Not all special prices are what they seem - beware of 'Domain Name Expiration Notices'

Got back tonight from my seeing my Dad over the weekeend (as it was the first aniversary of my mum's death in 2005). Actually the weekend wasn't too bad, although going to the graveyard was a bit emotional for us all. One of my regrets now is that my Mum never got to see our Brittany holiday home - taking them over there was one of those things we never quite got around to. Nothing we can do to change the past but still a missed opportunity nevertheless.

In the post that arrived on the weekend was a letter from the 'Domain Registry of America' entitled Domain Name Expiration Notice, telling me that my domain giteinbrittany.com was due to expire on 18th November 2006 and I needed to reply to them by 23rd June.
It then went on to tell me that "failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in the loss of your online identity" and that "Domain holders are not obligated to renew their domain name with their current registrar" but could instead transfer the registration to Domain Registry of America.

In fairness to DROA their letter did point that I wasn't obligated to renew with them either, that I was under no obligation to pay the amounts stated, and that the letter wasn't a bill. So at least they did try to make sure that their letter didn't look like some of the 'renew your domain with us' scam's that you hear about.

So just to see what a bargain I was getting, I compared their domain service prices to my current domain provider and hosting company, 123-reg.co.uk, who I have been pretty happy with both in terms of prices, website speed and customer service:

Registrar	1 Year service	2 Years service	5 Years service
droa.com	£18	£30	£55
123-reg.co.uk	£10.56	£21.12	£52.80

(all prices include VAT)

DROA suggest in their letter that I "review our prices and decide for yourself" - I have done, and sorry DROA, I'm staying put with 123-reg.co.uk !