Frequently Asked Questions

CNM.com is a domain marketplace that connects buyers and sellers. Here's the basic flow:

1. You choose a domain and select a payment option (Buy Outright or a Payment Plan).
2. Your payment is secured. For most purchases we authorize (but do not immediately charge) your card; purchases from trusted sellers are charged at checkout and the funds are held in escrow by CNM.com.
3. The seller transfers the domain to CNM.com's escrow account within 7 days.
4. Once we confirm the domain is in escrow, any authorized payment is captured.
5. You gain DNS management access immediately after that.
6. Legal ownership transfers to you after your final payment is complete.

Either way, no money reaches the seller until the domain is secured in escrow.

The same domain is often listed on several marketplaces at once — sellers syndicate their inventory widely, and many marketplaces are part of the same network. The check takes five seconds: type the domain into your browser and see where it lands.

• If it lands on our order page, the seller has pointed the domain itself at CNM.com — the strongest trust signal a seller can give a marketplace.
• If it lands on another marketplace or nowhere at all, that's normal too — it doesn't mean the domain isn't genuinely for sale here.

Either way you're protected: before any listing can be purchased on CNM.com, we verify the seller's ownership with a registrar and DNS check, and you're never charged anything until that verification has passed. Read more in our guide to buying a premium domain safely.

The transaction is cancelled and you keep your money. If your card was only authorized, the authorization expires automatically — you are never charged. If your purchase was charged at checkout (trusted-seller listings and payment methods like PayPal or Klarna), you receive a full refund — the funds were held in CNM.com's escrow and never reached the seller.

Often, yes. If a listing shows a Make an Offer option, you can submit a custom price right on the domain's page — the seller is notified immediately and can accept, decline, or counter, and you'll get email updates as the negotiation progresses. Some domains are listed offer-only, with no fixed price at all: naming your price is how you start the purchase. Listings without an offer option sell at the listed price.

No. CNM.com screens sellers but makes no warranties regarding trademark status, legal ownership disputes, or UDRP proceedings. You are solely responsible for conducting trademark due diligence before purchasing. If you are unsure, consult a trademark attorney before completing your purchase.

All payments are processed securely by Stripe. We accept all major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) on every listing. Listings from trusted sellers additionally offer PayPal, Klarna, Cash App Pay, Amazon Pay, and crypto — these methods charge at checkout, with the funds held in CNM.com's escrow until the domain is delivered. By completing a purchase, you also agree to Stripe's Terms of Service.

Yes. You can purchase a domain using your account for another party. However, you remain legally responsible for all payments and obligations under the Terms of Service. The domain will be registered in your name until full payment is complete, after which it can be transferred to any registrant you specify.

You can choose to Buy Outright (single payment) or spread the cost over 2 to 12 monthly installments. All payment plans have 0% APR — no interest is ever charged. Plans include a renewal fee (starting at $15, varies by TLD) added to your first payment only to cover domain registration costs during the plan period. All remaining monthly payments are equal shares of the domain price.

No hidden fees. The only addition to the domain price is a renewal fee for payment plans (starting at $15 for common TLDs, higher for premium TLDs) to cover the domain registration during your plan. This is added to your first payment only — all subsequent payments are equal shares of the domain price with nothing extra. There is no interest, no setup fee, and no prepayment penalty.

Your first payment is secured at checkout — as an authorization hold captured once the domain is delivered to escrow for most purchases, or as an immediate charge held in escrow for trusted-seller listings. All subsequent monthly installments are charged on or around the same calendar day each month. If your month is shorter (e.g., February), the charge falls on the last day of the month.

Yes — and there is no prepayment penalty. Email [email protected] with your order details to request a payoff quote. Quotes are valid for 7 days. Once your early payoff payment is received, we initiate the ownership transfer immediately.

If a scheduled payment fails, we make up to 3 retry attempts over 7 days and notify you by email each time. If all retries fail and no updated payment method is provided within 7 days, your account will be in default: future payments are cancelled, domain access is suspended, and the domain is returned to the seller. All payments already made are forfeited.

Refunds are very limited. You may request cancellation within 30 days of first payment by emailing [email protected]. However, because sellers receive payments progressively, most cancellations result in a $0 refund — the seller has already been paid and CNM.com's commission is non-refundable.

You should assume cancellations will result in no refund.

After 30 days: no refunds are available. For Buy Outright purchases, refunds are not available once the domain transfer has been initiated, except in cases of seller/CNM.com error.

