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About Hetzner's Domain Trap!
I transferred a domain to Hetzner and paid for one year - that part was correct. But here's the problem: They completely ignore the domain's original expiration date and instead use the transfer date as the new starting point. Now they want to charge me again after just one year, even though my domain hasn't expired yet! That's not right - I haven't used any additional paid domain services after transferring.
Let me give an example:
Back in 2022, I registered a domain with another provider for 5 years. After payment, its expiration was March 2027.
When I transferred it to Namesilo and paid for one year in 2023, the expiration correctly became March 2028. Everything worked perfectly - Namesilo didn't bill me early.
But when I transferred to Hetzner in April 2024, they suddenly sent a renewal bill in May 2025! This makes no sense. It means I have to renew EVERY YEAR regardless of actual expiration date!
Comments
When you transfer to another registrar, it's standard to see a renewal fee. @Hetzner_OL?
When you transfer a domain to a new registrar the contract with your old registrar, incl. the prepaid term, is terminated and a new contract starts. You have the same behavior at netcup or any other registrar.
what domain type?
Some ccTLDs have their own rules and don't get added for a year with Transfer.
Wait what? Are you saying registrars don't pass on multi-year registrations to the registry?
If it was any other domain extension I would understand. But it is .com
I never had domains with hetzner or netcup, but everywhere else this is just not the case.
If I have a domain that expires 2028, I transfer it to a different provider, this transfer includes a 1-year renewal which means the next renewal date is 2029.
Varies sightly with different TLDs
Really? I've never encountered anything like this.
@QuenFea
Considered transferring the domain again to a different provider to get the remaining time back?
When a domain name is transferred to another registrar, a year is automatically added. This is not Hetzner's fault.
That said, billing oversight is definitely their fault. Renewal should be near expiration date, not when the domain was transferred to them.
@Hetzner_OL
Of course, this whole experience has been absolutely terrible!
And here's the kicker – I paid their generated invoice about an hour ago, but the WHOIS expiration date STILL HASN'T UPDATED! Hetzner only shows the new expiration in their control panel. Their support actually admitted the info doesn't sync to the registry OR update WHOIS – it all depends entirely on their robot billing system!
So if you have domains with years left on their expiration, seriously – at least avoid transferring them to Hetzner!
is that really the case? i think i once moved a domain from loopia.se to inleed.se. the domain was paid for at loopia until x. inleed.se accepted this and then only charged again from x onwards.
@emgh correct?
Sorry, I didn't explain it clearly.
The domain was transferred to Hetzer in 2024, and the bill was paid at the time of transfer. At this time, the validity period of the domain should be 2029 or 2030. The whole process was transferred many times. I don't remember the details, but it was at least 2029. However, just one year later, Robot generated a new bill. This is incorrect!
In fact, no matter where you transfer to, you need to pay a year's fee, and as long as the domain name is less than 10 years, one year will be added. On most domain name service providers, because we have paid the fee.
What TLD?
Each TLD is different, but for .SE and .NU, a transfer does not mean a renewal. Hence, they’re almost always (at least) free.
With the big gTLD’s, they renew on transfer, so you’re biller for a year when transfering as you get one extra year of use.
https://inleed.se/domannamn Here you can see transfer prices for different TLD’s, as you can see, .SE and .NU are free.
You seem to have explained this nicely here, did you explain this the same way to Hetzner? Did you pull the WHOIS record showing the due date of your domain ("Expires At: ...."), explain that Robot simply billed in error and said bill needs to be adjusted appropriately to the next due date?
Automated systems suck on a good day. I'm betting Hetzner's transfer-in system doesn't actually look at the expiration date but makes an assumption it's 1 year. It's probably just a simple oversight, as the process of transfers does supply the information it just needs to be pulled, if it doesn't for that TLD it can be as easy as a whois call to get it.
It's a .com domain
So, no fancy custom ccTLD rules.
lol apparently their support does not know how domain names work.
Then, if this is correct, I’ve never seen any company doing it this way.
@Hetzner_OL confirm?
it was .nu
No, not for the majority of domain names, only where registrar forces them. What sometimes happens is that domain registrars book the expiration date in their billing system and update whois but renew at registry year by year and not all at once. In the end you have a contract with the registrar and not the registry.
I don’t think this is correct, I KNOW some do it like this, but not sure it’s the majority.
@QuenFea when does it expire according to WHOIS?
Sounds like a misunderstanding then, .NU does not renew on transfer and there’s generally no transfer fees.
I've genuinely never run into this and I've been "buying" domains since you emailed Internic and they snailmail billed you in 30 days. If anyone has a list of tlds that do this I'd be super interested (so I can avoid them).
then it was .se
Same goes
Also he says ”domain registrars book the expiration date in their billing system and update whois but renew at registry year by year and not all at once”, update whois meaning what?
No way expiry in WHOIS is updated but actual expiry isn’t.
If indeed it's the case, this is definitely mind-blowing. I've transferred at least ~50 domains over the past ten years including probably ten from @DP, and not a single time the expiration date from the former registrar was not honored.
Maybe do a test transfer to hetzner, netcup or similar registrars who don't honor this. As I said, contract is with registrar not registry.
2029.
I'm starting to think when I transferred to Hetzner back in 2024 and paid them, they didn't actually add that extra year to the WHOIS expiration date at all. And get this – even after paying this new bill hours ago, it STILL shows the same 2029 expiration! I've checked multiple WHOIS lookup tools and they all agree – absolutely no change from before payment. This is ridiculous!
Their latest response basically confirms it: Their system doesn't talk to WHOIS at all. The whole thing just runs on their internal robot billing system.
That's because they usually pay the registrar directly for the transfer, which in turn slaps on an extra year for most TLDs. Some don’t renew on transfer - like @emgh mentioned - but it seems most do. Pretty damn sure OVH just doesn’t give a crap and ignores your expiry date. They just send out a bill every yeay.