Ticket transfers, done right

Transfers are the pressure valve of ticketing: the fan who can't come gets their money from a mate, the event stays full, and nobody touched a refund. Which is why the best platforms make them one click — and why touts hate them.

For fans: the safe routes, in order

1. The platform's own transfer/name-change tool — new QR issued to the new person, old one dead; zero fraud surface.
2. Official face-value resale (event waiting lists, Twickets-style exchanges) — money handled by the platform.
3. A mate plus bank transfer — fine only where the ticket is genuinely transferable and unnamed; the screenshot they receive may already be sold twice.
4. Social-media strangers — where duplicate-QR fraud lives. If the event offers routes 1–2, there is no reason to be here.

For organisers: policy that serves you

• Enable name changes to some sensible cutoff (24–48h) — every transfer is a refund you didn't pay and a seat that stays sold.
• Named tickets + free transfers is the anti-tout combo: legitimate fans move tickets freely at face value, resellers can't harvest margin.
• Waitlist auto-resale on sell-outs recycles returns to real fans at face value and shows you exactly how much extra demand the next edition can price for.

The fee angle

Some platforms charge for name changes or take a cut of official resale — fees on a mechanism whose entire value is goodwill. Transfer fees push fans to the screenshot market, which costs you fraud cases at the door later. Free transfers are cheap insurance.