Are Premium Domains a Scam? Getting charged $800/domain :(

Question

I bought two "premium" domains standup.tech and saving.cash a year ago. They are due for renewal but are $800/pop.I found some random registrar called bluehost and they said if I transfer these to my account with Bluehost, they will only be $49.99/year to renew.Anyone know how I can get around this crazy fee? Is it set by Namecheap or the registry itself?

aritmo · Accepted Answer

You should have avoided Namecheap and their "premium" domains. The "premium" is a made-up term in order to milk customers of their lovely $$$. They put ad hoc restrictions on selected domains, and these may include unreasonable fees for things like renewals or even transfers to other registrars.
If you bought the domain from another registrar, you would have paid retail price.
Read the comments at https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx...

LinuxBender · Answer

Are Premium Domains a Scam?In my opinion, yes. It also depends on what that means. Squatters / Botters pick up short domain names and then sit on them until someone buys them. Short common names can also go for a lot. This is due to the ease of use on radio and television marketing. If I say "cars.com" it is hard to get that wrong. This is entirely up to the registrar or owner that holds the domain. Registrars pay very tiny registration fees to ICANN for a domain regardless of what TLD or apex name it uses.

akor · Answer

I also own a "premium" domain and IMHO what Namecheap said is correct. I originally purchased on Namecheap but then moved to NameSilo because it was $15-20 cheaper (approx $60 otherwise). For example NameSilo lists standup.tech as $640.