Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores

This is part five in a series on Credit Card Education.

Part 1: General Credit Card Information
Part 2: Credit Reports and Scores Explained
Part 3: Building Your Credit - Your First Credit Card
Part 4: Fixing Your Credit – Tips And Tricks
Part 5: Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores
Part 6: Amex Financial Review
Part 7: Store Credit Cards
Part 8: Churning Credit Cards - Tips and Tricks
Part 9: Credit Cards With Great Signup Bonuses

Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores

So, you know that you need to check your credit reports and scores. But where do you check them? I compiled a list of places to check your credit reports and scores. See the bottom of the post for 'Credit Terms Explained'.

• Just Credit Reports:
  Getting just your reports, without the scores, won't give you a quick answer to how good your credit is, although once you really understand credit, you can start understanding your credit just from looking at your credit report, without the score. It is important to check your credit reports to make sure there are not mistakes there, and to check for identity theft. These options listed below are totally free.
  
  
  • AnnualCreditReport.com
    The only official place to get your reports totally free, no strings or trials attached.Pro: Totally free report from all three CRA’s once a year. No trial to cancel. If you want, you can purchase a score as well from them. Reports are not 3-in-1.
    
  
  
  • Free Credit Reports
    Read this post for more information on how to get totally free Experian, Equifax and Transunion Reports, even once you've used your three annual reports from annualcreditreport.com.

• Credit Reports With Scores
  Great for those that want to get a easy snapshot of their credit. The higher the score the better.
  Some of these offers are free while others cost:
  
  
  • Fico
    They have two main products:
    
    • ScoreWatch - Free Fico Score
      Comes with 30-day free trial for your Equifax report and FICO score. They will also monitor your Equifax report and score and update you with any changes.After the trial period is over it costs $89.95 a year.
      What I really like about this free trial is that they send you an email a week before the trial is over, reminding you to cancel! And you can cancel easily online, without speaking to anyone.
    • Fico Standard. $15.95 for each credit report and fico score.
      Use coupon code: myFICOis8 for 30% off your order.
      Update: As of 02/14/09 Fico no longer offers your Experian score.
      
      
    Their site is very clear and nice. You can see why your score is the way it is, what's good and what you need to improve. The only problem I have with Fico, is that they doesn't show you the actual credit card account numbers for the different cards, which makes it a lot harder to figure out which card is which if you have lots of cards. They also only show your inquiries for the past year, not two years. The inquiries only affect your score for one year anyway though, so that's not really an issue. Also, they don't show you your 'soft pulls', which also don't affect your score.
    
    
  • Quizzle
    Free Experian report and score every six months.
    Full Experian report and non-fico score.
    See my review.
    
    
  • CreditKarma
    Free Transunion score.
    No report, just score.
    See my review.
    
    
  
  
• All Three Reports and Scores Plus Monitoring
  Any of the following three will get you a free 30-day trial for your 3-in-1 report and credit scores (NOT FICO) along with credit monitoring.
  
  
  • American Express Credit Secure - $11.99 a month. Unlimited credit reports and scores. This is the one I currently use, and recommend.
    If this doesn't work for you, then look at the next two.
    
  • Citi Identity Monitor - $12.95 a month . New reports and scores every 30 days.
    I don't really like the layout of their site, seems a bit confusing. You might find it simpler to just see your reports at annualcreditreport.com
    
  • Chase Identity protection - $11.99 a month. New reports and score only every 90 days.Their credit reports are somewhat confusing.
    I would Chase for the free trial, then cancel it, as they only give you new reports once every 90 days. If you are paying a monthly fee, you may as well use Amex, or if you don't have a Amex card, then at least Citi.
    
    

• Monitor your credit:
  If you don't need constant access to your credit reports, but just want the protection of credit monitoring, this might be for you.
  Experian - $4.99 a month. They don't give you any report or score. They will let you know of any changes to your 3 credit reports. If you want basic protection against identity theft, then this is a great product.
  
  

General Recommendations:

1) Get your free reports from AnnualCreditReport.com.

2) Get your free trial to ScoreWatch for your fico score. (Its a good product to keep if you want to keep track of your fico score)
3) If you want to follow your credit, then either sign up for Amex, where you pay a monthly fee and get your three reports and non-fico scores every month. If you want to keep track of your fico score, then keep MyFicos's score watch, which keeps track of your Equifax Fico Score.
Remember to cancel all trials unless you want to keep the service.

