Cancel Namecheap.
Back up your site and mail first.

Hosting ends two ways: let it expire, or cancel now.

Namecheap’s simplest route is to turn off Auto-Renew and let the package expire. It is then suspended after its billing date and cancelled afterwards. If you want it gone at once, Cancel service ends the package and erases the data immediately.

Hosting is invoiced 7 days before the billing date, and a card set for auto-renewal is charged on the billing date. If an invoice stays unpaid, shared, VPS and dedicated packages are cancelled 7 days after the billing date, and reseller packages 23 days after.

1. Back up the site and email. Use the Backup/Restore tool in cPanel. Namecheap’s own backups are for server restoration only and it says keeping local copies is your job.
2. To let it expire: turn off Auto-Renew. Sign in, go to Hosting List, click Manage next to the package and remove the checkmark from Auto-renews every month/year.
3. To end it now: click Cancel service. In Hosting List, click Manage, then Cancel service. If the package is in Grace or Expired status, go to Domain List, select All Products, open the drop-down next to Renew, choose Manage, then Cancel Service.
4. Confirm. Review the terms, acknowledge them and click Yes, cancel hosting. Namecheap emails a confirmation when the cancellation is done.
5. Dedicated server? Contact Billing/Sales by Live Chat or billing@namecheap.com with the reason, your Namecheap username and your Support PIN.

• Namecheap: invoicing policies

Private Email cancels in its own menu, with no refund.

Namecheap says Private Email subscriptions cancelled through the Admin Panel are non-refundable. If you were charged in the last 7 days and want the charge reversed, contact Customer Support instead of cancelling in the panel.

1. Save the mail you need. Removing a mailbox deletes its emails, contacts and calendars from the server, and Namecheap says they cannot be restored.
2. Open the subscription. From the left-hand menu, select Private Email, find the subscription and click Manage.
3. Click Cancel. The option sits near the subscription’s validity date.
4. Confirm. In the warning, click Cancel subscription. Go back keeps it.
5. Only want it to stop renewing? In the Private Email menu, switch off the Auto-Renew option for that subscription.

• Namecheap: delete a Private Email mailbox

A domain can’t be cancelled. Stop the renewal or move it.

Namecheap’s Domain Registration Agreement makes registrations and renewals final, so a domain you no longer want either stops renewing and expires, or transfers to another registrar or Namecheap user. Namecheap tries to auto-renew a domain 30 days before it expires and retries every 24 hours, so switch Auto-Renew off before that.

Namecheap charges nothing to transfer a domain out. You pay the transfer fee at the new registrar, and Namecheap has 5 days to release the domain under ICANN’s transfer policy.

1. To let it expire: turn off Auto-Renew. Go to Domain List, click Manage next to the domain and toggle off Auto-Renew for the domain and for Domain Privacy. You can also click the caret next to the domain in Domain List and toggle it there. Changes apply automatically.
2. To move it: check it can transfer. The domain must be more than 60 days old, not transferred between registrars in the last 60 days, and unlocked.
3. Unlock it and get the Auth Code. In Domain List, click Manage, open the Sharing & Transfer tab and use the Transfer Out section. The code goes to the domain’s Registrant email, which may not be your account email.
4. Start the transfer at the new registrar. Follow the new registrar’s steps and give it the Auth Code. Some country domains such as .UK, .DE and .FR follow different rules.
5. Other options Namecheap lists. Sell the domain on Namecheap Market, or move it to another Namecheap user with Change Ownership.

• Namecheap: Auto-Renew for each service
• Namecheap: what to do with an unwanted domain

Closing the account is a separate step, by email.

Namecheap won’t close an account that still holds active services, so cancel, move or let them expire first. A closed account can’t be re-opened and its username can’t be reused.

1. Clear out active services. Cancel hosting in the account or switch it to another username. Cancel Private Email or push it to another account. Active domains can be pushed to another Namecheap account or removed by Support. Remove any Marketplace listings.
2. Email Namecheap. Send your Namecheap username, Support PIN and the reason for closing to domainsupport@namecheap.com.

Your site, your mail and possibly the domain name.

Cancelling hosting suspends and then terminates every website for add-on domains and subdomains and every email account in that cPanel. Cancel service erases the data immediately. Namecheap may restore a cancelled shared or reseller package if you ask Billing/Sales and pay the full renewal fee, and it charges $15.00 to try to recover data from its latest archive for a suspended or terminated package. A cancelled dedicated server’s data is deleted, and User-Responsible or Basic Management servers have no backup to recover.

When a domain expires, its website and domain-based email stop working and Namecheap shows a parking page. Mail sent to that address afterwards is lost. Most expired domains stay in your account for 30 days to reactivate, then enter the Redemption Grace Period, where recovery carries an extra fee. Namecheap’s renewal notices go out 30, 15, 7 and 1 day before expiry and can’t be turned off.

• Namecheap: server backups
• Namecheap: reactivate a cancelled hosting package

Namecheap’s refund windows run from 48 hours to 30 days.

Hosting: first-time shared, reseller and VPS accounts get a full refund within 30 days of purchase. First-time dedicated servers are refundable, minus license prices, within 1 week of delivery. A hosting renewal may be refunded if you cancel within 48 hours of it, and otherwise a prorated refund may be considered. To ask, cancel the hosting and contact Billing/Sales by Live Chat or billing@namecheap.com. cPanel, Softaculous and other third-party licenses are not refunded.

Private Email: contact Customer Support within 7 days of a purchase or renewal charge. Domains: registrations and renewals are final, though Namecheap may refund a new registration for a valid reason if you contact it within 5 days (120 hours). Premium domains are never refunded, and the registry can block a refund.

Refunds go back to the card or PayPal account you paid with. Cryptocurrency deposits are not refunded. Namecheap says a card refund should appear in 2 to 10 business days, and up to 30 days at some banks.

• Namecheap: how long a refund takes

My Namecheap account [username] was charged [amount] on [date] to renew [hosting package or Private Email for domain]. I cancelled it on [date], within [48 hours of the renewal / 7 days of the charge]. Please refund the charge to the original payment method and confirm by email.

Huck catches the renewal before the charge.

Huck finds Namecheap receipts and renewal notices in your Gmail and texts you what each domain, hosting package and Private Email subscription costs and when it renews, so Auto-Renew comes off before the 30-day domain renewal attempt or the hosting invoice.

When you say yes, Huck turns off Auto-Renew or cancels in your Namecheap account, or sends the refund request to Namecheap from your Gmail, then checks the next bill. You handle the Namecheap sign-in and any domain transfer at the new registrar. Namecheap decides any refund.

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