It was just some months ago that I responded to a thread about domain names saying that i had been using Yahoo domains and had been happy with the service. I couldn't find that thread so i'm starting a new topic as a warning.

Yahoo apparently upped their domain renewal fee at the end of July to an outrageous $35 a year! I got hit with 4 renewals ($140!) before i noticed

So this is just a warning, anyone with yahoo domains, transfer them now lest you also get hit with this!

Unfortunately its extremely hard to transfer domain names away from Yahoo (this is the one thing i don't like about their service). Yahoo is not really a registrar, its kind of a reseller. The underlying registrar service is provided by Melbourne IT.

The problem is that Yahoo doesn't provide an online facility for transferring a name to anyone else, you have to ring them up and ask how to do it. Then they will ask you to call Melbourne IT. When you ring Melbourne IT up, their staff will attempt to redirect you back to Yahoo (does this sound familiar?). Neither set of support staff can sort it out directly.

It really is pathetic. I ended up having to lodge a written complaint about the 'infinite helpdesk loop' before my request was redirected deep into the bowels of MIT where a real live human actually had to do intervene manually.

Anyway, I really like the Yahoo domain name service, but I only use it for private (non-commercial) domains that I have no intention of selling.

When I registered my .us account for 2.99 I was told it would be renewed at 9,99 .... But after 3 years it still works (did get the overdue and expire notices though).

Never heard of GoDaddy?

Appears not.

6.99 for a transfer & includes one year free. Deal.