Your domain name is your website address, and it is also the part after the @ in your email addresses. If it expires, your website and your email stop working. This page explains how renewal payments are applied to your account, why paying the domain name invoice on its own is sometimes not enough, and what it costs to renew a domain name after it has expired.
Why paying your domain name invoice might not renew your domain
When you pay us, we put your money towards your oldest unpaid invoice first. Unless we have agreed otherwise in writing, you cannot choose which invoice a payment goes to. Our Terms of Service say so.
So if you have older overdue invoices, a payment you make for your domain name renewal is used on those older invoices first. Your domain name invoice stays unpaid, and we cannot renew the domain until it is paid.
Your domain name is renewed once its renewal invoice, and every invoice that was due before it, has been paid in full.
An example
You have an older invoice of $100 that is overdue. Your domain name renewal invoice for $70 is due next week. You pay $70, intending it for the domain name. That $70 goes towards the older invoice, which still has $30 owing, and the domain name invoice has not been paid at all. To get your domain name renewed, you would need to pay a further $100: $30 to clear the older invoice and $70 for the domain name.
Not sure whether anything else is owing? Contact us and we will tell you exactly what needs to be paid for your domain name to be renewed.
What renewal costs, depending on when you pay
This applies to every domain name we manage for you, whatever its extension (.nz, .com, .org and the others).
- Paid before the expiry date. Your domain name is renewed at the normal price shown on our Domain Names page, and nothing stops working.
- Paid after the expiry date, while the domain name can still be recovered. We can still get your domain name back for you. We only charge you a recovery fee if our domain registrar charges us one to recover it; if they do, we add 15% to cover the extra work involved, plus GST. If our registrar charges no recovery fee for your domain, you pay only the normal renewal price.
- Paid too late. The domain name is no longer yours. If nobody else has registered it in the meantime, we can register it for you again as a new registration. If someone else has registered it, it cannot be recovered.
The recovery fee, if any, is set by the domain registry, not by us, and it varies by extension. As an example, for .com and the other extensions not ending in .nz, our registrar’s published recovery fee is currently US$250; plus our 15%, plus GST. For .nz domain names, our registrar does not publish a separate recovery fee, so contact us and we will confirm the exact amount, if any, before you pay.
How long you have to renew an expired domain name
How long a domain name can still be recovered after it expires depends on its extension.
.nz domain names
When a .nz domain name expires without being renewed, it is not released straight away. It enters what the .nz domain name system calls the redemption period. (Until recently this was called “pending release”, and you may still see that term.) The redemption period lasts 90 days from the day the domain name is cancelled.
During those 90 days, your website and any email addresses using the domain name stop working, the domain name is still registered to you, and nobody else can register it.
When the 90 days are up, the domain name moves to a status called “pending delete” for a few working days, and can no longer be reinstated. After that it is released, and anyone can register it on a first come, first served basis; names are often taken again within minutes of release.
.com, .org, .net, .biz, .info, .com.au and .net.au
These extensions are not run by the .nz registry, so they do not use the redemption period described above. Each has its own registry, its own recovery period, and its own rules; the recovery period is often shorter than 90 days. If one of these has expired, contact us straight away so we can tell you exactly how long you have and what it will cost.
How to keep your domain name safe
- Pay your domain name renewal invoice before it is due.
- Keep the rest of your account up to date, so your payment can go to the domain name invoice.
- If you cannot pay in full by the due date, talk to us before the due date about a payment plan.
- Let us know when your contact details change, so our renewal reminders reach you.
- If you no longer want the domain name, tell us before it expires.
More information
Our Domain Name Terms of Service and our Terms of Service (in particular Payment of Fees and Overdue Accounts) set out the full terms. Current domain name prices are on our Domain Names page. If you have a question about your domain name or your account, contact us.