Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : Domain name expiration dates

[dale rethke]

If I have a domain name that is about to expire.
If I let it expire how long does it take before the domain is made available for anyone to take
Example
The domain is to expire 2/02/02
How long before the domain will be available and someone else can take it?
The next day?
help

Dale R

[Scott]

It depends on who you registerd it through, it could take 40 days to 2 years for it to drop back into the pool.

[dale rethke]

I registered it through domain bank.

[Scott]

I guess my next question is what do you want to do? Keep it? Terminate ownership?

[dale rethke]

I was hoping to let it expire and then re-register it at a lower cost with another host.
Is there any other way to do it?

[Scott]

risky

Have you tried transfering it to another registrar?

[thewitt]

You don't want to let it expire and take your chances with moving it. If you want to move to another registrar, go to that registrar and initiate a transfer.

You should be able to transfer without any additional fees. The transfer request adds a year to your domain registration expiration date.

If you let your domain expire - it may not be available for quite some time for registration again, and you may not be the one who gets it back when it does come available. When you let a domain expire, it effectively becomes available only at the whim of the registrar. For some, like OpenSRS, it's a predictable process. For others, no one knows how long it will take.

Is there some reason you've not simply done a transfer?

-t

[gamerhl]

yeah, what these guys said. Why don't you just transfer to the lower cost registrar???