MSN Direct, How much does it cost?

http://direct.msn.com/

http://www.msndirect.com/NavigationDevicesGarmin680.aspx?tab...

After your first year, you can choose one of the following options to extend your service:

Annual Payment Plan
The Annual Payment Plan includes all of the services you came to love during your free year of service for $49.95 + applicable taxes per year. You may cancel at any time.

See Garmin site:

http://garmin.msndirect.com/NavigationDevicesGarmin680.aspx?...

It's a one time cost of $129.95 for life time or
$49.95 a year.

Oops, looks like motorcycle mama beat me to it.

That sums it

If you were really happy during the trial period, I see no reason to not do the lifetime. It isn't that much more.

for an additional 6 months. After that choose lifetime or $50 per year as best fits your situation.

Dear Fire,

The question that always crops up in my mind when I hear about a "lifetime" deal is whether they are talking about my lifetime or the lifetime of the unit.

david

I took the six months for $9.95-- Best deal at the time-- I understand the "lifetime" cannot be transferred to another unit or to another GPS.

Here are what the restrictions are.

* Restrictions for the One-time Payment: Service is not transferable to a new owner if you sell the device, and may not be transferred to a different device. Service is not guaranteed after January 1, 2012. You can cancel this subscription and receive a pro-rated refund at any time during the first three years of your subscription by calling MSN Direct Customer Service at 1-866-658-7032.

Can't be guaranteed after 2012???? Shoot that is only 4 years. How is that a lifetime?????????????????

Garmin means the "lifetime" of the product. The lifetime of the product is based on a whole bunch of statistical crap that is all manipulated anyway which gives the company a projected time that the technology will far succeed the product. Basically they aren't sure whether their subscriptions, data transfer wires, interface compatibility, etc will be the same in four years...which I'm sure atleast one of those won't be. But in this case it's still cheaper to fork out the 129.99 for 4 years instead of giving them 199.80 for the yearly subscription over 4 years. Either way you win with the so called "lifetime" fee. Personally when it comes to nagivation, I go simple and cheap....tomtom. Garmin seems to be one of those over ambitious companies that jumps too far ahead in features and doesn't think about future compatibility with their previous models. If anyone gets a Garmin, stick with the lower models like a 350...which I see you have Asianfire.

Computer years are like dog years

It is a lifetime of the service which just happens to be 4 years not your lifetime or the GPS.

Lifetime (4 year trial period) means try it and cancel service if not making Microsoft significant profit. Microsoft is not known for giving anything away without a later profit motive.

Win 95 -> Win 98 -> Win 2000. With the exception of XP 2 to 3 years is the life of their products.

All joking and Microsoft bashing aside.

I remember a while back they tried to sell this service also to special wrist watches that picked up the data stream. This product turned out to be a flop. I would not put significant hopes in the service going beyond 2012. One thing to consider is the lifetime subscription is cheaper then paying the yearly fee if you like the service for the next four years.

I would like to use the service with my GPS however I can only get MSN updates while my car is parked at work. Nothing is received at my house or anywhere I normally drive. If my receiver is not defective then I guess I will not renew after the free subscription runs out. If you get a good signal and updates I think it would be worth the subscription.