Why does it look as if my domain has been renewed when it hasn't?

[Head Boy]

If you look at the registration details for your domain after it has expired, you may see that the first expiry date has been extended for a year. This often confuses webmasters, so I thought I'd explain why it happens. This is for .com/.net domains btw.

When a domain name expires it is auto-renewed by the registry, and the registry will expect the registrar to pay for it's renewal in 30+days time. The registry expiry date is updated accordingly, but the registrar's entries aren't of course. If you renew the domain, then the registrar entries are updated, and the registrar pays the bill when he gets his account from the registry. Obviously the registrar doesn't want to pay for the domain if you aren't going to renew it, but if you are renewing, then he wants to keep the business. He'll let the name run until just before his cutoff time, and if you haven't paid, then he'll delete the name. At this point the name goes into redemption, and the registrar gets a credit for the renewal fee. You have to pay $80-$250 to recover the name during the redemption grace period. This is a manual process involving the cancellation of the deletion at the registry, and you should avoid getting to this stage.

[DirtyJumbo]

HB, will be sending you a PM, Yahoo Domains charged me again yesterday to renew a domain that I transferred to you, I dunno WTF is going on..

[Head Boy]

I wonder if they lose out on currency conversions if they charge me and I do a chargeback.

[DirtyJumbo]

Dunno HB, I've sent them several emails without reply, will shoot you a PM in the morning