Domain Expiration Policy

This policy is an extension to the general Galcomm Registration Agreement, and meant to detail and clarify essential issues.

When a domain is registered or renewed, it always has an expiration date associated with the domain name.  When a domain is close to its expiration time, it must be renewed, in order to prevent the domain holder from losing the rights on the domain, and keep the domain services active. If domain is not renewed on time, it may go through its expiration process according to the respective domain TLD policy and rules and eventually becomes available again to register by anyone.

Renewal notices:

When a domain is close to its expiration date Galcomm sends renewal notices, by email only, to the email of the account holder who manages the domain and/or to the registrant (domain holder) of the domain to alert of the coming expiration date.

Galcomm sends expiration notices 60 days prior to expiration date, 30 days, 5 days before expiration and 4 days after the expiration date, although Galcomm is obligated to send only two notices prior to the domain expiration date.

A domain holder, according to the registration agreement, must keep its email updated at all time. It is also important to ensure the renewal notices are being sent to the correct address.

Due to the large number of domains under management and according to its obligations under its accreditation agreement, Galcomm DO NOT use other means rather than sending notices by email.

Due to the nature of the Internet, and emails being blocked and not received by the email address holder, Galcomm cannot ensure the renewal notice to be received by the account or domain holder. Galcomm ensures only the renewal notices were sent, and keeps records of the time the notices have been sent and their content.

Auto Renewal :

Galcomm may provide an auto renewal service for your domain name. The auto renewal optional service is based first on the policy of the respective domain TLD registry, and on the ability of Galcomm to provide auto renewal service for that TLD.

Activation of Auto Renewal service is by registration to that service using Galcomm specific process, or by changing the user flag mode and/or the domain flag/mode to enable the auto renewal of a domain name. The activation process may change from time to time with technical modifications to Galcomm’s systems.

Galcomm will automatically renew domains that are previously set to auto renewal mode, about 14 days before their expiration date, and not before 14 days before expiration.

IMPORTANT:  A domain name will not be renewed if there is no credit balance sufficient for the domain renewal, or a registered  approved mean of payment, (a previously used credit card is not a registered mean of payment unless explicitly registered and approved for the auto renewal service).

So even if the domain is set to auto renewal mode, if there is not enough credit in your account, the domain will NOT be renewed.

Auto renewal by bundle/package –  If a domain is a part of a bundle, to be paid as part of the bundle (e.g a domain name purchased and bundled to be paid together as part of a hosting package in a single fee), then Galcomm will auto renew the domain name as long as the bundle is valid and paid.  If the bundle is terminated or split to exclude the domain, then the domain name must be renewed separately, and also be explicitly renewed for the remaining period from the bundle termination date to the expiration date of the domain to cover the period the domain is not included in the bundle.

Deactivation of auto renewal service –  stopping the auto renewal for a specific domain is available at any time using Galcomm’s website or through Galcomm support service.  Stopping auto renewal will deactivate the service from the day it received at Galcomm and will not be applicable for domain already renewed or auto renewed.

Reverse of an auto renewed domain –  If a domain is auto renewed by a mistake or you wish to reverse the last auto renewal and let the domain expire, it may be possible on a case by case, depending on the time passed from the auto renewal process, on the domain TLD, and the domain status. The reverse of an auto renewal is on the sole discretion of Galcomm.

After expiration:

When a domain expires, it passes through an expiration process, according to the respective TLD expiration policy dictated by ICANN or the respective TLD registry, and according to Galcomm policy for expired domains.

Disable/De-activate domain services –  After a domain has expired, and usually during the first 7 days after expiration, Galcomm may disable expired domains by either put the domain on a “Hold” status, or by changing the domain DNS names to other names, in order to disable the regular website and email service of the domain holder, even if the domain will point to other website/service.

In some TLDs, domain is being disabled after certain time directly by its registry, regardless any action by Galcomm.

Grace period –  Galcomm provide a specific grace period to allow domain holders to renew their domain names even after they have expired.  The purpose of the grace period is to provide solutions to cases where a domain holder forgot to renew the domain on time, renewal messages were not received by the domain holder for whatever reason etc.. It is not the intention of the grace period to allow domain holders to simply renew the domain names later than the expiration date.  The RRGP (Grace Period) is up to 15 days after expiration, depending on the policy of the respective registry, and may be extended to 30 days.

During the Grace Period a domain holder may still renew domain name, although there is an administrative fee involved to re-activate a domain when a domain is already disabled/de-activated.

After the end of the Grace Period, if the domain name is not renewed, the domain holder loses the rights on the domain name. The domain will be either deleted, or may be transferred to a third party, that will assume rights on the domain name and will renew it.

Restore of a deleted domain name – Where applicable by the respective domain registry and available to restore, a deleted domain name may be restored and de-activated. The restore process is made by Galcomm support service after a specific order by the domain holder and involves a certain “Restore Domain fee”.

Domain Renewal Pricing: