Good day,
I’m using a free account and I already hosted a website on Netlify using their “netlify.app”
A few months later when I try to purchase a custom domain it says “transaction declined” even though it already accepted my card.
I noticed that when I check the domain panel from my dashboard it says “registered externally”.
I’m confused because I didn’t get it elsewhere and when I try to retry the purchase on Netlify it still says the domain name is available.
What can I do please?
@Abey-Jaspar , welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear about the trouble. Could you share the domain that you attempted to purchase?
@audrey, I tried to purchase www.ultimaexp.com
Hi @Abey-Jaspar ,
It doesn’t look like the charge went through for the domain. I’ve removed the DNS zone for ultimaexp.com to clean things up a bit.
Could you try re-purchasing the domain using incognito window or a different browser and let us know if you run into the same issue?
Hello @audrey ,
I just tried re-purchasing using an incognito tab and then a different browser, still got the same alert ‘transaction declined’.
Hi, @Abey-Jaspar. At Netlify we only know that is was declined but not the reason. Only the card company can tell you more about why it was declined.
We recommend contacting the company that issues the card to find out the reason the transaction was declined.
Hey @Abey-Jaspar ,
Thanks for trying that and sorry to hear you received the same error! I do see a DNS zone was created again and have escalated this to our developers. We’ll update this ticket with more information once it becomes available.
In the meantime, if you’d like to purchase the domain before we resolve the issue, you can try purchasing it from another provider and still choose to use Netlify DNS for automatic configuration, branch subdomains, and automatic HTTPS on all subdomains with wildcard certificates. To get started, visit the doc about adding a domain to Netlify DNS.
Let us know if you have any questions on this!
Hi @luke I understand, I’ll try to contact them and give a feedback here.
Thank you.
Hi @Abey-Jaspar ,
Our developers found a bug in the workflow where DNS zones were created even though domain purchase transactions were declined. They’re working on a fix! I’ve removed the DNS zone for you again so you can start with a clean slate when you re-attempt purchase. Thank you for reporting the bug, we appreciate it! 
Hello @audrey ,
It’s my pleasure.
I’ll try it again soon enough.
Thank you.
Hello @audrey,
I tried the payment today again and the transaction still got declined so I’m resorting to getting the domain from another domain name registrar and change my DNS to Netlify’s servers afterwards. So if it’s required, please help me clear the DNS zone again although I don’t think it’s necessary because I’ll need it to set up the domain I’ll purchase externally.
Firstly, If I take this route, will the form handling still be supported or what are the shortcomings?
Also, do you recommend any domain name registrars that can make the server transfer easier?
Thank you.
Hi @Abey-Jaspar , great to hear you were able to purchase the domain externally! I’ve removed the DNS zone for you so you should be set 
Firstly, If I take this route, will the form handling still be supported or what are the shortcomings?
Form handling is independent of the domain.
Also, do you recommend any domain name registrars that can make the server transfer easier?
You won’t need to transfer the domain. You can delegate an existing domain from another registrar to Netlify, please see our docs to learn how.
Hope that helps!
Hello @audrey ,
Thank you very much.
This helps.
One last thing please. Can you remove the payment information I added, adding it removed the option to choose “I own this domain” and only leaves me with the option to register it.
I really appreciate.
@Abey-Jaspar ,
I’ve removed the credit card on your account so you should be all set!
@audrey ,
Thank you very much.
That would be all.