If you own a .com, you will eventually get a letter or email that looks urgent, telling you to renew it or lose it. Most of these are not from your actual registrar.
How to tell if it's real
- Check who sent it. Your registrar is whoever you bought the domain from — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains (now Squarespace), or similar. If the notice is from a different company, it is not your renewal.
- Check the price. A normal .com renewal is roughly $10–$20 per year. If the notice says $30, $40, or more, that's a markup from a company trying to get you to transfer.
- Check the format. Real renewal notices come by email from the company you bought the domain from. Paper letters about domain renewals are almost always from a third party.
- Log in to your registrar directly. Do not click a link in the notice. Go to your registrar's website yourself, log in, and check your domain's expiration date there.
What these notices actually are
They are offers to transfer your domain to a different registrar, usually at a higher price. They are designed to look like a bill. They are not illegal, but they are misleading.
What to do
- If it's from your actual registrar: check the date and renew if needed.
- If it's from anyone else: ignore it. Throw it away.
- Turn on auto-renew at your registrar so you don't have to think about it.
If you're not sure who your registrar is
Search "ICANN WHOIS lookup," type in your domain, and look for the "Registrar" field. That is the company that actually controls your domain.