Cancel auto renewal of domain with 1and1 ( 1&1 )
Important : This information about cancelling the auto renewal of a domain with 1and1 is for .co.uk domains or rather domains with 1and1.co.uk – Cancelling from 1and1.com is a different story, different website.
1) Login to https://contract.oneandone.co.uk/ and use the same customer number* and password that you do when logging into the normal 1and1 control panel.
* If you don’t have your customer number handy, 1&1 lets you use a URL of one of your domains instead
2) Click on “change contract” in the top left corner. You will be brought to a page where all your domains / accounts are listed.
3) Click on the domain name you want to stop the auto renewal on.
4) Click on cancel entire contract. You will be taken to a screen where you can choose which date you want the auto renewal of the domain name to stop and to confirm you want to return it to NIC (i.e so the domain is “free” again and anyone can re-register it). I have opted for cancel at end of contract since there is no refund for unused time and I might as well see if I can get revenue from the parked domain scheme at Sedo. Click OK.
5) Penultimate step . . . Here you confirm you want to go ahead. You also get to see the domain you want to give back to cyberspace. Happy ? Click finish. You will see a confirmation screen saying
“You will shortly receive an e-mail containing a specific website link.”
“….. you must follow the link e-mailed to you. “
” Please note: Your cancellation will not be completed until you have activated your request by accessing this website link and confirming the cancellation request.”
In my experience the email took just a couple of minutes to turn up. I got 2 emails, one said I would get an email and I must click the link to complete the process blah blah… the other actually contained the link.
6) Final step . . Click on the link in your email. You should see this message in the browser
“Thank you.
Your cancellation request has now been activated and the cancellation of your package, or the component within your package, is now complete.”
Review of 1and1.co.uk domain auto-renewal process
I had read some forum posts that said the process was awful, you had to sign and fax a form to them and some “horror stories” where people still got charged. Because of this I was pleasantly surprised when the process was fairly straightforward and simple. I am happy that they have cancellations on a seperate url as this removes the risk of accidentaly deleting a domain you actually want and that could cost a whole lot more!
There was also criticism that the auto renewal system is profiteering, actually I would rather have the auto-renewal as it’s one less thing to have to worry about. If you have more than a few domains I suggest that every so often you review them and cancel the ones you don’t need anymore or try and sell them e.g. at sedo.
Last tip : use Google calendar to setup an email alert when domains are due for renewal.
Possibly Related posts ? :
This is actually ridiculous. For anyone who has a few brain cells, they should make it simple to see from one place when the domains expire and to cancel with 2 clicks. ! and 1 suck big time and I am going to transfer all my domain names away from them. I have never seen such a complicated administrative system. Instead of listing all domains together, you have these separate stupid packages that you have to enter each one individually. I would never recommend 1and1.co.uk.