Contact us first at [email protected] before disputing any charge with your bank or card issuer. Initiating an unauthorized chargeback results in immediate account suspension, termination of domain access, forfeiture of all payments made, and potential legal action. CNM.com will not penalize you for a chargeback if you contacted us first and we failed to respond within 10 business days.

Escrow is a neutral holding mechanism. When you purchase a domain, the seller transfers it to CNM.com's registrar account — we hold legal ownership while you make payments. This protects you (your money doesn't reach the seller until the domain is secured) and the seller (they know you must pay to get the domain). After your final payment, we transfer full legal ownership to you.

Sellers have up to 7 days to transfer the domain to CNM.com's escrow account. Once it arrives, your initial payment is captured and you gain DNS access within a few hours. For Buy Outright purchases, ownership transfer to you begins immediately after payment capture — typically 24–72 hours for registrar processing.

For Buy Outright: transfer begins immediately after payment is captured.
For Payment Plans: legal ownership stays with CNM.com until your final installment. Within 5 business days of final payment, we initiate the transfer to your registrar of choice. You have full DNS management rights throughout the payment period.

When ownership is transferred to you (the registrant changes from CNM.com to you), the registrar may impose a 60-day transfer lock per ICANN policy. During this period, you cannot move the domain to a different registrar — but you retain full DNS control and usage rights. CNM.com does not control whether this lock is applied and cannot guarantee a waiver.

If the seller fails to deliver within 7 days, the transaction is cancelled automatically and you keep your money — an authorization simply expires with no charge to you, and a payment charged at checkout is fully refunded from escrow. The seller is not paid and may face account restrictions or suspension. You are free to look for the domain elsewhere or contact us if you believe the seller acted in bad faith.

During your payment plan you can:

• Point the domain to any hosting provider
• Configure DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc.)
• Set up email and build a website
• Update nameservers

You cannot: transfer to another registrar, change registrant information, sell the domain, or initiate a registrar transfer until all payments are complete.

Yes. Once the domain is in escrow and your first payment is captured, you have DNS management access. You can update nameservers to point to any provider — Cloudflare, your hosting provider, or any other DNS service — through your buyer dashboard.

During your payment plan, CNM.com provides default nameservers for the domain at no extra cost. You are free to switch to any nameserver provider you prefer. After ownership transfer, you are responsible for setting up DNS with your own registrar or DNS provider.

CNM.com uses the nameservers active at the time of purchase to determine the marketplace commission rate. Listings using CNM.com nameservers are charged a 9% commission, reflecting the full value of the CNM.com platform. Listings using external nameservers are charged a 15% commission. Commission rates are confirmed at the time of transaction and cannot be changed retroactively.

Through your buyer dashboard you can create, edit, and delete standard DNS records including:

• A / AAAA — point to an IP address
• CNAME — aliases
• MX — email routing
• TXT — verification, SPF, DKIM
• NS — nameservers

Changes take effect within standard DNS propagation time (a few minutes up to 48 hours depending on TTL and your ISP's cache).

An account is created automatically when you complete your first purchase using your email address. You will receive login credentials by email. You can also create an account manually to browse, save favorites, or access your buyer dashboard before purchasing.

All communication with sellers goes through CNM.com. You can send messages directly through your buyer dashboard for any active transaction. Direct seller contact details are not shared in order to protect both parties and maintain the escrow process.

Yes. To list domains for sale, create a seller account and submit your domains for listing. CNM.com handles the entire transaction — escrow, payments, buyer support, and transfers. CNM.com's commission is deducted from each payment before it is distributed to you. The rate depends on the nameservers active on your listing at the time of purchase: 9% for CNM.com nameservers, 15% for any external nameservers.

Sellers are paid progressively — you receive each installment as it is captured, minus CNM.com's commission and the Stripe payment processing fee (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, charged by Stripe). For Buy Outright sales, you receive your payout after the buyer's payment is captured and the domain is confirmed in escrow. Payouts are sent via Stripe Connect (direct bank transfer) or can be arranged manually with our team.

You can request account deletion via Settings → Delete Account in your dashboard. You will receive a confirmation email and must confirm within 24 hours. Note: you cannot delete your account while you have active payment plans, pending transactions, or active domain listings. Resolve all obligations first. Transaction records are anonymized (not deleted) for legal and tax compliance.

CNM.com never stores your raw card details. All payment processing is handled by Stripe, which is PCI DSS Level 1 certified — the highest standard of payment security. CNM.com only stores a tokenized reference provided by Stripe to enable recurring installment charges.