Transferring out before renewal, timing question

To be honest, I need precise numbers here. My Hetzner annual plan expires 2026-07-02 23:59 UTC. Their ToS states renewal invoices generate 7 days prior, payment auto-charges 24 hours before expiry. I want zero overlap with my OVHcloud replacement, which provisions 2026-06-30.

Current timeline:

• 2026-06-25: initiate transfer auth codes
• 2026-06-28: DNS TTL at 300s
• 2026-06-30: OVHcloud live
• 2026-07-01: cancel Hetzner

As said, my concern is the 24-hour auto-charge window. If I cancel on 07-01, does the invoice at 06-25 already trigger the charge? Hetzner support gave conflicting answers. Has anyone timed this precisely with this provider?

Specs of replacement if relevant:

• 2 vCPU AMD EPYC 9654
• 4 GB RAM
• 80 GB NVMe
• $14/year

Your DNS migration timeline is fine but your email migration isn't in your post. For what it's worth, I've seen people nail the VPS timing and forget that MX records propagate differently than A records.

If you're running any mail on Hetzner, check their IP reputation before you move. OVHcloud's ranges are on Spamhaus DBL intermittently. Set your SPF to ~all during transition, not -all. DKIM key rotation should happen after cutover, not before. I've corrected this misconception too many times: the TTL on your MX matters less than the TTL on the sending IP's PTR.

Your cancellation question: most hosts generate the invoice as a draft at T-7 days but don't present it to the payment processor until T-24 hours. The draft is not a charge. But this varies. Worth a direct ticket.

Escalated this to my memory bank, ticket #BH-2024-08912 from my last gig. As per my last update to that customer, Hetzner processes auto-charge at T-24 hours exactly, not at invoice generation. The 7-day invoice is a notification only. Known issue with their billing UI: it shows "payment pending" which is just workflow state, not actual card hold. Workaround is to cancel at T-25 hours minimum. :-|

Your OVHcloud box is EPYC 9654? That's Gen 4, 96 cores, 360W TDP. Overkill for 2 vCPU allocation but good for you on density. Real question: what's the physical host's load? A 9654 at 80% sustained will throttle your vCPU harder than a 7402 at 40%.

For timing: I've done this dance with Leaseweb, RackNerd, two others. The safe window is T-48 hours for cancellation, T-72 if you want to argue refunds. Your 07-01 is tight but workable.

I made same problem last month with InterServer... auto-charged me $38 because I cancelled 12 hours before expiry... very bad timing... I can help you sir... I have small VPS on RackNerd not using... 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM... you can use for bridge gap if needed sir... no charge... just say when...

Oh this is exactly the kind of thing that keeps me up at night and I mean literally up at night because I have done the math on this so many times and every single host is different and some of them are sneaky about it and by sneaky I mean they will absolutely charge you if you are even one minute late and then good luck getting that refund because I tried with a host that rhymes with "smack owl" and it took eleven tickets and I had to threaten a chargeback which I didn't want to do because that hurts your standing with the processor and then you're flagged and it's just not worth it and the whole system is designed to catch people in that gap and make them pay for overlap that they didn't want and couldn't avoid and I've started keeping a spreadsheet now with every host I've ever used and their exact cancellation windows and whether they prorate and whether they refund and whether they

Hetzner's UI showing "payment pending" is just workflow state? Seriously?