Nov 10 2008
Domain Name Redemption “Grace” Period
Recently I helped a customer redeem back their domain name. The domain name was registered for the end user by a reseller under the reseller’s name one year ago. Later, the reseller no longer carried on her web design business and passed on the domain name to another company, who in turned passed it to yet another designer.
Thirty days before the domain name expiry date, my system sent out reminders by email and SMS to the reseller as usual, who I believed passed the reminders to the person in charge. But somehow the domain was not renewed until it fell into the “redemption grace period” 40 days after expiry.
In this period, the end user customer could no longer renew the domain at the usual price of RM40, but had to pay a “redemption fee” of RM450 (about US$ 128) charged by my registrar to claim back the domain name. It’s 10 times more than the renewal price! I don’t know whose fault it was. But finally the customer got in touch with me, paid the amount, and got back the domain name.
About 40 days after the expiry of a top-level domain name (eg. .com and .net), it will go into a period called “redemption period” for 30 days, in which the domain owner needs to pay a “redemption fee” to claim back the domain. The amount is different among domain registrars. But it’s definitely much higher than the usual renewal price.
If the domain name is not redeemed within this period, it will go into another period called “pending delete” for 7 days, after which the domain name is made available for public registration.
So the “life cycle” of an expired domain name is like this:
Expired (40 days) -> Redemption Period (30 days) -> Pending Delete (7 days) -> Available
So what if you failed to renew your domain name and it falls into redemption period now? You either have to pay a lot now to redeem back the domain, or you can wait for another one month when the domain is made available again, but it may be snapped up by other people.
It is unfortunate that we have to pay so much to get back our domain name. But thanks and no thanks, there is such a 30-day “grace” period so that your domain will not be taken by others so early, but you have to part with much money to get it back 
It is not so gracious.
So don’t ever miss your domain name expiry!
Read related posts
Be updated about this blog by email or in your feed reader (RSS)!
Hello, great posting! It really helps understanding a life-cycle of a domain (well in the point of domain registration business). I was wondering if you could help me out here, my domain name expired 35 days ago, so is it still renewable (since it’s still less than 40 days)? Also, so in other words, a domain will only be released to public 77 days (40+30+7) after it expired and no action is taken? Thx very much! Appreciate your help.
Hi Ed, which domain name is yours?
Your domain is renewable unless it’s in “pending delete” stage. But if it falls into “redemption” stage, then you will need to pay a lot to renew.
Yes it takes about 77 days for an expired domain to be released to public. I said “about” here because it’s not exact. Can be a bit earlier or later. Yes you can re-register it after then, IF it’s not taken or backordered by anyone.
There are just about 5 days left for your domain to enter redemption period. So why not renew now if you still can get hold of it and renew at normal price?