I was wondering what happens if you miss your renewal date for a domain or hosting for a few days? Is there a period your host is willing to wait (which you can use to pay your dues) before deleting your account/domain?

This depends entirely on the host. I've read of plenty of horror stories, so it's best to talk to your host before this ever becomes an issue.

As Steve said, this is depending on the various registrars. Many give a 30 day grace period, then some even give an extended grace period with penalty fees - but essentially once you miss your date (even by 1 hour), you forfeit your domain and the registrar can do anything they want, even hold it for $1000 ransom if they feel like it.

Contact your host/registrar and alert them so you can work together to get the issue resolved. It's common courtesy to notify someone if you're going to be late on a payment anyway.

Depends, most Domain providers give 30 days were it is available to renew but not yours.

I myself with products allow 3 days until suspending, then I send out an email, then if it comes to 10-20 days and no one asks for a little extra time, I send the termination email.

However, they can buy a copy of backups.

As others have already stated, this will depend on the host's policies.

We've had clients let their domain name expire for more than 30 days and come back wondering what happened to it.. Luckly, we were able to recover them with no problems after payment was made.

We also give a 10 day grace period AFTER the due date on any hosting plan, and also send out multiple invoice reminders before the actual due date is reached. Once the 10 day grace period is over, the account is suspended and a penalty/re-activation fee is applied. If another 30 days pass after all of this, then the account is removed from the server completely.

Surprisingly enough, we've also had clients not check their emails or hosting account for months at a time, and then come back to a suspended or terminated website and panic..

Had a customer terminated for 9 months asking where their site was It certainly takes all sorts.

Every host is different. I know some that will renew domain names in the hopes the customer renews but USUALLY these are smaller hosts that don't end up with a huge expense of failed renewals.

If you're late on a domain renewal ...
at best it'll be fine
usually it'll just not work for a few days
at worst you've lost it or held for recovery fees
- rules vary depending on registrar and the tld

If you're late on a hosting service ...
at best it'll be fine
usually it'll get suspended pending later termination if not paid
at worst you're looking at late payment fees or losing all the site/data you had


General Rule ... pay your bills ontime or even early

And yet, it seems like some clients never pay their bills on time, but stay on for years.

"I'm sorry, your subscription seems to have lapsed, would you care to renew it?"

That line has saved me countless headaches and hurt feelings. If the bill wasn't paid, they know it, but don't want to hear it, but wording it just a little different places blame on nobody.

You should have information from your hosting service on their policies for late payment but I agree you should notify them if you know you'll be late.

I think I've seen you talking about downtime and wanting to quit a host, not paying and doing a chargeback. Looking to get backed up first?

It really depends on the host. I don't know if you moved away from Semoweb on your other thread. Been some time you made an answer there.

It's always dependent on host provider, so check it out with support. But usually, this should be in the Terms of Service.

If the company eventually suspend/delete the client's content, it better be in the ToS and accepted by client first that the host is not liable for the loss of data at that point. Else the client may come requesting damages and liabilities for deleted files and other content.

Best bet would always be the ToS you agreed on.

I would check the Terms-Of-Service.

As handsonhosting stated, if you have a domain renewal, then you seriously need to notify your host, as a lost domain can be very expensive to rectify.

Usually hosts have a grace period, this is not "free time" as this time will be taken into account when/if you do finally pay.

Beware however that hosts will charge a late fee payment if you go too far into the grace period.

It looks like your ready to cut and run, so the late fees are probably not a worry, but the suspension period probably is.

It's unclear from your post whether you are an end user or reseller, is the risk of your sites being lost worth the risk of not paying on time? (or for another month if you are cutting and running)

We give 6 days after the payment is due.

We give our clients a 10 day grace period past the date due and also send multiple notices prior to the date due.

On occasion, we work with clients to arrange new payment dates, payment extensions, etc., because "life" happens.