If you no longer need your website or domain name and wish to cancel it, you can do this from our client portal. Before you do this though, it is important to remember the following points:
I Want to Cancel my Domain Name
Once expired, anyone else can renew the domain
When you let your domain expire it enters the pool of domains available for open registration.
There are websites dedicated to catching and registering domains as soon as they expire. For example Dropcatch.com has systems that aim to be the first to re-register and offers expiring domains in a dropcatch aution. If the domain is considered to have any value it is highly likely someone will catch the expiring domain.
Once someone else has the domain you cannot get it back unless they let it expire. If the domain has value you may have to compete with many other interests to purchase. There is no guarantee someone will let the domain expire.
Before letting a domain expire, do make sure it is of no use. But this is not the most important consideration
There are websites dedicated to catching and registering domains as soon as they expire. For example Dropcatch.com has systems that aim to be the first to re-register and offers expiring domains in a dropcatch aution. If the domain is considered to have any value it is highly likely someone will catch the expiring domain.
Once someone else has the domain you cannot get it back unless they let it expire. If the domain has value you may have to compete with many other interests to purchase. There is no guarantee someone will let the domain expire.
Before letting a domain expire, do make sure it is of no use. But this is not the most important consideration
A new domain owner can create email addresses that could be used to retrieve lost passwords and access your online accounts
Imagine you have an account with a website - maybe an online retailer - and you used an email address associated with your domain to create this account (eg. yourname@yourdomain.com).
Once your domain has expired, you can no longer receive emails to this email address but the new owner of the domain CAN!
A cyber-criminal can create an email address and use it to reset passwords on websites where the email address has been used. You can see how this could be used to purchase goods or be used to other nefarious ends.
If you are letting your domain expire you must be sure that associated email addresses are dormant.
Once your domain has expired, you can no longer receive emails to this email address but the new owner of the domain CAN!
A cyber-criminal can create an email address and use it to reset passwords on websites where the email address has been used. You can see how this could be used to purchase goods or be used to other nefarious ends.
If you are letting your domain expire you must be sure that associated email addresses are dormant.
Users may think you are responsible for any new website(s) on the domain
It is not uncommon (and we have first hand experience) for scammers to buy expired domains, taking advantage of the trust built up over several years, and setup websites selling fake or shoddy goods. If your name is in anyway associated with this domain name you may find unhappy customers targeting you.
With this in mind we advise that you leave a domain name "fallow" (i.e. without a website) for at least a year before allowing to expire.
With this in mind we advise that you leave a domain name "fallow" (i.e. without a website) for at least a year before allowing to expire.
Article published 24th November 2021
Last modified 24th November 2021
