In February of this year, I bought a couple domains. I remember specifically sitting in my office and purchasing two. I sat thinking about a third, and then I got distracted. I went to bed without buying it, telling myself, “Nah, I’ll get it later.” Then I went to a job assignment. And, as I often do when I have several+ hours of a drive back home when I’m finished, I was thinking about lots of stuff. I decided that I was going to get the domain that I didn’t. BUT, wouldn’t ya know it?! Literally, the domain was purchased two days previously to getting back home. It has roiled my nerve ever since.
Now, during the spring and summer, the domain owner(s) had a site up and everything and talking about their eventual product release, etc. etc. It was a fully functioning site. However, maybe since mid-October(?) the site content is missing. The page fails to load. “This webpage is not available.” “Google Chrome could not load the webpage because the site took too long to respond.” Obviously, I don’t know what’s going on with it.
Now, the domain is set to expire in the next 90 days, and I have some questions that I hope y’all can provide some insight.
When a domain reaches is expiry date, does the current registrar have a period of time beyond the expiry date that allows them to re-register without losing it, OR does it immediately become available and anyone can purchase it?
Has anyone used a domain nabbing service? Ones that you recommend?
I’m almost certain there’s no grace period. That’s why webhosting companies are very emphatic about getting their clients to renew the domains before the expiration date. Case in point, here’s the e-mail message I received from my hosting company earlier this month. They even put the warning in bold text. (I had forgotten to sign on to an auto-renew option, so I had to hustle to get the domain renewed, or face a potentially big and costly problem in getting it back.)
“One or more of your domain names will expire in five days. If you wish to keep this domain, please renew it right now. If you let your domain expire, ALL EMAIL ADDRESSES AND WEBSITES THAT USE THIS DOMAIN WILL STOP WORKING FIVE DAYS FROM NOW.”
Jim
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When a domain reaches is expiry date, does the current registrar have a period of time beyond the expiry date that allows them to re-register without losing it, OR does it immediately become available and anyone can purchase it?
they could have it on auto-renew and you’d never know it until the current registration date expires and then automatically gets extended.
on my current domain, which i just use for mail forwarding (so the Webpage is just some domain parking page), WHOIS shows a expiration date of May 1, 2015. But my domain company has autorenewal, so they’ll just charge my credit card in March/April and extend the expiration date. The only way i’d lose the domain is if the credit card gets declined or the hosting company screws up.