Domain Names: Renew Them or Lose Them

Website domain names (emerg-in.com, hotmail.com or bbc.co.uk) are leased by you or your company from a domain name registrar. Although you therefore have rights to that domain while you have the lease you never own them outright.

If your domain ends in .co.uk then you will have the lease for 2 years - others can be registered for different periods of time. Either way, when the lease is due to expire you will be contacted by the company that you registered the domain name through to ask if you want to renew it.

Because Emerging Innovations Ltd ensure that they have a close relationship with all of our customers we telephone and speak to you at this point to see if you want to renew. We will also email if we can't get hold of you by phone.

That said, registrars will only be able to contact you if they have the correct contact details for you. Occasionally people may register a domain name with a "temporary" hotmail address and then change email addresses. Should this happen to you then the registrar will not be able to get hold of you to let you know your domain is due for renewal.

OK, some registrars keep credit cards on file and auto-charge at the point of renewal. This doesn’t mean that you can't keep your details up to date, however. Credit cards expire, domain prices change and terms and conditions are updated. You need to be told.

Remember that it's your responsibility to keep your domain name renewed. This means checking the WHOIS database (here is a link to an easy to use checker) and make a note of the renewal date so that you're ready to chase up your registrar if nothing is heard.

If you feel uncomfortable about managing your own domains then contact us and we'll be glad to take over the management of them for you.