• More Free trials and sites for reports and non-Fico scores:
  
  • Equifax - $12.95 a month. 3-in-1 credit report - plus credit monitoring. You can get a new Equifax credit report as often as you wish. If you want a 2nd 3-in-1 report, you have to pay! Scores are not included. I really like their site, everything is clear and easy to read!
  • Experian - Freecreditreport.com: 7 day free trial ($14.95 afterwards). Experian report and score plus they monitor the other two reports for changes. This is not a 3-in-1 report.
  • Transunion - Truecredit.com - $14.95 a month plus tax. 3-in-1 credit report and scores plus credit monitoring. You can get new credit reports and scores as often as you wish. If you close their site you will be offered a free trial for just the Transunion report and score.
  • Privacyguard.com: $1 for the first month ($129.99 a year afterwards). 3-in-1 credit report and scores. Site is a bit confusing.
  • WaMu Credit Card:
    If you have a Washington Mutual credit card you can access your Transunion fico score free of charge. It gets updated automatically every month. (It is a variation of the fico score, called the Bankcard Fico, so it can be a few points off from your fico score). Update: Expired.

CREDIT TERMS EXPLAINED
Understanding the terms should help you decide what you need.

• Does checking your credit hurt your score?
  The amount of times you check your own credit report has no effect at all on your credit report and score.
  
  Here's why: Whenever your credit report is looked at, there are two possibilities:
  
  
  • Hard pull: Anytime you apply for credit of any sort (sometimes even a bank account) the company will check your credit report, and leave a note that they looked at your report. This is called a hard pull, which will lower your score, as this means that you are risky because you are trying to get more credit.
  • Soft pull: When you look at your credit report or when a company looks at it to give you a preapproved offer, this is called a ‘soft pull’ which will not lower your score at all. When you look at your report, you can see all the ‘soft pulls’ but no other company will see all the soft pulls.
    
    Tip: If you request a Credit Line Increase (CLI) from a credit card, ask them if they can approve it without a ‘hard pull’.

• FICO Score:
  There are different companies which make formulas to come up with your score (based on your report). The one which is used by most lenders and credit card companies is the FICO score. The problem is, that most scores being offered around the internet these days are not the FICO score! They can be different then your FICO score by as much as 50 points!
  
  If you are not planning on taking out a mortgage/loan anytime soon, then getting a non-fico score is not too bad. Just bear in mind that if you check your score each time somewhere else, you can end up with very different scores, because different companies formulate differently.
  

• 3-in-1 Reports
  A 3-in-1 report is all three reports combined in to one easy to read report.
  It’s simpler if you can see all three credit reports combined in to one, and by each credit card account have: “Equifax says … Transunion says… Experian says...” That’s easier than reading everything that Equifax has to say about all your credit cards, then reading a separate report from Transunion etc. If you only have a few accounts, then getting a 3-in-1 report is not that important.
  
  
• Credit Monitoring
  If you open lots of cards, or you are worried about identity theft, you might want to sign up with a credit monitoring service as well, like that you will be notified whenever something changes on your report.
  

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This sale comes about quite often, but its a nice price. Logitech is pretty good with their rebates.

If you live in NY, your order has to ship out before June 1st or else you will be charged sales tax!

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Click here, then click on the bottom left of the page where it says FREE $25.

Related post: T-Mobile-Prepaid review.

Remember, phones must be activated within 30 days of purchase.

Fixing Your Credit – Tips And Tricks

This is part four in a series on Credit Card Education.

Part 1: General Credit Card Information
Part 2: Credit Reports and Scores Explained
Part 3: Building Your Credit - Your First Credit Card
Part 4: Fixing Your Credit – Tips And Tricks
Part 5: Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores
Part 6: Amex Financial Review
Part 7: Store Credit Cards
Part 8: Churning Credit Cards - Tips and Tricks
Part 9: Credit Cards With Great Signup Bonuses

Check your credit report.
Everyone has three reports, one with each Credit Reporting Agency (CRA). You should periodically check your credit reports. More than 25% of reports have mistakes in them that affect the credit score! More than 75% have mistakes that don’t affect the score.

Part five of this series will include all the best places to check your reports and scores.

