Transferring an existing domain involves switching the domain registrar that provides the domain registration service, so after the transfer itself, you will have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS entry updates through the new company. The transfer process is standard with most universal and country-specific domain extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and involve different procedures, but in the general case transferring a domain name involves several necessary procedures and one of them is unlocking the domain. The lock is a safety option, which is being adopted by more and more domain name registry operators. It is a standard feature supported by all generic TLDs. If a domain is locked, it will not be possible to start a transfer procedure, so nobody can even try to snatch your domain name. The domain lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain name is registered and all new domains that support this functionality are locked by default the moment they are registered.