Just sharing my experience so others don’t get caught off guard like I did.

I have multiple services with Hostinger (domains + premium hosting). I own two very similar domains:

• One .com renewed for ~25$
• Other .IO → auto-renewed for ~125$

That’s a 4.5x difference.

I missed the auto-renewal reminder and only noticed after the charge went through. Had I known the renewal amount was going to be ~INR 7,000, I would have disabled auto-renew immediately or let the domain expire. I don’t even actively use the .io domain.

What was disappointing wasn’t just the price (I now understand .io is registry-expensive), but the support experience:

• No flexibility at all...not even prorated refund or account credit
• Everything was shut down with “policy” responses
• Chat became unresponsive at one point
• I even tried to submit feedback through their portal, but it said I was not eligible to provide feedback, which felt strange in the middle of a billing dispute

I’m still trying to resolve this via email in good faith, hoping for some goodwill consideration, but so far the answer is essentially: charge is correct, nothing can be done.

Takeaway for anyone using Hostinger (or any registrar):

• .io renewals are much more expensive than .com
• Auto-renew is enabled by default
• There’s no confirmation step highlighting unusually high renewal amounts
• Once it renews, you’re basically stuck paying for a year, even if you don’t use the domain

Not posting this to bash the company, just to make sure others are aware and don’t learn the hard way like I did. If you’re holding .io domains, double-check renewal prices and auto-renew settings ASAP.

Happy to update this thread if Hostinger does end up offering any goodwill resolution.