Mistakes
If you notice a mistake, send a letter to the CRA (whichever agency has the mistake on file). They have 30 days to verify what it says on the report. If it’s a mistake, they have to take it off. Even if something is not a complete mistake, it might be worth challenging it. If they cannot verify it within 30 days, they must remove it from your report. For assistance in writing up a dispute letter to the CRA's click here.

Common Mistakes you might find:

• Accounts which don’t belong to you.
  This could be a sign of fraud, or simply a mistake. For instance someone with a similar name to you,
  
• High limit:
  Are all your cards reporting your credit limit? (Your total available credit for each card.) If they do not, your current balance might be considered your credit limit! This is not good, as it’s considered like you are using 100% of your available credit.
  Warning: Be aware that cards which offer you ‘no pre-set spending limit’ might be harmful to your credit score, as once again your balance might be considered your available credit. What will often happen in such cases is, once you have a high balance on month on your card, that balance will start getting reported as your credit limit. so, if you spend way less than that in the future, it may be good for your credit.
• Missing accounts:
  This does not necessarily mean there is a mistake. It’s possible that this specific card doesn't report to this CRA. Some of the store cards and student cards don’t report to any of the three CRA’s. You can call them and ask them to start reporting to the CRA’s. They don’t have to listen though.
• Personal information:
  A mistake in your name is not that important to fix, but you might want to anyway.
  

High Debt:
High debt on one or more of your cards:
These steps will help raise your score. You have to figure out what makes sense money-wise. (If one card has a low APR and another has a high one etc. Read part one on APR's)

1. Spread the debt over a few cards, like that you won’t be using more than 50% of any card limit. Try and get a 0% APR offer.
   
   
2. Transfer debt to a business credit card
   Business credit cards will show up as an inquiry on your report when applying, but your actual account (credit card) will not show up on the credit report, neither will your spending/credit limit. This works best when you can get a business card with a 0% APR on balance transfers.
   
   If you can’t get a 0% APR on balance transfers, you can get a 0% APR on purchases. Then, use the business card for your new purchases, and instead of paying for the new purchases, pay off your old debt.
   
   Warning: If you overdo this, the credit card company might close you down. (Especially Amex)

Changing Addresses
If you change addresses often, it will have a slight negative effect on your score. If you move often, try and leave your credit card billing address at a more permanent address.

Late payments and bad credit history
Time will help. There is no way to take negative items off your report, although you can always try your luck disputing it with the CRA's. After a few months, negative items will start affecting your score less, and will continue to do so as time goes on. After 7 seven years, negative items should drop off your report. The best thing would be to make everything else perfect, then, with time, your score will rise.

You can also read Part 3: Building Your Credit - Your First Credit Card to try and raise your credit score. The tips there can be applied to someone with bad credit as well.

Disputing charges:
When disputing a charge with a regular company that you paid using a credit card, it’s simple: you can fight for your money, either you win or lose. Any company that has your social can easily mess up your credit. In fact, any debt that makes it to collection agencies can get on to your credit report. It is fixable, but think twice before you decide to fight till the bitter end with your cell phone company over $100, because it might not be worth the hassle of trying to fix your credit later.

Settling Debt:
If you owe a company money and you are settling the debt (paying part of what you owe, and not paying the rest), and you are scared that it will make to your credit report, try to negotiate that it shouldn’t say ‘settled’ on the credit report, rather it should say ‘paid in full’. If it would say ‘settled’ on your account, it is not good for your score. It is very often worth it to pay more, just that it should say ’paid in full’.

Related links:
Myfico.com has a section explaining Credit Scores.
Videocreditscore.com has a nice video selection on credit scores.

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The Secret To Building Your Credit And How To Get Your First Credit Card

This is part three in a series on Credit Card Education.

Part 1: General Credit Card Information
Part 2: Credit Reports and Scores Explained
Part 3: Building Your Credit - Your First Credit Card
Part 4: Fixing Your Credit – Tips And Tricks
Part 5: Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores
Part 6: Amex Financial Review
Part 7: Store Credit Cards
Part 8: Churning Credit Cards - Tips and Tricks
Part 9: Credit Cards With Great Signup Bonuses

Getting your first credit card
The basic principal of starting your credit history and getting credit cards is to get in the door, by getting at least one company to approve you. Once one company gives you a credit card, if you pay your bills on time and that company reports to the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA), with time you will build up a good credit report and score. Once you have your own cards and you pay your bills on time and have a high credit limit with low usage, you will see your score start to rise.

