I know nothing about RCI points!

[rsackett Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rsackett]

I have toyed with the idea of getting an RCI points account over the last year or so, mostly for Disney. I look at ebay and try to learn a little here and there.

I was watching this auction on ebay:

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

102,000 RCI points, $908 in Maintenance fees, home resort on Hilton Head. The auction ended at $49.41. What was I missing? Was this a great deal for RCI points? If not what did I miss?

Thanks for teaching an ignorant non RCI member!

Ray

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

There is at least one RCI points resort in Hilton Head that is nothing but problems but I don't know if this is the one. Other than that, the mf's are acceptable, less than .01 per point. There are better maintenance fees ratios out there but they may cost a little more upfront. Take a look at some of the auctions at Vacation Village at Parkway.

What are your expectations for what these points will provide?

[rsackett Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rsackett]

I am not looking to buy now, just trying to learn. I would mostly be interested in trading into DVC. I understand that RCI points from Orlando based units can not be used to secure a unit at Disney.

What my real question was why did 102,000 RCI points go so cheap. I thought they would go for more. Did I miss somthing?

Ray

[RCIPointsWriter Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RCIPointsWriter]

More info.

We converted our week of timeshare ownership in Arizona to Points last fall and the points account was set up in January (2010). We have been ecstatic so far. RCI has a way (45 days to 2 days reservation) to get several weeks (6 in our case) of vacation for one week of ownership.

People in the know in TS tend to evaluate how good a points purchase is by dividing the number of annual points by the annual maintenance fee. $.01 a point or less is considered a reasonably good value. Many people are all but giving their timeshare away for several reasons (including not traveling anymore). Hence the low successful bid price.

In the RCI Points system, you can make reservations at over 6,000 resorts. In the weeks system or program, this number is considerably less.

Also, the trading power of an owner in the points system is much greater, as there are no trading issues as there are in the weeks system. A point is a point is a point and when you search for availability, everything shows up. Not
so with a weeks owner. Also, points members can stay for 1 or 2 or 3 or any number of nights - and they can check in and check out on any night. Not so with the weeks program. Also, you can always stay in your home resort just like a weeks member, you just forfeit you points for that year. Points members can borrow or rent points if they run out and still want to travel. Weeks members can't do anything like this. It is a great program and it is obviously quite reasonable to purchase a large points package.

You should also be aware of the fact that you must pay the maintenance every year - so it is a long term commitment.

I hope that you find this helpful.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

I am not looking to buy now, just trying to learn. I would mostly be interested in trading into DVC. I understand that RCI points from Orlando based units can not be used to secure a unit at Disney.

What my real question was why did 102,000 RCI points go so cheap. I thought they would go for more. Did I miss somthing?

Ray

There are all kinds of reasons people sell things cheap. The annual fees can be a problem if you are unemployed or even underemployed. The purchase price is a one time hit but those maintenance fee bills just keep rolling in. If this was a unit that the resort foreclosed on, it's far better for them to have someone paying those maintenance fees than to lose that money because it is for sale for more than anyone wants to pay.

For a non-Orlando deal, check out the classifieds here. There is a good deal on RCI points based in Australia listed there now. I own the same package as what is listed for sale and it has worked out just fine so far.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

Also, the trading power of an owner in the points system is much greater, as there are no trading issues as there are in the weeks system.

The OP was not trying to compare points and weeks but this statement is a bit misleading. If you have a weeks unit that will trade for anything RCI has available, weeks can be a better deal. For example, if I have a weeks unit with a $500 mf, I can trade that unit for let's say a 2 bdr unit at a resort in Aruba or St. Martin or Hawaii. To do the same exchange in points, it may cost me 100K points or more. The maintenance fees on 100K points are going to me more than the $500 I spent for my weeks unit in almost every case, so I would argue that this is a case where weeks has better trading power than points. This kind of example came up many times for me when I owned both points and a great weeks trader.

[sonomom Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sonomom]

What I am finding out.... I dont believe availability is better then the weeks system, I dont see many of the resorts that seem to be available for others. Dont buy in Orlando if you ever want DVC. Also there are other little fees everywhere. If you want to stay less then a week Ive had "housekeeping" charges. However even with a full week stay Ive also had "resort fees". They tend to get you someway.

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

What I am finding out.... I dont believe availability is better then the weeks system, I dont see many of the resorts that seem to be available for others.

I didn't take issue with that because theoretically it should be true. Reality is that it's not. Theoretically, you can see all points resorts and all weeks resorts. However, if the resort sold both points and weeks, you can't tell that there is a weeks deposit that you should be able to reserve with a standard reservation unless you also have a week that can pull it. In addition, there is a known bug with DRI resorts in Hawaii. They will not come up in a weeks search from the points side even though they are not points resorts. RCI says they know about the problem and will be glad to make the reservation for you if you call but if you don't also have a weeks unit that will pull it, you would never know it was out there.

[rsackett Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rsackett]

Once RCI points are set of a unit do they ever change? Say if a resort falls from Gold Crown to Silver do you get less points for your unit?

Ray

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

Once RCI points are set of a unit do they ever change? Say if a resort falls from Gold Crown to Silver do you get less points for your unit?

Ray

Yes, it's possible but it doesn't happen often.

[RCIPointsWriter Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RCIPointsWriter]

Reply to OP - RE: points vs weeks treading power

This is all in the context educating each other. If one has a weeks account and only a weeks account with RCI, there could be some major search considerations. This also in the context of my not fully understanding the RCI weeks enhancements made recently. Normally, anything that trades better than your resort will not show up in a weeks search. If I want a three bedroom, and do a points search, everything shows up including three bedrooms. Now, you can trade for a three bedroom if you are a weeks member and have the trading power - but it will still not show up in a search. This could cause problems.

The major thing that we use is instant exchange (or whatever you want to call it) in the points system. We used it twice this year and it worked great! Two exchanges, one for 6,000 points and one for 7,500 points. We then made two regular weeks reservations with our 72,000 points. Otherwise, four weeks of vacation for a two bedroom condo. I can't see any way that we could have been able to accomplish this if we had stayed in the weeks exchange program. Happy points member...

[dumby2001 Member Find all posts View Profile Close dumby2001]

I am new to this and have a question. I bought in Orlando at Summer Bay and do realize I cannot trade into DVC.....but if I wanted to stay at another timeshare in Orlando say Orange Lake or Bonnet Creek would I be able to trade into those?

Is it just the DVC resorts that are blocked if you own in Orlando?

Another question....If my husband had a timeshare just in his name and his own RCI account (not in Orlando) could we then trade into DVC using that account? Would this be beneficial or would it be better to have combined accounts and forget DVC?

[sonomom Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sonomom]

The block is only with DVC. At first i was really bummed about this until I started to read all about how everyone loves Bonnet Creek on the Dis boards The we loooooove Bonnet Creek thread! (pics and reviews) - The DIS Discussion Forums - DISboards.com so we are very excited to spend 2 weeks there in May.
Warning though, for some reason I never see this resort in the system, however I called them at 10 months out and was able to book just fine.

[dumby2001 Member Find all posts View Profile Close dumby2001]

I will keep that in mind. I would love to stay at Bonnet Creek. In the past we have rented at Winsor Hills (sp) and loved it there but it is not a timeshare.