From the support desk – the redemption fee
If you’ve let your domain name lapse and waited a while to renew, chances are you’ll be asking our support team, “Redemption period fee, err what’s that?” It’s a question we answer a few times each week, not least because the phrase comes with some serious sticker shock. £150 to be precise…
The fee in question is applicable once a .com domain name enters the redemption period (RP) state. This itself kicks in when a .com domain name expires and goes past the thirty day mark. After that month long window it enters this RP state for another thirty days. The idea is that this is a last ditch opportunity for the domain name holder to renew their domain name. After the redemption period, there’s a five day state known as pending delete before the domain goes back to the public pool of available domain names. After that, all bets are off.
To remove a domain name from RP costs £150. It’s worth noting that the cost of domain name renewal is extra on top of that £150 fee. The redemption period fee is levied by the .com domain name registry itself; Verisign. The fee is passed down the chain to our registrar Easynic, then onto us, and finally to you the .com domain name holder. We do not add anything to the fee we’re charged so we don’t have any wiggle room on the price.
Sadly there’s nothing we or our registrar can do to circumvent the fee. In order to renew the domain name the RP fee needs settling. We pass that on as close to cost as possible.
It should be noted that when any domain name expires with 34SP.com we automatically change the domain name’s name servers to special expired NS settings; this means any functioning domain name will start to fail when not renewed (the website will go offline, emails will begin bouncing). This is our own last ditch means of alerting a domain name holder to the imminent loss of their domain name or added fees!
Lastly, a follow on query we’re asked a lot is, “Why shouldn’t I just wait and allow the domain name to get released to the public pool? I can just buy it again at cost, right?” It’s not an unreasonable thought. We charge £25 for a two year .com renewal, the £150 RP fee is an obviously massive extra fee to tack on top.
Allowing a domain name to completely lapse can be a risky business if your domain name is of any importance. There exist a number of companies that do nothing but monitor expiring domain names. They calculate the worth and the expected web traffic levels of those domains.
Should they see something of potential worth their systems automatically purchase that domain name the very second it expires. Head to the domain name in your browser a day our two later and you’ll see a page advertising a brand new price for purchase. I have had domain names lapse myself (intentionally I might add) only to see a page pop up down the line requesting £1,750 to purchase the domain name anew!
A very good reason to register domains through 34SP and set them to auto-renew. However, I thought that most TLD registration authorities had taken steps some time ago to stamp out this dreadful practice of selling domain names at such ludicrous prices, e.g. the very fact that the domain was up for sale would set wheels in motion to have it cancelled. Perhaps, though, they see it as a good way of making an extra £150 for themselves…
This in itself is the reason for RP at some registries – “here is your last ditch chance before we put it back on the market”. From there, once it’s released back to the public domain, all bets really are off. Anyone can register any domain that’s available, and do what they wish with it – including scooping up domains by the 1000s and immediately listing for sale. Domain name speculation really.
This is good to know. Thanks for your article Stuart.