Domain Renewal

[leachim]

I paid for a domain for a friend, and I get annual reminders for payment from 123-reg for Web hosting and/or domain renewal

Spoke to him today and he said he knew someone in the it business who said that if you let it run out, the IT guy said he can buy the domain for 10 UK pounds and there are no other annual charges after that ?

Just wondered if this is legit

Are there no charges for Web Hosting etc, which I have been billed for annually ?

[degsy]

It'll still have to be renewed to be valid

He can host it for you for free on his server. That's a different matter.

[leachim]

Would there be an annual charge to him if he hosted it on his server

[renegade600]

someone will have to renew the name no matter where it is hosted. However if you are getting it free, that means the person who is hosting it is paying for it and has total control over it. Without more info of what exactly you are trying to do, imo, keep paying for the name yourself.

[Buzz]

As Renegade alludes to.. do NOT relinquish control of any domain you have.

It's common practice among more shady web masters/designers to gain control, then hold information hostage. Essentially charging you ridiculous fees if you ever want to stop using their services.

This isn't always the case. There are some designers/companies who really only want to make things easier for you so they take care of renewal, but they still pass the costs onto you. And there is a cost. There's no such thing as a free domain name. Someone pays for it somewhere.

If your'e already paying for it, I wouldn't give someone else control. The only thing that EVER needs done with a domain name (besides renewal) is perhaps DNS changes. Those are easily taken care of and there's no need to allow anyone else to do it.