Apple will charge you $99 to renew your MobileMe account. However, you can shop around (Amazon, JR, etc) and find it for as little as $57. It looks like a new signup (“MobileMe Individual” or “MobileMe Family”) but what’s really in the box is a slip of paper with a number on it.

All you need to do to renew (and you can do it up to a year in advance) is visit www.me.com/activate.

Click the button that says “Renew an existing account” and enter the number from the slip of paper in the box.

BE SURE YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT BUTTON!!!

To verify it or to just see if you have a renewal pending, just sign into your MobileMe account and click on your account settings.

You’ll see something like:

name account Your subscription will renew on (or expire on) (date)

Then click the options button. On the resulting Account Options page, if you have a renewal already entered, you’ll see: MobileMe Subscription renew:(checkbox) price: $99 Activation Key -$99

What that says is that you have a renewal pending (that’s the (minus sign) $99) which will kick in on (date), and you’ll be good for another year.