If I Don't Renew My Membership Right Now...

[Wartortled]

So. If I waited a bit to buy another subscription, would my characters be waiting for me when I return? Would I have to make new ones? Is there a certain time frame before they'd be deleted? Or are they fine and I shouldn't worry?

[Jillian]

Your characters will be waiting for you upon your return. The only exception to this is player housing. If you do not have a house then you have nothing to worry about.

[Wartortled]

I don't have a house yet, so no worries there~

Thanks!

[ChameleonMS]

Personal house are lost if you do not enter the house at least one every 45 days, regardless of your subscription status.
Personal apartments are not included in the housing timers. You can be away from your apartment as long as you want.

[Frizze]

Yeah, there are plenty of players who play intensely for a few months and then let their sub drop. They do something else for a while, then come back when theres enough new stuff for them to be immersed in. Your characters will be just as you left them and waiting for you to come back.

[Luin]

Personal house are lost if you do not enter the house at least one every 45 days, regardless of your subscription status.
Personal apartments are not included in the housing timers. You can be away from your apartment as long as you want.

Really?

I never thought of this. Is it possible to trade down my house to an apt?

[Enkidoh]

Also if you own/run a Free Company (FC), then control of it will be automatically transferred to the next highest person in your FC if you do not login after 30 days have passed, based on their FC member rank and how often they have logged in/last login date from what I understand (it's effectively an automatic demotion for you).

So if you know you are going to be away for a long time, it's perhaps best to transfer control of the FC to someone you trust rather than let the system do it for you and potentially hand over the FC to someone untrustworthy or who will ruin it/disband it.

[ChameleonMS]

Really?
I never thought of this. Is it possible to trade down my house to an apt?

No, they are complete separate from each other. Additionally, there no way to actually trade personal housing.
Once the housing timer expires the house is demolished. Your items and 80% of house purchase price are stored with the Resident Caretaker npc. You have 35 days to get these items back or they are destroyed.