Renewing Your Domain (and What Happens If It Expires)

A domain registration is a lease, not a purchase. Letting it expire is one of the most common — and most painful — ways to lose a web presence. Here is how renewals work at Maxinames and what happens if you miss one.

How renewals work

Every Maxinames domain has an auto-renew setting. With it on, we charge your saved payment method 30 days before the expiry date and extend the registration automatically. With it off, we send reminder emails at 30, 14, 7, and 1 day before expiry — but the domain will lapse if no action is taken.

Turn on auto-renew

1. Sign in at manage.maxinames.com.
2. Open My Domains, click the domain.
3. Set Auto Renew to On and save.
4. Make sure a valid payment method is on file under Billing → Payment Methods.

What if I miss the date?

Most TLDs follow this lifecycle after expiry:

• 0–30 days (renewal grace): renew at the standard price. Site and email may be suspended within hours of expiry.
• 30–60 days (redemption period): renewal still possible but at a much higher restoration fee (often $80–150 on top of the renewal).
• 60+ days: the domain is released to the public and may be registered by anyone.

The exact windows vary by TLD — country-code TLDs in particular often have shorter or different timelines.

Renew manually

1. Open the domain in My Domains.
2. Click Renew, choose the number of years, and pay.
3. The new expiry date is added to the existing one — you do not lose remaining time.

If your domain has expired and you need help recovering it, contact support immediately — every day counts.