Fast Route: Authorized User
This is the quickest route to your first card and a high credit score! This method will not only get you in the door, it will shoot your score way up! Ask someone who has a high credit score to add you as an Authorized User (AU) on one or more of their cards. Make sure to get added to cards that are at least a few years old, with a high credit limit and with a lot of unused credit.

This poses no risk to the account holder, as they don't need to actually give you a card. All they need to do is call their credit card, and ask them to add you as a AU. The credit card company will send the account holder a credit card in your name, it is their choice whether to pass the actual card over to you. You don't need to use the card in order for it to help your credit.

When you become an AU on a credit card, that card will be reported to your credit report file at the CRA’s! So it will help on all fronts: it will now be considered as if you have a very old credit history, high credit limit, and paid your bills on time for a while! I have seen someone go from no credit report whatsoever to a score of 800 within a few weeks! This will work better if you get added on to more than one credit card. (Read part one)

Interesting point: Your score can end up being higher then the person who's account you are on, as you are only using his positive accounts! If you get added to an account with a lot of credit used up, it will not be good for your score.

Important: When someone adds you to their account, make sure they add your social security number. Being added as a user on someone’s credit card without having your social added might, and might not help.

Problem: This will not last long!
According to FICO 2008 (FICO changes their scoring method every once in a while), being an AU on someone else’s account won’t help your score anymore. If your credit score is based solely on being an AU on someone’s account, you will find your score disappearing! This new scoring method has not yet been implemented, but it can start any day! Many people are going to wake up one morning with their credit score way down!
Update 12/08: It seems like being an Authorized User still helps, and will probably help for a while longer!

Solution: Become an Account Manager / Joint Account holder.
According to FICO 08, AU's don't count anymore, but if you are an account manager/joint account holder on someone's card, then even with the new scoring method you will be safe.
Or, become an AU, and quickly apply for your own cards.

Build your own credit
In any event, even once your credit score went up because of this method, you should still work on keeping your score high on your own merit by opening your own credit cards and paying bills on time, leaving old cards open, and getting high credit limits with low credit utilization. You never know when the account you were always relying on for your credit score will become a problem for you.

Tip: Writing a low income on your credit card application will probably get you a low credit line, which won't help you very much in raising your score. Don't forget, most personal credit card applications don't ask for your personal income, rather for household income. (Think: parents, spouse, roommate...)

The Slow Route:
If you can’t get someone to add you to their account and you can’t get accepted to any credit cards (often you just get lucky and one card decides to accept you), try one of the following: (Try the first one first)

1. Store issued credit card. Many stores have their own credit cards. (Macys, Banana Republic etc.) I would recommend signing up in a store for better chances of acceptance. Getting such a card is usually quite easy. Once that card starts reporting your credit to the CRA’s, you will be able to get approved for a regular credit card.
2. Ask your bank if they would be willing to give you a credit card. Often, a bank will be quicker to give you a credit card if you already bank there.
   
3. Student credit card. They are often easy to get, but usually have a low credit limit.
   Here is a sample card: Citi student card.
   
4. Secured credit card. This should be your last resort! It’s better not to have a secured card on your report. A secured credit card is a card where you deposit money and can only spend the money you deposited. The idea is that they will report your card to the CRA’s. Make sure that it is a secured card which reports to the three CRA’s. This type of card usually comes with an annual fee.
   Here are two secured cards: Wells Fargo and Bank Of America, you will need a bank account with them in order to apply online. If you don't have a bank account with them, you will need to mail a check.
   

In all these three cases make sure they are reporting your card usage to the three CRA’s! What doesn’t get reported does not help your credit!

Credit Reports and Scores Explained

This is Part 2 in a series on Credit Card Education

Part 1: General Credit Card Information
Part 2: Credit Reports and Scores Explained
Part 3: Building Your Credit - Your First Credit Card
Part 4: Fixing Your Credit – Tips And Tricks
Part 5: Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores
Part 6: Amex Financial Review
Part 7: Store Credit Cards
Part 8: Churning Credit Cards - Tips and Tricks
Part 9: Credit Cards With Great Signup Bonuses

What Is A Credit Report / Why It’s Important

Your credit report and score are important. Very important.

