Is there nothing I can do about this ?

About a year ago I registered a domain on godaddy, meanwhile I cancelled it because I wanted to transfer it to a portuguese hosting company for various reasons, mainly better support and the possibility to call them.
When I tried to transfer it to the other company, they asked for a transfer code. I looked for it on godaddy and when I could't find it, I e-mailed them about it. Turns out I can only transfer "active" domains and that costs 80$. So, am I stuck with this or if I wait a couple of months will the domain be free from godaddy again ?
Thanks for any help, I don't understand a lot about domains. I can paste some of the e-mails they sent for more details.

Is the domain currently registered to anyone?

I'm not sure. If I check its availability it tells me it's taken, but I can't access the transfer code in godaddy.

tell me the domain and ill look at the detailed info for you. send me a pm

I would suggest contacting the Portuguese hosting company and asking them how to have them host a domain which you previously registered with go-daddy, but which you would like to have them renew and host when the domain registration expires in 'a couple of months'.

I believe that Go-Daddy automatically renews registrations.

Wayne

You're probably going to have to pay the $80 or get a new domain.

If you bought a domain, and then didn't renew it, you can't really count on it ever being free again. Somebody will buy it just to use as a parking domain/and or sell it for profit.

It sucks, but if Godaddy can fix it for $80 that's probably your cheapest bet. Otherwise find a new domain name.

$80 is a small price to pay to keep your domain name, just pay the money.

I could be wrong, I often am, but I thought that the person owned the domain name, not the host company. The domain name can be renewed each year and you can renew with different sources, with different prices, but the result is the same - you own that domain name for another year. If you let it lapse and someone else purchases the domain name, then you are at the mercy of whoever bought it. If I were GoDaddy or a similar host I would probably pay the few bucks for the domain if it became dormant for a reason just like this.

Jerry

^^ correct. You own the domain. Here in the US hosting companies don't usually charge you to use a domain you already own.

I told the OP the domain name is available to register at Godaddy.com right now, he pm'd me back and said it was registered already. Well, it's not. I think he's just having a hard time through whatever registrar he's using. I used to buy and sell domain names all the time but kinda got out of it. I could buy his right now and then he would be screwed lol But... I'm not about to do that. anyway........... ho hum.