If your domain name is not in your Netz0 account, it means it was not renewed on time and was removed by our system.
We strongly advise renewing domain names before the expiration date. When a domain expires, you already lost all the rights over such domain name. Additionally, we send multiple notifications by email to remind you of domains that are expiring; you can check and renew domains at any time from your Netz0 account as well set auto renewals, so your domains are automatically renewed before they expire.
Depending on the domain extension, some domains have a grace renewal period. Under this grace period, the domain will show as expired in your Netz0 account and can be renewed even while it is not working anymore. We keep expired domains in your account during that grace period. Once the grace period is over, the domain is removed from your account.
However, some extensions do not have a grace period, and you could lose the domain name the same day it expires. Most domains also have a redemption period in which it can be recovered. This process is different depending on the extension and domain registrar, some require you to claim it directly with the registrar, others to pay a fee and others to confirm your address listed in the domain with a postal letter send to your address before reclaiming it. In most cases, a redemption recovery is a manual procedure and has higher fees involved than a regular domain renewal. Since the process is different per extension, you cannot do this process directly from your Netz0 account.
You must contact us for a domain recovery. For example, if your domain is a .com, in most cases you can recover the domain between 30-45 days after the grace period is over. Recovering a domain means we request a restoration to the last active registrant (the owner) and then the domain can normally be renewed under your Netz0 account. Recovery fees are usually over 10 times higher than normal renewal fees but it may the only option to recover a domain name in most cases. The recovery process from the redemption period takes a few hours, and your domain will start working the same day it was restored and renewed.
Please be informed that the time periods and fees listed here are not from Netz0. The domain registrar imposes them and applies to all domains, regardless of the company where you registered the domain name. When you pay a domain fee, for example, a yearly renewal fee to Netz0, we just pass it back to the registrar with the proper renewal request. We did not create the rules; we only follow the domain extension regulations, and we cannot change the time periods or fees imposed on us for your domain name.
If you did not renew a domain name from your Netz0 account and you do not see it listed anymore, it means it already entered the redemption period or was lost. Please contact us to verify the state if you are interested in recovering a specific domain name. The more time passes after expiration, the harder it is to retrieve a domain name. You should contact us as soon as possible.
If a domain is in the redemption period which can last a few days or even months depending on the extension and is not recovered, the registrar proceeds to delete the domain name. In some cases, the registrar may sell the domain to a third party. As opposed to what most people assume, you cannot register a domain name once it is deleted. For example, dot com domain names can remain in the deleted period for 30-50 days before it is finally released to the public. It means that from the expiration date if you count the grace period, the redemption period and the deletion period, a domain name will not be available for public registration for at least 90 or more days.
Netz0 and no company can recover a domain in the deletion phase. If you do not restore a domain name in the redemption period, there is nothing we can do to recover it for you. You must wait until the domain is available to the general public and try to register it as a new domain name.
WARNING ABOUT PUBLIC REGISTRATIONS
It is common for people to skip the redemption fee and try to get a domain back when its available to the general public. Please do not make this mistake.
Most users lose their domain forever and can never recover it. When a domain is public again, it means everyone in the world can register that domain name at any time. Millions of queries are done every minute on domain names and more in particular to domains that are going to be released to the public again. If your domain name had a website online, appears in Google, has links from other websites, the name is popular or just had traffic, in most cases your chances to register that domain again once its public is slim to none. Most registrars do not list the exact time a domain will be public again, and there are companies in the business of registering expired domains or the registrar could sell expired domains to third vendors which auction them to the highest bidder. These companies have multiple systems in several domain companies that monitor expired domains every single second, and once an expired domain is released to the public, they automatically register the domain in less than one second. Unless you hired some of those services, you would find the surprise that a company or individual already registered your domain name.
These companies are not involved with Netz0; they are in the business of selling expired domains back to previous owners that forgot to renew them or other interested parties (like your competition). They use automated systems to monitor expired domains and register them every second. In most cases, they will sell the domain back for a few hundred or even thousands of dollars. This is entirely legal because anyone can register public available domain names on the Internet.
So, if your domain is currently in the redemption period and we can still recover it, you should take that last chance to recover your domain name. If the domain name was not in use, or nobody has any interest, there are some rare cases where you can be lucky and register the domain back once its available to the public. However, in most cases, based on our experience from our users, they lose the domain name once it is made accessible to the general public.