How long does a company hold domain names?

#Daniel

Hi. I have a .com with a formerly Irish company though I'm not sure what they are now since they had a big takeover. Anyhoo one of my 9 euro .coms expired over the christmas period and I only copped on last week as I thought I had it in auto renew, so I went to renew it but it refused my credit card for some reason. I then went to renew it again yesterday, the payment went through. I got an e-mail from them today saying:

Unfortunately, the attempt to renew your domain name, mydomainname, at the normal rate has failed. This is as the domain name has entered the "redemption" period. To release the domain name from this state there is a fee of €241.99 + VAT, this includes a 1 year renewal.

How long will they hold the domain for before it is released for registration again? Its quite a specific domain that would be of no interest to anyone else. I have quite a few domains and hosting with them so I'm rather annoyed at the price of this...

Seth Brundle

Was it you or the "formerly Irish company" that previously registered it for you?
Have you asked them?
Did you not receive any renewal notification emails?

#Daniel

kbannon wrote: »

Was it you or the "formerly Irish company" that previously registered it for you?
Have you asked them?
Did you not receive any renewal notification emails?

The domain is registered for 2 years with them now. I registered it myself. There were notification e-mails on my account which I have specifically for hosting and domains etc. I neglected it a little over christmas as I was away for a while and like I say I tried renewing it last week but it rejected the card. I usually have domains set to auto renew.

I've e-mailed them but no response yet. It probably is my own fault, but 241 euro seems a bit steep for an overdue renewal. I was just wondering whether or not companies release domains after a set amount of time because if the worst comes to the worst I'd be quite hesitant to hand over 241 euro + vat. I can name the company if it helps but I'm not sure if thats against the rules or not.

Immaculata

As far as I know, domain names go through a period after they expire when only the domain name owner can re-register them. I think it's called registry hold, lasts about two to three months, and if you (the domain name owner) renews during that period, there's a financial penalty, set by the company that you registered the domain name with. I would check via ICANN or a whois search which company registered your domain for you, and then check their website for a better idea of what grace period they operate.

If you want, you could let the domain lapse and then re-register it when it's free again. But that could be 75+ days down the line, and someone else could snap it up.

Maybe a good middle path is to use a domain grabber service. I know godaddy does one for under twenty bucks, but probably lots of other domain registration companies do too. Pay your twenty bucks, say you want to grab that domain, and it'll nab it for you when the grace period ends.

#Daniel

Immaculata wrote: »

As far as I know, domain names go through a period after they expire when only the domain name owner can re-register them. I think it's called registry hold, lasts about two to three months, and if you (the domain name owner) renews during that period, there's a financial penalty, set by the company that you registered the domain name with. I would check via ICANN or a whois search which company registered your domain for you, and then check their website for a better idea of what grace period they operate.

If you want, you could let the domain lapse and then re-register it when it's free again. But that could be 75+ days down the line, and someone else could snap it up.

Maybe a good middle path is to use a domain grabber service. I know godaddy does one for under twenty bucks, but probably lots of other domain registration companies do too. Pay your twenty bucks, say you want to grab that domain, and it'll nab it for you when the grace period ends.

Its a very specific domain in that its not even a word as such, something made up so hopefully no-one would purchase it...

I tried renewing it last week while I was within the 30 day renewal period but the site was rejecting my credit card at the time. I must get on the phone to them first thing tomorrow. Do you think they would remove this stupidly large fee if I pleaded my case on that?

Seth Brundle

Is it an important domain?

#Daniel

kbannon wrote: »

Is it an important domain?

Yeah its a small site I maintain for a relative. He relies on it during the summer so its not too important right now.

Seth Brundle

fair enough. See if you can get it back tomorrow and if not then wait for the redemption period to finish and then try to grab it.
Failing any form of success, then just get the .net/.ie/.whatever alternative.