We offer an ID Protection service for domains registered through us. This is a very useful service that hides the contact information in the domain WHOIS, thereby protecting one from domain-related spam and scams. We have been availing this service to our clients for free until now, but this is unfortunately changing…
New, stricter rules by ICANN to enforce better control and accountability are complicated things a lot for domain registrars. As a result our upstream registration provider, Public Domain Registry, now finds it necessary to charge a fee for the ID Protection service. Starting 1 August, an additional annual fee equivalent to US$3.50 will now be applicable all domain registrations that use ID Protection. The fee is payable on renewal of the domain.
While we would prefer not dealing with extra fees like this, the situation is unavoidable. If it’s of any consolation, the going rate for the ID Protection service is $6.00 per year and higher. For example, GoDaddy (the largest registrar in the world) charges $9.99 per year, which shows that $3.50 is very reasonable.
How does this affect you?
- If you are not using the ID Protection service, then nothing changes.
- For any domains that do use the ID Protection service, an additional fee will appear on its next renewal invoice. No additional fees will be charged until then.
- If you do not want to pay the additional fee, then please disabled the ID Protection service for the affected domains before their next renewal invoice. You can do this in our Client Portal.
It may be tempting to disable the ID Protection service and use fake contact information for your domains. Please be aware that the ICANN registration agreement requires domain contact information to be valid; your domain registration will be disabled if this is not the case.
Just proof again that nothing no man-made thing in life is free. But while ID Protection now comes at a price, we feel it is worth every cent!