Is there no way to go through a different company and renew it then?
Ideally you can. But unless you "intimately" know how this works, it's too risky to renew it with another company while the domain name's expired.
I suggest you bite the bullet for now and renew it with your current registrar, if possible. Then move it out roughly 45 days after renewing it with them.
If they tell you it's on "redemption period", there'll be a "penalty fee" to possibly redeem it before someone else does. Their doing this is a standard practice, so whether it's viewed as "shady", "ripoff", etc. depends on what side you're on.
