When a renewal charge fails, the domain is not lost. It stays registered until its expiry date, and there are several weeks of runway.
What happens automatically
- You get an email the moment a charge fails, with the reason the card gave.
- We retry as expiry approaches: around 21, 14, 7 and 2 days out. Each failed attempt emails you again.
- The domain's page shows a Renewal payment failed notice for the whole time a renewal is outstanding.
- If the final attempt fails, we send a final notice and the domain expires at the registry on its expiry date.
Fixing it
Save a new card. Go to Billing and add or replace the payment method. The renewal retries automatically within a minute of the new card being saved. You do not need to click anything on the domain.
Or click Renew now. On the domain's page, Renew now charges the card on file immediately and shows you the result. Use it once the card is updated if you would rather not wait, or if the failure was temporary.
Why the card was declined
The email includes the decline reason. Expired cards and cards that have been replaced by the bank are the common ones. "Insufficient funds" and "do not honour" come from the card issuer and are worth a call to them.
After expiry
Contact us straight away. Many extensions allow recovery for a short period after expiry, sometimes with a registry fee. See When a domain expires.