the remaining part of our portfolio.
OnlineNic is very cheap if you've "domains for personal use" not for sale: friendly control panel and high quality support.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by tonyk2000 It is very good that people leave TUCOWS. They have more than enough opportunities to lower prices and I hope they will do so someday. $10 reselling acct is nonsesne now! I wish TUCOWS were selling domains up to 6.5-7 ... We need more competitors to ENOM, well I'm not great fan of ENOM When you choose new registrar, consider old players on the market. And YOU MAY BE ABLE TO SECURE A PRIVATE DEAL WITH YOUR NEW REGISTRAR... YES IT IS POSSIBLE.. Do not take prices your quoted _too_ seriously.. If I had 700+ domains to transfer, I would be able to transfer it at $6.5-$7 rate and NOT TO ENOM, without hidden fees

Yes, I am also leaving OpenSRS Tucows ASAP. $10 WHOELSALE price is crazy when retail prices are approx' $7. How can they justify it? Who do you recommend I go to?

 

[dkny]

I moved from Tucows to OnlineNIC. They charge lower price, but not trouble-free as stated yet.

I have to e-mail them back and forth to settle one domain transfer. They don't have the interface to manage domain transfer by yourself. You have to fill up the document and fax it to somewhere else outside the US. Although, I ask them to do me a favor to accept my changing over the e-mail to reduce the trouble of int'l fax, it still not easy to transfer a domain IMO.

To transfer a name, OnlineNIC asked me to help my customer create a reseller account first. When transferring the name, they require one more year registration. This means that my client have to prepay a one year reg fee into his account. If he pay about $9 ($9 for low volume reg) with credit card, he will be charged service fee (service fee charged when you pay less than $20. don't remember how much is the fee). After the whole thing done, then the domain can be transfered. Who the h*ll want to go thru all these troubles? So, my domain is not still not transfered. I'd rather transfer it out to Tucows and create a new accout for my client at tucows. it's a lot easier.

I e-mail them about this issue last week and they said they're going to fix it. I'm not sure how much they will change.

They also promise that they will create some interface for domain transfer, but didn't tell me when. And I don't know if they will remove the 1 extra year when transfer the domain.

Enom sounds like an ideal registrar at the moment. Too bad, I've stucked with OnlineNIC. If they can't do what they promise, I'll move out soon. I have about 200 domains w/ them.

 

[ckevin]

dkny, I think you have to wait for at least 6-12months before you get what you want. They seems to have good customer support, but for technical side, their real technicans work slow. I remembered the time lag between the Template 2 and Template 3, almost 1 and a half years.

 

[Whois-Search]

http://www.dotregistrar.com

1000 domain pack $6.49 each

 

[uncle]

I hear onlinenic is introducing free online ownership transfer by the end of the month..

 

[dvdrip]

I got an email from them today saying:
1)Free Online Registrant Name Change
2)Confirmation email with your branding for Domain Registrar Transfer
3)Cancellation of one-year renewal required in domain transfer between resellers
4)Additional payment method-Paypal

All fine but what worries me is this:
Important Announcement
In order to maintain our high quality services and low prices, we will charge a very little sum for the fee of credit card processing, which will help us win the struggle of our small margin. Starting from January 1, 2003, each credit card and Paypal's transaction will be deducted 2.9% of the total transaction amount for the processing fee.

This is crearly NOT GOOD!!!
This is when 6.69$ becomes 6.89$!

 

[mmerlin]

Looks like the promised changes are going to be coming through after all.

I signed up a few weeks ago for my first 100 domains at $6.69 and have migrated a bunch of domains from Tucows, and registered several new domains. So far so good, all is going well.

As for the price rise (due to the credit card surcharge), well $6.89 is a little bit more, but it does beat Tucows by $3.11/domain/year.

$6.89 is obviously not as good as $6.69 but I guess margins are slim considering Verisign/Netsol take $6 of that.

There is also the option to avoid the 2.9% charge if you pay by money order or check, which may work out at a slightly better pricing per domain, depending on your circumstance.

And there is still a small window of opportunity to buy some 100 blocks of domain registrations at $6.69 if you do so before the end of this year.

If you are paying by credit card (the most convenient method) then the effective pricing of $6.89 per domain brings OnlineNIC very close to the $6.95 enom reseller accounts offered by people like (username) Doberry (on this forum), so there are a few choices for us resellers around this price point.

What I do like about OnlineNIC is that all the staff that I have corresponded with are very helpful, and responsive to suggestions, and seem to be willing to improve the features offered. Once the new features are put in place on January 1st, I think I will be quite satisfied with OnlineNIC.

I also remember Tucows was a bit rough around the edges when it first opened. Tucows were great and a real trailblazer. They kept improving and added many of their features after they first opened.

