Website charge - should I pay?

biasco30_2

Hi everyone, sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place, wasn't sure where to post. Basically I built my own website on a free site about 2yrs ago. To make the website go live online I had to buy a 'domain name'. I paid about £12 for the year. After a few months I stopped using the website and forgot all about it. I have now received a letter stating that I owe £47 for unpaid fees for the domain name. I thought when I initially paid that I was just paying for a year. It now looks as if it automatically renews each year. As I changed my bank account the details that they had stored for payment had changed so they could not take a payment. So they have had no payment for the last year but are trying to get me to pay for the next years payment and some admin/cancellation charge for not cancelling. I received a couple of emails from the company over the past year but to be honest I didn't read them as I thought that it was just trying to get me to sign up again, so I just deleted them.
Should I pay this charge? If it was an automatic renewal but no payment was made then did I even receive the 'product' as they probably just cancelled the domain name. If I don't pay will it come up on my credit history? I'm going to be applying for a mortgage later this year and don't want anything to affect this. TIA.

National_Debtline

Hi biasco and welcome to the forum.


Unless the agreement you signed (whether physically or - more likely in this case - electronically) specifically stipulates that they can/will report information to the credit agencies, it should not be having any bearing on your credit report at the moment. If they were to sue you for the "debt", however, it would very much affect it if you did not settle the balance promptly.


I am assuming that clearing the outstanding balance isn't the issue here, so it comes down to how far you wish to go with any dispute. If you challenge them over the legitimacy of whatever costs have been added (perhaps making a Subject Access Request for a breakdown of the balance - https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/sole-letters/Pages/Personal-information-under-the-Data-Protection-Act-(sole-name)-.aspx) they may offer you a discounted settlement figure in order to draw a line under the matter - it would then be for you to decide whether you take them up on it and put this to bed.


Best wishes


Dennis
@natdebtline

nidO

To be clear on the process here, are you sure that they're stating you owe them money for the domain regardless, or are they telling you that the inflated fee is due *if you wish to renew the domain*?

Only the most dodgy unscrupulous of registration providers will attempt to charge any sort of administration / cancellation fee for domain registrations - In the vast, vast majority of cases, when you receive an invoice for a domain it's an invitation to renew it, and if you choose not to, it'll simply expire.
In the case of the fee being inflated, this is normal if you want to renew the domain but don't do so in a certain timeframe with certain domains (.com/net/org/biz as examples) - In these cases, typically if you don't renew the domain within a month of it expiring, the cost to renew it increases dramatically, but obviously this fee is still only payable if you actually wish to renew the domain.

Specifying your domain (and the company invoicing you) would probably help clarify.

Also. Are you absolutely positive the charge you've received is from the company through which you registered the domain - There have been a number of scams circulating for many years where various companies will just harvest published contact details for domains and send speculative invoices to the domain owners under the guise of a renewal notice (but are actually vastly inflated registration transfers).

biasco30_2

Hi, thanks for the replies. The invoice is definitely not for future renewal but for past renewal. I thought I was just paying for one year but this invoice is stating that it renewed it again the next year, although I didn't want it to (although admittedly I did not cancel, as I didn't realise I needed to, thought it would just expire). They had my bank details, so tried to renew after the first year, without my consent. I had changed my bank details though, so they tried to take the next years payment, without success and are now chasing me for the payment, although I did not want to renew again. I find it strange as they are basically saying that after the first year (which I paid for) they tried to take the next years payment but could not as my bank details had changed. I would have thought that if they were a legit company then after the first year, if I did nothing to renew, then the domain name would just expire. Maybe leading to a few emails regarding renewal offers. I hope that all makes sense? I think that I need to look into this further, as I am now not sure that it is a legit invoice from the original domain name company. I need to dig the paperwork out as I can't remember the exact wording but it was along the lines of them renewing the domain last year but me not paying, so now they want me to pay for the renewal and an admin/charge or it will be passed on to a debt collection agency!

System

I would be surprised if domain renewal was NOT auto renew TBH.

I know that with 123 you have to explicitly set it to not renew and expect other domain registrars to be similar

ETA some examples from other domain registration sites

1&1

Duration and Renewal of Services

Unless otherwise specified, Services are provided for a minimum contract term of 12 months and unless cancelled in accordance with Clause 4 below will automatically be renewed for the billing period You chose on sign up.

Godaddy

(b) domain name renewal terms

When you register a domain name, you will have three renewal options: (i) "Automatic Renewal", (ii) "Extended Automatic Renewal", and (iii) "Manual Renewal":

Automatic Renewal. Automatic Renewal is the default setting. Therefore, unless you select either Extended Automatic Renewal or Manual Renewal, GoDaddy will enroll you in the Automatic Renewal plan. If you enroll in the Automatic Renewal plan, GoDaddy will automatically renew, for a period equivalent to the length of your original domain name registration, any domain name that is up for renewal and will take payment from the Payment Method you have on file with GoDaddy, at GoDaddy's then current rates. Thus, if you have chosen to register your domain name for one (1) year, GoDaddy will automatically renew it for one (1) year. If you have chosen to register your domain name for two (2) years, GoDaddy will automatically renew it for two (2) years, and so on.