gpmgroup - 11:26 am on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

will I not have to wait till the domain runs out?

Quite the opposite you want to get the transfer completed well before the expiry date. All you will have to pay for is the next year at the new registrar at the time of transfer. So if the expiry is 29 August 2010 you pay for an extra year on the day you move to your new registrar and the expiry will be reset to 29 August 2011.

Transfers take a few days especially if the losing registrar is awkward. What you don't want to happen is for the transfer to run past the expiry date as many registrars charge extra fees to cough "recover" the name and these can be quite high.