The answer is possibly.
A Renewal Grace Period is the time during which a domain owner can renew an expired domain at the regular renewal price. Most domain extensions offer a renewal grace period of up to 30 days.
For example, this is the life-cycle of .COM, which has a 30 day renewal grace period:
- 2018/01/01 - Your domain is registered
- 2019/01/01 - Your domain expires
- 2019/01/01 - 2019/01/30 Renewal Grace Period (renewals are regular renewal price)
- 2019/02/01 - 2019/02/30 Redemption Period (renewals include a late renewal fee)
- 2019/03/01 - 2019/03/05 Your domain is Pending Delete
If you do not renew during the renewal grace period, the domain will be removed and is no longer controlled by Woktron. This is known as the Redemption Period, which is typically 30 days. If you wish to re-claim the domain, the process will be more expensive and time-consuming as Woktron will be required to submit paperwork and payment to the central registry. Please note that most of this money goes straight to the central registry. Domains in redemption can only be restored by the current registrant and only with the listed registrar.
About 5 days after the redemption period ends, the domain is dropped from the central registry and becomes available to the general public. Domains are sold on a first come, first serve basis. High-value domains will go quickly.
One important exception:
- Some domain extensions do not offer renewal and/or redemption periods or offer them for different lengths of time.
The best way to preserve your domain name is to set up auto-renew or renew early. Auto-renew will automatically renew your domain (as long as your payment method goes through) and with early renewals, no time is lost. Using either method can save a lot of future headaches. Keeping your contact information up to date is also important as Woktron will send all expiration notice emails to the address on file. You can also set up a separate renewal email.
