ICANN, the organization that decides and
dictates domain name registration policies to all registrars, has
implemented a new policy concerning domains that expire (A domain
name that is not renewed before the expiration date).
If your domain name expires, 30 days after expiration it will be
put it in a status called "Redemption Period". During the
redemption period, your domain will not be available for
re-registration by anyone except you. However, the fee to renew your
domain once it is expired and placed in redemption will be from $150
to $200 depending on the registrar.
If you do not pay the redemption fee, then the registrar will
release your domain after 60-70 days from expiration at which time
you can attempt to register the domain with any registrar by paying
the normal registration fee.
Thus, it is imperative that you renew your domain in a timely
manner. Once it passes expiration, you could be forced to pay the
Redemption fee in order to re-register the domain. This is an
ICANN policy and is NOT a
Kevin Heinbuch policy. This
affects anyone with a domain name regardless of who your registrar
is.
To find out who your registrar is and when your expiration date
is, go to the following link to lookup your domain name record in
the Search WHOIS section.
http://www.nsiregistry.com/
If you have further questions or concerns about this, contact
your domain name registrar. We suggest that you contact your
registrar to let them know your feelings about this matter as we
feel charging the consumer 10 times the amount of a normal domain
fee to renew an expired domain is a kin to highway robbery and is
poor business practice. You may also want to contact ICANN
at
redeem-comment@icann.org to voice your opinion directly to them.
More information on this policy can be found at
http://www.icann.org/bucharest/redemption-topic.htm