Any time you apply for a credit card (or any other type of credit e.g. cell phone, car financing, home mortgage, or sometimes even when opening a bank account) the credit card company will ask one or more of the three Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA), Equifax, Transunion or Experian, for your credit report and score (which is based on your credit report), in order to see how much of a risk you pose. After all, they are giving you their money and they want to know what their chances are of getting it back…

Based on your report and score they decide whether you get approved and for how much credit (and your interest rates on a loan).

If the credit card company decides to give you a credit card, they will send in to the CRA’s all the information about your account and how much credit they gave you. When you apply for another credit card, that company will see this credit card info on your report.

The first time you apply for a credit card, when the credit card company tries to check your report, there won’t be anything on your report, which is why getting your first card can often prove to be difficult (especially in today’s delicate credit market).

So, in reality you have three separate credit reports, and in turn three separate scores.

Credit Scores Explained

Many companies create scores based on your three reports. The company most widely used by lenders, is FICO.

The Fico score is a number ranging from 300-850. The higher the number, the less risky you are to lenders. Your credit score is based solely on your credit report. So you will have one score for each CRA. (Whenever a credit card company looks into your credit report, they will either ask from one or more, if they ask from all three, they will usually consider the middle score to be your score.

Credit scores explained
These are the main things which affect your score according to the new scoring system (FICO 08) The exact formula for coming up with the credit score is not known, but this picture shows which things count for how much percent of your score. The first two things are what you should really be focusing on, as they make up the biggest chunk of your score.

Payment history = 35%
Pay your bills on time!
Paying late even once can really hurt your credit for a long time (stays on your report for 7 years, though after a few months it gradually starts effecting your score less and less). It will affect your credit score only if you are more than 30 days late, though every card can be different.
Note: Even if you do pay your bills on time every month, it can take up to a year for your credit score to go up substantially. (Either on a new card, or after a late payment)

Amounts Owed = 30%
Never use more than 20% of your total available credit.
It looks risky if you are using too much of your available credit. It is best if you use less than 15% of your available credit (even better to keep it under 10%). So if you have a credit line of $5,000 and you make a $4,000 purchase, you will be using 80% of your credit. If you need to make a large purchase which uses up most of your credit limit, consider paying the bill before the statement closes, as the credit card companies tend to report your credit after each statement closes. If you spend money and pay it before the statement closes, it won't be reported as your balance.
This rule goes for each specific card, not just for the total available credit between all cards.
Tip: When you do decide to cancel a card, make sure to transfer the credit to another card (in the same company) before canceling, so your total available credit will not change.

Length of credit history = 15%
Leave old cards open.
The older you credit history is, the less risky you seem to be. This is judged by the age of your oldest credit account and the average age of all your accounts.
Tip: If you have some old no annual-fee cards which you are not using, don’t cancel them, like that the average age of your cards will be older.

New credit = 10%
Don’t apply too often for new credit.
Every time you apply for a card or any other type of credit (including a cell phone) your score will drop.
Tip: If you applied for a credit card and got accepted, then after a few weeks your score should go back up, because you now have more available credit.

Types of credit used = 10%
Don’t have just one credit card.
It is good for your credit to have a few cards, not just one. Or have some other type of credit as well, i.e. Installment loans (like when buying a car).
Tip: If you have only one card, it is very possible that that specific card only reports to one or two of the CRA's. At the third CRA, you might have an extremely low or non existent score!

Stay tuned for advice on how to build and fix your credit.

Amazon Promotions

Here are a few sales going on at Amazon. They all expire May 31st.
Free Shipping on all orders over $25
Some items come out pretty cheap.

• Spend $75 on eligible health and grocery items and get $25 off.
  Use coupon code: MAY8UNIL
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• Spend $49 on Kellogs or other eligible grocery items and get $20 off.
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• Another $20 off $49 grocery offer.
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  This one expires 05/15.
  

Part two of the credit card series will hopefully post within the next few days.

General Credit Card Information - Part One Of A Series On Credit Card Education

This is part one in a series on Credit Card Education.

