The simple way to put this..
If your domain happened to hit the expiry date and you remembered a day later and quickly renewed the domain, it’s still considered to be in Auto Renew Period. Then you decided you didn’t want the domain to be with that registrar anymore and started a transfer to another registrar.
Normally after you transfer a domain an extra year is added to the expiry date. If your domain happens to be in the ARP period WAIT 45 days or when you transfer it, your extra year on the expiry date will NOT appear.
I have had this happen with several domain names and registrars are NOT required to offer you a refund for your First Renewal.
Below is a more detailed discription with a couple examples.
In any domain transfer process there are three entities involved –
Domain Owner (Registrant)
Losing Registrar
Gaining Registrar
Typically a Domain Name is transferred sometime before its expiry in order to renew it with the gaining Registrar. This results in ONE YEAR getting added to the domain name. The charges for this one year are collected by the Gaining Registrar. There is however a case when it seems as if this one year is not added during the transfer process. You need to understand this so that you do not make the mistake.
Basically if a Domain Name Expires, it is not deleted immediately. The Registrar of the domain name must explicitly delete the name within 45 days or else it is deemed to have been renewed. This period of 45 days is called the Auto Renew period. If during these 45 days the Registrant Renews the Domain Name with the Losing Registrar and then TRANSFERS the name to a new Gaining Registrar, then in that case the Domain Name WILL lose the year that was added with the Losing Registrar. Lets take an example.
* Suppose a domain name expires on 1st Jan 2001. Lets also suppose currently this domain is with Registrar A
* On 3rd Jan 2001 (after the domain has expired) you renew the domain with Registrar A. The domain has already expired, but not yet deleted, so you can safely renew it with Registrar A. This will make the expiry date as 1st Jan 2002
* Now on 10th Jan 2002 if you transfer this domain name to Registrar B this is what will happen
* The transfer will add one year to the domain name (expiry date will be 1st Jan 2004)
* If there has been any renewals in the 45 day auto-renew period those years will be removed (expiry date will be reset to 1st Jan 2003)
* The net effect therefore will be – that no year gets added to the transferred domain. It is however important to note that the year during TRANSFER is ACTUALLY ADDED. The reason why the expiry date does not reflect it is that the year added in renewal with the LOSING REGISTRAR is credited BACK to the Losing Registrar by the Registry.
You can do the following things in this situation
1. MOST IMPORTANTLY. Do not Transfer a name from one Registrar to another during the 45 day auto-renew period immediately after the expiry date of the domain name. Therefore if a domain name expires on 1st Jan 2001, do not transfer it to another Registrar until 15th Feb 2001.
2. If you have already done this mistake however the only recourse is to obtain a refund from the Losing Registrar for the renewal you have paid for with them. There is little scope of getting it considering that most Registrars may not understand this issue or may not have a refund policy.
Erhan
Very interesting. Thanks for the information.
KVS
I wish to know whether we will be able to transfer the domains to new Registrar B. in my case Registrar A is not renewing the domains even after getting the money.
so what should i do to get my domain back?
**Jamie Says**
Without knowing which registrars you are speaking of, it’s hard to say. I am guessing you are not dealing with a large registrar. Either way, if you pay for renewal, the domain should be renewed and nearly instantly. I have seen some “smaller” or cash strapped registrars “hold” your renewal money until about 5 days before your domain reaches it’s expiry date, which in my eye’s is a no/no.
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You can file a complaint with ICANN if the registrar is not renewing your domain. Make sure to provide a lot of proof. Like Payment date, and the domain not showing renewal. You may also want to check at the Registry to verify if the domain was renewed or not.
KVS
I have shared more details to your email. please try to guide me. thanks for your time.
OLED
THX for the info.
Just trying to transfer my domain before it expires.
AsktheRick
Maybe I don’t understand fully, but it appears that the math in your example is incorrect.
You state:
* Now on 10th Jan 2002 if you transfer this domain name to Registrar B this is what will happen
* The transfer will add one year to the domain name (expiry date will be 1st Jan 2004)
Adding one year to 2002 would be 2003, not 2004.
I also believe that there are status changes in place to block the transfer so this cannot happen.
(This was to make sure that the funds for the renewal are collected. This keeps the registrant from being able to deny the charge on their credit card after renewal and after a transfer. The registrar could get stuck with the domain if this happens and this is why some have auctions to potentially recoup this loss. This is also why you can’t change registrars quickly when you create a new domain.)
But I could be incorrect about this.
Jamie Zoch
@AskTheRick,
Sorry, but you are incorrect
AsktheRick
I appreciate your reply that my explanation was incorrect — I see that I did make a mistake. I stated “on 10th Jan 2002″ and should have used “10th Jan 2001″ in my comments. Possibly, I could have explained more clearly, which I do below:
In re-reading your example, you IMPLY that even if one waits OVER a YEAR for the transfer, this problem will occur, but also state that one should wait 45 days before transfer. If one followed your example’s dates, the domain would be expired already when the transfer was attempted.
I believe that this is the root cause of being one year off in your example.
Stating the essentials more clearly from your example:
– domain expiry on “1st Jan 2001″
– renewal on “3rd Jan 2001″ (2 DAYS later)
– transfer on “10th Jan 2002″ (this is OVER a YEAR later and when the domain has expired unless an unstated “renewal” occurred (which technically DID occur, but it NOT mentioned in your article)).
Because of this unstated “renewal” (by the registry), I doubt that this transfer could even occur, since the domain would be “technically expired” and could not be transferred. (It’s status and expiration date at that point would depend on the type of domain.)
If the date you used in the example was “10th Jan 2001″, then this example would demonstrate what I believe you intended (but would require other date changes as well).
(But then this would be the source of your math error I mentioned in my previous comment, that I did not proofread well enough and explain carefully enough, which is my fault.)
Therefore, as currently shown, in my estimation, your article is NOT correct due to this date difference (which is absolutely essential).
(Following the dates and the logic, as presented, and assuming that “expired” domains could be transferred within days of expiration, your example shows that the transfer would add TWO years “1st Jan 2004″ to the domain. Again assuming that this transfer were possible, which I doubt, the domain would be in an “automated renewal period” where the registrar has paid by default (money grabbed by the registry, but unpaid by you the registrant) the only date you would be entitled to (based on the information you provided) would be 01 Jan 2003. (You paid for one renewal on 3rd Jan 2001 and paid for another year by transfer (after expiry) on 10th Jan 2002. The expiration might SHOW 2004, but if the registry shifted it back to 2003, THEY would be correct since 2001+1+1=2003, not 2004). Assuming again that this was a real example (which is doubtful), the extra year was caused by the “automated renewal”, which you did NOT pay for and was removed, but that would defeat the purpose of the entire article.
Robin
Why 10th Jan 2002? Talking about 10th Jan 2001 will be less confusing.
Many registrars do allow transfering expired domains, I’ve done this before without any problem. The key point is do not RENEW AND transfer during the auto-renew period.
Here’s another article more specific on this:
http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/09/domain-renewal-accounting-loophole-exposed-in-verisign-registry/
And here’s the ICANN advisory posted in 2002:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/advisory-06jun02.htm