A domain does not simply stop on the day it expires. It moves through stages, and each one is harder and more expensive to come back from.
1. Expiry
The website and email stop working. To your customers the business has disappeared. The domain is still yours and renewing is straightforward.
2. Grace period
A period during which you can still renew at the normal price. The length varies by domain ending.
3. Redemption
The domain is scheduled for deletion but can still be recovered – at a substantially higher cost, because the registry charges a redemption fee on top of the renewal. This is where an expired domain becomes genuinely expensive.
4. Release
The domain is deleted and anyone may register it. At this point it is gone, and if it has any value someone will take it, often within seconds.
Do not rely on the reminders
We send renewal notices in advance, but they go to the email address on your account. If that address is on the domain that is expiring, or belongs to someone who has left, you will not see them. Check that the contact address on your account is one you will still be reading in a year, and consider one that is not on the domain itself.
The simplest protection
Turn on auto-renew, and make sure the payment method on file is current. Nearly every domain we have seen lost was one where auto-renew was off, or the card had expired.
