There are several steps after your domain expires to safeguard you from losing any domains you want to keep.

1. Approximately 30 days prior to the domain expiration date, we begin sending reminders to you by email to the email address you listed with us. You will receive at least two reminders prior to the expiration date and one reminder within five days after expiration.
2. If we are unable to secure payment on or before the domain renewal date, your domain name will expire.
3. As early as one day after expiration, your domain name will be deactivated and replaced with a parking page indicating the domain name has expired, and other services you have associated with the domain name may no longer function.
4. As early as 30 day after expiration, your domain name may be purchased by a third party. If a third party purchases the domain name during this time, the domain name will not be available for you to renew.
5. If the domain name has not been renewed by you or purchased by a third party, an expired domain name enters the registry redemption period (as defined by each registry) approximately 45 days following expiration. If a third party purchases the domain name prior to the registry redemption period, the domain name will not enter redemption and will not be available for you to renew. We reserve the right to charge you a redemption fee of $99.95 (in additional to the renewal fee) in the event you are able to renew your domain name during this period.
6. If the domain name completes the registry redemption period, the registry may hold the domain name for a period of five days before releasing it again for general registration.

Yes. You can register domain names before you find a hosting provider, and, in fact, you are not required to host a domain name. When you register a domain name with us, we automatically park it. A temporary, parked page displays when visitors type the domain name into their browser's address bar. The parked page indicates you are reserving the site.

A country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) is a second-level domain. It is specifically reserved for use by individuals, organisations or companies registered and/or residing in a particular country, sovereign state or dependent territory.

ccTLDs

Each country around has its own country code. In the United Kingdom the country code is .uk, while the New Zealand code is .nz. The ccTLD for Australia is .au and makes up the .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .asn.au and id.au domain names.

These ccTLDs allow simple identification of the domain name registry in a particular region. For example, an email or webpage request for an Australian domain is sent to the Australian registry (AusRegistry) database. This contains the DNS server records of the web hosting company, and will then forward the request there. The request is then resolved by the DNS servers, which then directs traffic to the correct hosting server location.

gTLDs

During the early life of the Internet, a generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) was enough to differentiate domains according to the type of business or organisation. But once the Internet exploded beyond its fledgling roots in just one country, these domain names — with extensions such as .com, .org, .edu, or .gov — were not able to define country of origin. As the Internet spread, so it became necessary to identify the region in which a domain resides.

Domain registration and renewal pricing may also differ depending on the country or the TLD type.