Domain Renewal question
 

Quick question. I have a domain that is about to expire in two days. Me being who I am, I waited to the last minute. So ofcourse there are problems. The company is no longer accepting credit cards so I can't pay to renew my domain.

Is it possibile to renew a domain with another company? Or do I have to wait for it to expire and reregister it.

In theory yes, just go to another registrar and use their "transfer domain" service. If they are any good it should be as easy from their end as renewing. However in practise some registers have all sorts of checks to ensure that when a domain is transfered away from them it is genuine and not being stolen (and I would guess that in some cases this is to discourage you from moving your domain from them). If your old register does this, it may take more than two days to jump through all the hoops.

However if you do decide to transfer, do it quickly. I know from bitter personal experience that it is a lot harder to transfer a domain in the "grace" period. I lost an important domain that way once (and as this was 80% due to my own stupidity and only 20% due to the register I am still kicking myself over it).

Thanks. I kept searching thru domain registering sites for domain renewal services. I never thought to look for transfer domain services.

If I can't get it done in two days I guess for waiting to the last minute it is mostly my stupidity too.

Since I made that mistake I have all my domains on "auto renewal", which means that if I don't renew a domain the registrar automatically does it for me (and automatically takes the money from my credit card too!). That has prevented me making the same mistake since then. You may want to look into that as well.

That sounds like a good idea but it might make my life easier and I'm too lazy to do things like that.

Yeah, I'll look into it.

george,

This exact same thing happened to me not too long ago. Do yourself a favor and shop around. Believe it or not, you still have a grace period before you forfeit your right to renew a domain name. But ecchi is right, do yourself a favor and don't delay.

I don't believe a domain that is in the Redemption Period can be transferred.

Also, some registrars hold a lock within 30 days of the expiration and prevent transfers.

When it is that close to the wire, you're pretty much stuck to renew it where it is, then transfer it.

Yes it can. All you have to do is request the reigstrar (by email and phone) to unlock it and you can re-purchase it under any other registrar within the assigned grace period, which is a good thing. 3 domains I had registered through the now defunct iregistrations.com, were picked up by enom.com. This new registrar failed to send me an email notifying me that:
1. They had taken over the account
2. Giving me a heads up that any of my domain names were coming up for renewal
3. Wanted me to re-new at $29.95 each!!

After posting a thread here not too long ago and deciding to take action on my own I spent a few hours at icaap.org. I read their rules and found out that my situation was disputable and that enom had no choice but to unlock.

Most registrars won't accept a transfer request if there is only 10 days "life" left. Once a name has expired, you can only renew it via the original registrar. There are some exceptions when you register through an agent, you may be able to do a registrar "push" to another agent of the same registrar.

If the actual registrar is onlinenic I might be able to help you, failing that you will need to renew via your current registrar - it's not worth the risk of waiting for it to drop if you want the name. If it goes to redemption, it could cost you around $125 to recover it.

The good news. I got my domain renewed with the original registar. Pain in the ass but worked through it. Before my next domain renewed, I'm doing the reserach/shopping around well ahead of time.