Feb, 2003 : Registrars Implement Renewal Grace Period

📅 February 17, 2003 - Domain name registrars serving generic top-level domains have begun implementing an extended renewal grace period for expired .com domains as a result of a new program approved recently by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
The new grace period places domains on hold for 45 days after their expiration, allowing users an additional opportunity to renew expired domains. The service comes at a premium, however, with some registrars charging as much as $200 for grace-period renewals.
According to Tom D'Alleva, vice president of marketing for domain registrar BulkRegister (BulkRegister.com 👉 Total Reviews: 2
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"BulkRegister, along with all the other registrars," says D'Alleva, "not only incur a fee from the registry, but also incur our own costs. We decided to figure out what our own costs were and charge a moderate fee for that service. If the registry thinks that $85 is a reasonable price to charge, then us charging an additional $65 dollars is not unreasonable, we think."
While the price for grace period renewal is incredibly steep in comparison to new domain renewals, D'Alleva says that, realistically, an organization or individual has no reason to let their domain expire.
"We send out at least six notices," he says, "starting two months before any domain name is due to expire. We also have systems in place that allow you to automatically renew your name. So a name should never delete unless you really don't want it."