I forgot to renew my subscription

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  mrsmcconaughey · Member · May 4, 2013 at 11:55 pm

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  Hi

  I forgot to renew my subscription at the end of March. It would have been $26. I will now have to pay $80 on top of that, so $106. What I want to know is what happens if I don’t renew. Does the blog just lapse, or do I get pursued for money?

  I did not check, as I thought it would auto renew, and I have not had time to update the blog till now.

  mrsmcconaughey.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  ljkjklqljkhwhljkfqjhklfqjlkqjlh · Member · May 4, 2013 at 11:58 pm

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  In this case, the domain will lapse if you don’t renew it. You will not be penalized. If you don’t renew, the domain name will go into a holding period of about 80 days, then either be released or put up for auction.

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  thistimethisspace · Member · May 5, 2013 at 12:04 am

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  Please be clear on the fact that if you allow a domain to expire you no longer own it. After a brief grace period the Registar owns it and can do whatever they wish with it. That includes charging a redemption fee to get it back. Note: WordPress.com is not the Registar and does not set that fee.

  If you do not pay the redemption fee the blog remains exactly where it is and every domain URL is broken and will not redirect to your content in the blog when it reverts to the .wordpress.com URLs. Any visitor who clicks the domain URLs in search engine results or anywhere on the internet will get a 404 (page not found).

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  thistimethisspace · Member · May 5, 2013 at 12:07 am

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  Note that any authority and page rank the blog earned under the domain URLs is forever gone. Allow the blog to revert to .wordpress.com URLs and your blog starts over again from zero. See here for more clarity > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2012/01/30/omg-my-domain-name-expired/

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  mrsmcconaughey · Member · May 5, 2013 at 12:14 am

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  so basically if I want it back I have to pay? If I’m not that bothered, it can just stay as it is now? Am I right? Thanks for your help.

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  mrsmcconaughey · Member · May 5, 2013 at 12:17 am

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  Also, what happens to the content? There is not much on there, but it would be cool to keep it. Can I just delete it ?

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  thistimethisspace · Member · May 5, 2013 at 12:26 am

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  If you want it back you either pay the redemption fee or you wait for 80 days and if a domain name squatter does no grab it up then you can purchase it again. Note there’s a whole industry built around snapping up expired domain names, squatting on them and charging HUGE fees to purchase it from the squatter.

  Also, what happens to the content? There is not much on there, but it would be cool to keep it. Can I just delete it ?

  The content remains at the .wordpress.com sub-domain. You don’t need to delete it unless you wish to. If you don’t have a lot of content you can quickly remove your contents by deleting them in bulk.
  bulk delete images & media http://en.support.wordpress.com/media/deleting-files/#bulk-deletion
  bulk delete posts > http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/edit-posts-screen/#bulk-edit
  bulk delete pages > http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/edit-pages-screen/#bulk-edit
  Here’s how to permanently delete Trash >
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/trash/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/trash/#deleting-permanently

  IMPORTANT NOTE: Deleting blog content does not remove it from the SERPs (search engine page results). Google and Bing only clear their caches of deleted indexed content that produces a 404 (page not found) every 3 – 6 months.

  To start again you can use the step by step tutorial Staff have linked to on the bottom of your Admin page at http://learn.wordpress.com