[TranquilMarmot]

I own a domain that I use as my primary email address, but it's a "premium" domain that costs quite a bit to lease every year. To me the main concern here is that my payment fails, I don't notice, the domain goes up for sale and somebody grabs it. Then they have access to everything.

So, I use my personal domain for all mail except anything that's "vital" like government websites, banking, paying rent, etc. for which I use my email provider's domain. And of course I'm registered with my domain registrar with a different email domain.

[AnonC]

If you can afford it, renew the domain for 10 years into the future (which means having it paid for till 2035, for example). Every year, renew the domain for one more year so that it’s always paid for 10 years into the future. If payment fails or you’re busy with something else, you’d still have several years of no worrying (some caveats and risks may still apply depending on the TLD and registrar).

[TranquilMarmot]

That's a good idea, I might see if I can do it. It was registered with Google Domains but got transferred over to Squarespace, idk if they offer long-term renewals.

[immibis]

I don't think long term renewals exist for premium domains.

You probably shouldn't use a premium domain unless you really need one. It's just a money grab by registrars and registries.

[TranquilMarmot]

Great point. I use the premium domain because it's fun, but it does feel like a money grab. I wonder if premium domains will ever become "un-premium".

[TranquilMarmot]

Also, just checked on Squarespace and I am able to add up to 9 more years of owning the premium domain at the moment. Squarespace seems like a stable enough company to trust for 9 years - but then I worry that I would become complacent, forget about it, and then let it lapse. 9 years is a LONG time!

[mxuribe]

Hi @TranquilMarmot, first off, i think the recommendation from @AnonC on their long term approach to registering a domain name is absolutely brilliant! Do that!

Another recommendation you should consider is to find a domain that ends in one of the common top-level domains - like .COM, .NET, or .ORG - because for using with *vital government services* you would not believe how many good natured civil servants (or for that manner even customer service folks in private/commercial companies too!) have no idea that email addresses can end in something other than .com, .net, or .org...and if you try to give them an address that, say, ends in like .FR, or .CC, or .ME, etc...They will try to place a ".com" at the end of it! My experience shows that folks in the U.S. know far less about other TLDs...and are more likely to commit this error, but folks outside of U.S. are perfectly cool with all manner of different TLS. I have had a somesurname.CC domain name as the mailbox for all my family members for more than a decade...and they are all trained to be LOUD and explicit when they communicate to government workers and customer service folks. So, i should have just gotten an easier TLD, but ah well. Live and learn! :-)

EDIT: Forgot to add that choossing the more common .COM, .NET, or .ORG TLDs for a domain name *tends* to be cheaper than many premium domains names. Each registrar wil of course vary, but mostly these tend to be reasonably priced.

[Telaneo]

> but folks outside of U.S. are perfectly cool with all manner of different TLS.

Users in other countries are very likely to be more familiar with both their own local domain, and have probably also experienced websites from neighbouring countries, while your average American has never even seen a website with a .us domain (never even seen it used myself), and are a lot less likely to have needed to go to a .ca or .mx website.

That said, I'd expect to get a similar reaction from people in other countries if you said your email was [e-mail], or whatever other funny top level domain.

[mxuribe]

> Users in other countries are very likely to be more familiar with both their own local domain, and have probably also experienced websites from neighbouring countries, while your average American has never even seen a website with a .us domain (never even seen it used myself), and are a lot less likely to have needed to go to a .ca or .mx website...

Yeah, agreed; that has been my experience as well. And in fact, i think that because folks outside U.S. are at least familiar with the TLDs of their neighboring countries, that fact at least helps them understand that there are more TLDs out there than simply their country's or only .com/.net/.org...its an awareness that they at least learn about...whereas folks in the U.s. might be - i don't know - maybe sheltered more in these things.

> ...That said, I'd expect to get a similar reaction from people in other countries if you said your email was [e-mail], or whatever other funny top level domain...

True, there are just so many TLDs - well, outside the country code TLDs - now that it is hard to know what is real/valid or not. :-)

[TranquilMarmot]

Yes, I have definitely run into gov't agencies not accepting non-traditional TLDs before. I still have a .com domain that I use for those vital services.

[bsoles]

That hasn't been my experience in US. Login.gov, Social Security, Global Entry, etc. all work perfectly fine with Proton (@pm.me) domains. At least, so far.

[mxuribe]

To clarify my point, i mean that over the years, as i have engaged with *human beings* in situations that involve in real life/physical interaction (like standing in line at motrovehilces, getting passport photos at county clerk office, etc., it had been an interesting thing having to briefly explain to folks that .com, .net, and .org are not the only valid TLDs for email addresses....and where i most encountered that is gov. services as well as customer service reps.

To your point, agreed that *logins* for web site/apps and mobile apps are usually not an issue for my non- .com/.net/.org email addresses. In fact, for logins, gov services tend to be quite accomoddating and i don't ever think i had any issues there, and usually not a problem...But, years ago i *DID* encounter a couple of commercial/business/non-gov websites where they only expected .com/.net/.org email address...so it was a problem there on the non-gov website side of things...but even then, it thankfully was not very often, and nowadays its nearly a non-issue.

Again, my recommendation was just saying that for real, human interactions, if its possible, pick a common enough TLD to make life easier. ;-)