Part 1: General Credit Card Information
Part 2: Credit Reports and Scores Explained
Part 3: Building Your Credit - Your First Credit Card
Part 4: Fixing Your Credit – Tips And Tricks
Part 5: Where To Check Your Credit Reports And Scores
Part 6: Amex Financial Review
Part 7: Store Credit Cards
Part 8: Churning Credit Cards - Tips and Tricks
Part 9: Credit Cards With Great Signup Bonuses

Why use a credit card?:
These are the main advantages of using a credit card: (Besides for the obvious of not carrying around cash wherever you go and of course online shopping would be impossible without a credit/debit card.) Most of these benefits mentioned do not apply to your average debit card.

• Security: Disputing Charges & Insurance/warranties
• Points/Cash back for using the card for purchases
• Signup bonus for opening a new card.
• Low APR
  

Security:
You will have a lot more peace of mind when shopping with a credit card, for two reasons:

• Disputing charges
  All credit cards allow you to dispute charges (called a Chargeback). If you want a charge on your account taken off, either because it was not an authorized charge (fraud...) or because you don’t feel the company deserves to get paid, you can call your credit card company and file a claim. With cash you obviously won't have this protection...
  
  Some cards are better than others for disputing charges. American Express cards are the best to have for disputes. Visa seems to be second place.

• Insurance/Warranties
  Most credit cards offer many different types of insurance and warranties which range from extended warranties on products purchased to rental car insurance etc. Amex is by far the best card to have for this purpose. Any of the Amex cards will give you all the basic warranties and insurance that you need. If you read up the review about what Amex offers and actually take advantage of them, you will be saving yourself lots and lots of money, guaranteed!

Points/Cash back:
Some cards offer points or cash back for spending money using their card. Depending on whether you collect miles or not, either get a cash-back card or a mileage card. Most point/mileage cards come with an annual fee, while many cash back cards have no annual fee. So instead of using cash, check or a debit card, and not getting anything back, you can be getting up to 5% of your money back! After a while, even 1% back adds up! Make sure to check out Part 5 of this series for more info.

Signup bonus:
Depending on the card, you can be getting up to 25,000 miles for opening a card, enough for a free flight anywhere in the US. More details to come in Part 4 of the series.

Low APR:
APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is used to calculate how much interest you owe on a loan.
One of the many ways credit card companies make money is by charging a high interest rate when you don’t pay your bill in full every month. Way too many people get into debt and end up just paying the minimum every month, which basically means that they are just paying off the interest and not paying the actual debt…
So, please be extra careful if you decide to use any 0% APR offers. My suggestion is to pay off all your bills in full every month and forget that there is even a possibility of paying over time.

Credit card companies will often offer a 0% interest rate for the first year or so. Sometimes they will send out such an offer to existing cardholders as well.

These 0% APR offers are either for:
Purchases: Items you buy on the card – You buy items and pay for them a while later interest free.
Balance Transfers: Paying off a different (high interest) debt. Basically the CC company will lend you x amount of money interest free.

Note: Make sure to read up properly before using any 0% APR, as there is often lots of fine print involved. For instance, if you have a 0% APR on balance transfers but not on purchases, do not use the card besides for the balance transfer. If you use the card for purchases, any money which you pay the credit card will be applied toward your 0% balance transfer, not towards your 20% interest rate for purchases…

Tip for advanced users:
This tip is by no means for the average credit card user as the smallest mistake can really mess up your credit. Be warned!
There are people which take the money from a balance transfer and invest it in a high yield savings account for a year. If you are interested in reading more about this option, check out the forums at FatWallet.com. This is only worth it if you get a really high credit limit on your cards ($30,000+ on a single card). With interest rates as low as they are now, it is not such a great time for this sort of investing.

Stay tuned for part two, entitled Credit Reports and Scores Explained.

Site Navigation

This site has lots of money saving tips, reviews and great deals.

On the side of the page, there is a list of Labels. Check out the topics that interest you. Click on the 'Live Deals' Label to see which items are currently on sale at great prices.

You can use the search enginge (top left of the page), but it will find expired posts as well. The labels are kept up to date with only live deals and reviews. (There may be a slight delay till the labels get updated.)
All expired deals go under the Expired Label.

Garmin Nuvi 650 -$215.40 -Free Shipping

Update 05/03: Expired

PCMicrostore.com has the Garmin Nuvi 650 for $215.40 with free shipping.
Use coupon code: 20%storewide
I have yet to see this unit go under $250. Amazon has it now for $272.36.
Click here to read about the different Garmins.