Find each domain's expiry date today. For any falling in January, confirm the card on file is valid past December, the warnings go to an address someone reads this week, and auto-renew is on.

A renewal in the first week

A lot of business domains were registered in a January.

The start of a year is when many businesses open, change their name or commission a first website, and a domain falls due on the same date every year after.

When that date falls early in the month, the renewal lands in close to the worst week of the year for anything to go wrong.

The office is closed or half-staffed, whoever handles the accounts is away, and the card on file may have expired at midnight on December 31.

Why January renewals fail

The first catches people because the card still works today. Its expiry month runs to the end of December, so a renewal charged on January 3 is declined, though the card worked all month.

Find the dates

Start with a list of every domain the business owns, not only the one on the website.

Most businesses own more than they remember: the .ca and the .com, an old business name, a misspelling bought to protect the main one.

Your registrar account shows each expiry date. A public WHOIS lookup still shows the date and the registrar, though most records stopped showing owners' details in May, which helps with any domain whose account nobody can find.

Anything expiring in January or February goes on today's list. The rest can wait for an ordinary week.

The card on file

Look at the card actually attached to each renewal, not the one you assume is there. Registrar accounts keep whatever card was entered years ago, and some hold a separate card for each service.

If its expiry date is 12/18 or earlier, replace it today. If the card was reissued this year after being lost or compromised, the old number may still be on file whatever the date.

Where you can, put every renewal on one business card and note them all in one place, so the next card change happens in a single sitting.

Who will see the warnings

If a renewal fails, the registrar emails the contact address on the account, usually more than once. Whether that helps depends on somebody reading that address between now and the second week of January.

Check which address it is. If it is one person's inbox and that person is away until the 7th, change the contact to a shared address, or ask somebody to watch it.

Ask the same about your web company, if renewals go through them: who is reading their billing inbox over the holidays.

What renews alongside

A domain registered in January often came with other things bought the same day: hosting, email accounts, a security certificate.

These renew together, often on the same card, and fail together. A declined charge on a bundle can take down the website and the email in the same week, not just the address.

A paid certificate bought for two years in January 2017 runs out in January 2019 as well. If yours is not one that renews itself automatically, check its date in the same sitting.

A worked example

A snowshoe and cross-country ski centre in the hills above a small town opened in a January eleven years ago, and registered its domain the same week.

Its website matters most in exactly the weeks the domain renews. Trail conditions, grooming reports and day-pass prices go up every morning, and skiers check them before deciding to drive up.

The domain, the hosting and the email all renewed on January 6, on the owner's personal card. That card had been replaced after a fraud alert, and last January the renewal failed.

The warnings went to the owner's address at the same domain. The site and the email went down on a Saturday morning with fresh snow, and stayed down until Monday.

This month, the domain was renewed by hand for five years, onto a business card with years left to run, with warnings going to a shared office address and a backup on a different domain.

The hosting and email renewals moved onto the same card, and all three dates went into the office calendar a month ahead.

Which domains to keep

The list will probably include domains nobody has thought about in years: a product that never launched, a second business that closed, a misspelling.

Some are worth keeping for reasons that are not obvious. An old business name still painted on vans or listed in directories, or one that still receives email, should keep renewing and forwarding.

Others can go, but decide that on purpose, with whoever maintains the site, rather than letting a declined card decide it.

Renew now rather than wait

For a domain expiring in the first half of January, renewing it by hand today costs nothing extra: the new year is added to the existing expiry date, not counted from today.

That moves the risky moment off the holiday week entirely, and leaves you with a receipt, which is better evidence than an auto-renew setting you hope is on.

While you are there, give the domain the business depends on a few more years.

The counter-case

Some businesses can relax. If your web company manages your domains, in your name, and renews them as part of looking after the site, ask it to confirm the January dates and leave it there.

A domain renewed for several years last time, on a card that runs well past next year, is not at risk this January.

But anything renewing in the first two weeks of January, on a card nobody has looked at, deserves ten minutes today.

Today

  1. List every domain the business owns.
  2. Note each expiry date in January or February.
  3. Check each card's expiry is past December.
  4. Replace any card marked 12/18 or earlier.
  5. Point warnings to a shared address someone reads now.
  6. Renew January domains by hand today.
  7. Put next year's dates in the calendar.

Step six takes the first week of January out of the picture. A renewal done by hand today cannot fail on a holiday morning, whatever the card or the inbox does next week.

Deciding which spellings of a name are worth protecting is covered in domain names with hyphens.

Frequently asked questions

Why do so many domains renew in January?

Because the start of a year is when many businesses open, rename themselves or commission a first website, and a domain falls due on the same date each year.

Will a card marked 12/18 work in January?

No. A card works until the last day of its expiry month, so a renewal charged in the first week of January is declined, however well the card worked in December.

How do I check the renewal dates?

In each registrar account, or with a public WHOIS lookup, which still shows the expiry date and registrar even though most records stopped showing owners' details in May.

Does renewing early waste the remaining time?

No. The new year is added to the existing expiry date, so renewing a January domain today costs the same and takes the holiday week out of the risk.

What else renews with the domain?

Often the hosting, the email accounts and a paid security certificate bought the same day. They tend to renew together on one card, and fail together.

Should we keep every old domain?

Keep any still printed on vans, listed in directories or receiving email. Others can go, but decide on purpose with whoever maintains the site, not by a declined card.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Domain renewing in the first week of January?

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