I plan to keep my Tucows account, mainly for the SSL keys, but also for some of my customers who don't want to move their domain (some people just don't like change ;-)

I am moving most of my domains to OnlineNIC, mainly because of the pricing, but also because of their willingness to help, and their commitment to adding more features.

And yes, dotregistrars 1000 domain pack at $6.49 each is awesome value, but for some of us smaller players, that is a fairly big chunk out of the monthly cashflow to spend in one hit.


Here is the latest email OnlineNIC sent...

==============================

Dear Valued OnlineNIC's member,

You speak - we listen.
You give us ideas - we make them happen.

Holiday season is coming! We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business and wish you a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year!
We bring you another four improvements and an important announcement in this newsletter.


1. Free Online Registrant Name Change
Absolutely Free! Charges free and paperwork free!

Starting from January 1, 2003, the previously complicated procedures for Registrant Name Change will be simplified. Agreement of Registrant Name Change and the notarization will no longer be needed, nor will the $30's fee. All of the procedures for registrant name change can be easily done online.

Following the completion of registrant name change, you may go on to transfer the domain to a new account and let the new registrant have full control of the domain.

You may use "Domain Lock" service to prevent any unauthorized transferring or changes. The service is also FREE for our members.


2. Confirmation email with your branding for Domain Registrar Transfer
Protect your interest as an OnlineNIC's reseller! Keep your customers around you!

Your contact information and your branding will appear in the confirmation e-mail that is sent to your customers for domain registrar transfer. Your customers will not be able to find any information related to OnlineNIC from the confirmation email. The new feature will be launched on January 1, 2003.

For your alternative choice, you can still use the confirmation e-mail on behalf of OnlineNIC, which will show OnlineNIC's contact information.

Once the domain administrators receive the confirmation email, they can simply click the link in the email, and everything will be done within three seconds! No more hassle to write back the email for the confirmation!


3. Cancellation of one-year renewal required in domain transfer between resellers
In order to smooth out the domain transfer between resellers, we have cancelled one-year renewal required in domain transfer between resellers.


4. Additional payment method-Paypal
Paypal is available now! If you have any problems using your credit card or would like to protect your personal information, Paypal is your additional payment method. We start to accept Paypal on January 1, 2003. Our account name is [email protected].

Important Announcement
In order to maintain our high quality services and low prices, we will charge a very little sum for the fee of credit card processing, which will help us win the struggle of our small margin. Starting from January 1, 2003, each credit card and Paypal's transaction will be deducted 2.9% of the total transaction amount for the processing fee.

If you pay with money order or check, or through bank wiring, there will not be any processing charges from us, but from the bank's possible charge for wiring or money order. Any questions regarding this issue, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

We appreciate your understanding and support. We guarantee that we will continue to provide you with our excellent service and keep your ideas coming so we can make them happen!
Best regards,

OnlineNIC, Inc.
[email protected]
www.onlinenic.com

 

[a2zofb2b]

Does OnlineNIC have quick checkout account, similar to registerfly?
I like the idea of paying $50 into my account one time and using it as and when needed, instead of doing 5-6 transactions for $9.

 

[dvdrip]

Yes you can pay as much as you like one time and use it whenever you need it.

 

[mmerlin]

Originally posted by a2zofb2b
Does OnlineNIC have quick checkout account, similar to registerfly?
I like the idea of paying $50 into my account one time and using it as and when needed, instead of doing 5-6 transactions for $9.

From what I remember of RegisterFly (I signed up for ExpireFish but they didnt get any names for me so I cancelled ExpireFish and used the leftover credits to reg 3 names with RegisterFly), the process at OnlineNIC is as easy, perhaps even easier than RegisterFly.

You add cash to your account (eg 100 domain reg's at $6.69) and as you register domains, your account balance is adjusted accordingly. You don't need to use up all of your credits in one hit - you can register/transfer your domains over a period of time. This is pretty much how all domain registration accounts work (well the one's I've used anyway).

The "standard" OnlineNIC registration page on the resellers control panel lets you register up to 20 domains at once, in a 5 step process (your default details are remembered for easy domain registration) and it's pretty quick and easy.

OnlineNIC also have a 1-click registration process for bulk domain registration, which lets you register up to 512 domains at once. All you have to do is enter the domains you want, the number of years to register each domain for (defaults to 1 year), and the password for the domains, then click Register. This assumes you are registering the domains using your default account details - you can change these on this one-click reg page if you need to.

Trying to imagine someone registering 512 domains in one step boggles the mind

Email the folks at onlinenic and they will let you explore the reseller interface using a demo account. That's what I did before signing up.

 

[DomainPairs]

Woops just read this thread after starting another one re the proposed changes at OLN - sorry.

Just for the record -I've been with OLN for quite a while and think they are good.

 

[mmerlin]

Another tip for using onlineNIC:

Since you login to your reseller account from the home page, make sure you use https (for security).

ie https://www.onlinenic.com/