Pricing and billing FAQ
How DomainGenius charges, refunds, and bills.
Why do TLDs cost different amounts?
Each registry sets a wholesale price for their TLD. Verisign’s .com is around 14 AUD. Every registrar pays the same wholesale; differences in retail are margin.
We post a fixed retail markup over wholesale. Bulk volume doesn’t change your price — the registry charges us per-domain regardless.
Why does renewal cost more than registration sometimes?
Some registries discount the first year (introductory pricing) and charge more on renewal. .io, .app, and many newer gTLDs do this. Before registering a long-term holding, check the renewal price — get_tld_info and GET /pricing/{tld} show both.
Are domains on DomainGenius cheaper than elsewhere?
For .au: usually yes, because we’re a direct Synergy reseller. For gTLDs: comparable to other transparent registrars, more expensive than first-year-discount loss leaders. Our value isn’t in the lowest one-year price; it’s in transparent renewals, the API, and not surprising you with hidden fees.
We don’t markup transfers — they cost the same as a one-year renewal.
Why prepaid balance instead of charge-per-action?
Three reasons:
- Failure handling. Card declines mid-renewal would lose domains. With balance, the renewal succeeds even if your card later fails — and we have time to fix the card before the next auto-top-up.
- Bulk operations. Registering 100 domains as 100 separate card charges is a Stripe fee disaster. Top up once, debit 100 times.
- Refund clarity. Failed registrations refund cleanly to the balance ledger. Card refunds take 5–10 business days.
Can I get a refund?
Yes:
- Failed registrations — automatic. The debit ledger row pairs with a same-amount credit.
- Wrong-domain registrations — within 5 days of registration, email support. We return to the registry under their grace period and credit your balance, less a small handling fee for our time.
- Unspent balance — email billing@domaingenius.com.au. We refund to the original payment method, less Stripe fees.
- Failed renewals — refunded to balance automatically.
- Voluntary expiries — no refund. If you stopped auto-renew and the domain expired, that’s working as designed.
How does GST work?
We’re GST-registered in Australia. Top-ups from Australian customers include 10% GST in the headline price; invoices break out the GST line and our ABN. International customers pay no GST.
The registry fees themselves are wholesale — you don’t see the GST split inside a registration receipt, but it’s in there.
What about VAT for EU customers?
We’re not VAT-registered in the EU. EU business customers handle reverse-charge VAT on their own returns. We supply invoices that comply with the EU’s reverse-charge format.
Can I pay by invoice instead of card?
For accounts above a certain spend threshold, yes — email billing@domaingenius.com.au. Invoice billing turns off auto-top-up; you pay 30 days net, balance is debited as you go. Works for everyone except renewals during the 30-day window — those still need balance up front.
Do you take crypto?
No.
Are there hidden fees?
No. The price you see in pricing/{tld} is what gets debited from your balance — same for registration, renewal, and transfer. The only out-of-band charge is the 5% marketplace fee on a successful for-sale transaction (visibly shown in the dashboard before you list).
Why was my balance debited but the domain not registered?
Race conditions: we attempted registration, debit was committed, then the registry rejected the call (rare — usually NOT_AVAILABLE because someone got there first). The pending refund is reconciled within 60 seconds; you’ll see the credit in the transaction list. If it’s been more than 5 minutes, contact support.