The DNS Belgium payment system

It's essential for registrars to actively manage their .be registrar account to ensure uninterrupted domain services. DNS Belgium works with a system of prepayments and automatic payments. 

When you sign a registrar agreement, you provide a prepayment of minimum € 2,500 (exclusive of VAT). This advance is used as credit for the registration of domain names:

• New registrations are immediately deducted from this prepayment.
• The automatic renewal of .be-domain names is deducted at the end of the month in which the domain names expire.
• Every month DNS Belgium sends an invoice for the transactions of the previous month, including the renewal of domain names. Invoices are payable within 30 days.

Please note! In a month with many renewals, your balance might run out, and you won't be able to register new .be domain names until you top it up again. It's best to keep an eye on this and possibly increase your prepayment.

On My Registrations, you can check your available balance at any time. It's updated every five minutes and therefore always provides an accurate picture. 

Only if you activate SEPA Direct Debit, your account will not be locked. See further in this article.

Notifications and locked account

You'll receive a notification by email when your available balance drops below 500 euros thus allowing you to top up your available balance in time.

If you don't do this in time and your balance drops below zero, your .be registrar account will be temporarily locked. New registrations and domain transfers will no longer be possible until we've received your payment. 

Unlocking your account yourself 

Starting from 2025, you can unlock your account once a month via My Registrations when your available balance has run out but you still want to purchase domain names. Please read the instructions on our documentation site.

When you do this, you get three days to carry out any paid transactions without taking your available balance into account. If you need more time after three days, please contact the support department for a possible extension.

What is SEPA and how does it work for .be domains?

SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area. SEPA was launched by the European Union to simplify euro payments within Europe and make them more efficient. SEPA enables businesses and individuals to make and receive payments easily and securely within the participating countries. 

DNS Belgium also offers the possibility to pay via SEPA Direct Debit. This means that we can automatically debit the invoice amount from your bank account. This has several advantages:

• Convenience: automatic payments mean you don't have to worry about paying invoices on time. Once SEPA has been set up, you don’t have to do anything yourself.
• Efficiency: SEPA payments are quick and reliable and ensure an efficient handling of your financial obligations.

An additional major advantage for registrars is that your .be registrar account will never be blocked again.

How can I activate SEPA Direct Debit?

Activating SEPA Direct Debit for your registrar account is easy:

1. Check with your accounting department or bank if SEPA direct debit is supported; you can find more information about this here or from your bank.
2. Provide our support service with an email address to which we can send the mandate. 
3. The digital mandate is delivered via AdobeSign. Fill in your details digitally and sign.
4. Our support department will activate the direct debit.
5. Your invoice will be emailed as a PDF attachment. 
6. Your account will be debited via SEPA Direct Debit on the 15th of every month.

The mandate can be started or stopped at any time; contact our support service for this. 

When is SEPA Direct Debit not possible?

• If you don't have an account number within the SEPA Direct Debit zone. Here is a list of the SEPA countries.