Does it cost more to renew domains rather than to just re-register them? Like how much does it normally cost to renew a .com domain at godaddy?
Usually it cost around 8.99 for renewal. Domain registrar usually lower down their price of first time registration to entice more customers. The difference is only about $1 for the renewal and I could not see the point of re-registration for the measly 1 dollar and risk your domain to be dropped and lose your PR.
But keep in mind, during the process of re-register you may lose that domain name, if somebody else registers it.
Some Registrars charge more for Renewals and keep first time registrations cheaper just to attract Customers.. Once a Csutomer is on board, they would charge more for renewals and make transfer-outs difficult to make more profits..very common practise in the Industry..
I just purchased a domain for $3.99 for one year (after that I'm transferring) from Globat (Globat.com), I would highly recommend it. Netfirms also offers a one year registration for $6.99/yr (I got mine for $5.99) Then just transfer it over to a cheaper registrar (it's simple). While I don't recommend hosting from either, I would suggest domain names. Whatever you do, don't go through 1&1, I got screwed over with them when I didn't update my billing info in time, they gave my domain to a company that wanted $40+ to reactivate it etc. Totally not worth it if a domain is less than $10/yr. I also don't recommend GoDaddy, as they are well advertised but they overcharge by a lot.