You might be wondering, “Do I have to renew my domain right now?” Sometimes it’s appealing to wait to renew your domain just before it expires.
This is actually extremely dangerous and can put your domain at risk of being canceled. How does that work?
Let’s talk about what happens when you forget to renew your domain and it becomes expired…
The Bad News About Expired Domains
When a domain expires through HostHuski, it is immediately deactivated, a temporary parking page is displayed and all the services associated with the domain, such as your website and/or email, stop working completely.
Updates cannot be performed on a domain or its website when the domain has expired.
The Good News About Expired Domains
If your domain expires, you might not have lost it yet! We currently offer a non-guaranteed grace period of up to 25 days for renewals. There is no guaranteed grace period. When a domain expires, it may become canceled at any time in accordance with the registration agreement which will make it unable to be renewed or purchased until it fully reaches its expiration and restock in the domain marketplace.
We strongly recommend that you enable auto-renew for your domains. Likewise, we recommend that you monitor your domain name expiration dates and renew them in advance to avoid downtime or unintended name loss.
After you renew the domain, all previous settings will be restored and the domain will become active again!
Renewal years are always added at the end of the current subscription period (i.e. the new expiration date is the same whether you renew two months before or one day before it expires), so you will never waste your time left on your domain name by renewing early.
Courtesy reminder emails are sent multiple times leading up to the expiration date so that you don’t forget.
The Really Bad News
What happens after the domain passes the grace period?
After the grace period expires, the domain may enter the redemption renewal period. During this period there is a mandatory fee the domain registry charges for us to get your domain back to you after it expires. The fee you’ll pay for expired domain redemption is $300 plus the cost of the domain renewal retail price. We really don’t want you to have to pay this fee. Please renew on time!
Once a domain is removed by the registry, anyone can purchase it as a new domain. It is available on a first come, first served basis and may even be put up for auction by the new owner.
The Bottom Line
While it may be tempting to let your domain expire before you renew it, or even to delay renewal until the last minute, the risks are far bigger than the convenience you might think you get. To avoid the mess of expiration and redemption periods and fees, just renew as early as you can!
