[nitinag]

Registrar here (Misk.com). Wanted to share some information on the restore fees discussion. Yes, registries charge hefty restore fees. Using .com as an example (since it can be different for each extension), there is a renewal grace period that can last up to 45 days (we delete at 40 days). Once the name is deleted, the name goes into redemption for 30 days after that. This is where the high fees are hit due to the registry. The thing to note is that some registrars no longer delete names after the renewal grace period ends and pass the name into an auction system. Hence the name never goes into the real redemption period. In those cases the name is still in the renewal grace period and charging higher redemption fees is a business decision by that company. You can tell if this is the case if after a registrar's redemption period, anything happens to the name except becoming available to register by the public (after a 5 day pending delete at the registry). The real redemption period is 30 days and is reflected in the whois record. Domains should still be renewed before expiration since things could change at any level and there is no reason to risk it.

Here are the expiration policies I could find for GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Misk.com (us):

http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/608/what-is-your-pro...

http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...

https://www.misk.com/kb/domain-expiration-policy