[windiewasher]

melbourne it
i have just been sent a email saying my domain address needs renewing soon for my website!
 Thought perhaps £10 to £20
Click on it $180 us dollars for 2 years!
Has to be a joke surely?

[p1w1]

I have had letters for the same thing think they just try. It on

[Paul Coleman]

melbourne it
i have just been sent a email saying my domain address needs renewing soon for my website!
 Thought perhaps £10 to £20
Click on it $180 us dollars for 2 years!
Has to be a joke surely?

Domain name renewal is usually pretty cheap (maybe a tenner or less for two years.  Is the higher figure for services other than just the renewal?  $180 for two years is quite achievable if you have bought webspace/potential bandwidth with it and possibly email boxes.
Check other companies' rates.  It may pay you to renew through another company and let them transfer it in - though there may not be much saving if you are using additional services.
123-reg is quite a user friendly host for such things.  It's UK based too (assuming you're in UK) so no currency conversion charge.
Alternatively, maybe you can reduce the bandwidth needed to run the site and pay less?  Compressing images with some simple software could help you use less.  Do you pay for a lot more bandwidth than you are ever likely to need?  Maybe reduce the package?  Be careful of this as some hosts charge you more for the portion of bandwidth that hasn't been pre-paid (effectively a small fine) s keep an eye on it an buy extra before you need it.
Of course I'm assuming this isn't an outright scam?  It is from your current host I assume?

[Pope vader]

the prob you have with it is, that when you domian runs out  you cant just go buy it  it gets held for 90 days  before it gets released again and you have to pay extra to get it back with in these 90 days

mine does any way

[Kwackers]

They are probably a company that's got your renewal details and not the company you actually have the domain with.

You can check who you have it with WHOIS

Just tell them to put it on auto renewal, mine are under £10 a year.

[GB Window Cleaning]

yeah i was thinking it could be a phishing scam, be carefull!

[Kwackers]

A lot of them are actually legit companies, but they sort of trick you. They word it as if you have an account with them so you renew with them rather than with the original company.

[H S and Son]

Domain name renewal is in the public domain. What has happened to you is par for the course. It wont be your usual web space provider, it will be a company who makes it their business to find out when domain names expire and therefore know (as anyone on here can find that out) that at some time in the near future you're a potential customer.

Be that a ripped off customer or not 

It happens to everyone who has their own website when its close to renewal date. Just keep using your existing setup, you should have renewal checked by default, if not someone else can buy it when it expires.