Domain registration terms

The rules say the owner’s name, address, email and phone number must be correct and kept up to date. Change them in your set-up form or write to us.

After you register a name or change its owner details, the registrar may email you a link to confirm them. Click it within 15 days. If you do not, the name can be suspended until you confirm.

Public lookups (WHOIS and RDAP) usually hide personal contact details. The registrar keeps them and can share them where the rules or the law require it.

You pay the price shown when you buy, for a year at a time. The name renews every year while your plan is paid. If you cancel, it does not renew and expires at the end of the paid year.

Before and after a name expires, the registrar sends reminders, as ICANN’s Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires. Keep your email address current so you get them.

An expired name stops working: the website and email on it go offline. For a short time after expiry you can usually still renew it at the normal price. After that, many endings have a redemption period with a higher fee set by the registry. After that, anyone can register the name. Ask us quickly if a name you care about has expired.

The name is yours. You can move it to another provider at any time: ask us for its transfer code (also called an auth code), then start the transfer at the new provider. We do not charge to let a name go.

Most names cannot move in the first 60 days after they are registered or moved, and the registrar can lock a name for 60 days after an owner change. A name that is suspended for abuse, or in a dispute, cannot move until that is settled.

If someone says your name breaks their trademark, the dispute follows ICANN’s Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) or a court. We follow the decision of the dispute panel, the court, the registrar or the registry.

A registered name is not refundable after the registry’s short grace window (see the refund policy). Using a name for spam, phishing or other abuse breaks the acceptable use rules and can get it suspended.

ICANN, the body that oversees domain names, publishes these plain-language guides:

• Registrants’ Benefits and Responsibilities
• Registrant Educational Information
• Transfer Policy
• Expired Registration Recovery Policy
• Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP)

Questions about a name? Write to [email protected].