Small points ownership vs. Big points ownership question

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

I need some owners of the various points ownerships to chime in on this. We have points ownerships through a California-based company. In the past, they have offered discounts on MFs to VIP level ownerships. Recently, they eliminated the discounts so now every owner pays exactly the same rate per point regardless of the number of points that you own, thus eliminating a big reason on having lots of points.

My understanding of some of the other points programs out there (WM, Diamond, BG) are that the more points you own, the lower your MF/point. Can someone explain the gist of that point ownership on this matter? I thought that Diamond was broken up into two components a flat rate component, applied to all ownerships + a second component that was tied to the number of points each person owns.

On our ownership, I had a chance to spend some time with the VP of owner services and was told the reason for the elimination of the discount on our program was because the CA real estate commission recently changed heads and in their review of the program, said having the two tiered MF structure was not valid and that it had to be eliminated. As a result, we got screwed. Does this sound valid?

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

I hadn't heard that, but it wouldn't surprise me. The thinking certainly is in line with the "eliminate the breaks for the big guys" mentality that is creeping into lots of places these days. I know that BG seems to be making it a little less advantageous each year to own tons of points so that the little guy is "protected".

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

DRI does not discount MF

I don't know of any discounts on MF's based upon the number of points you have for DRI. I know that there can be a discount on the amount of points you buy as you enter the Club program. Last year I believe everyone paid $0.104 per point in MF. That was if you had 3000 points or 50,000 points plus Club fees.

Diamond still offers various discounts for other parts of their program dependent on point amounts people have. They have their Elite levels of 15,000- Silver, 30,000 - Gold and 50,000 - Platinum. These levels provide the owner of these point totals with several options on saving money or points upgrades, cruises and airlines. They also give longer amounts of time for utilizing points. You can view the advantages on DRI's sticky section on this site.

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

For BG, the MF are broken down into a base fee plus a cost per point. Thus, the base fee is a bigger chunk of the overall MF for owners of small amounts of points.

BG also has several different trusts that points can be in, and each trust has a slightly different formula. This means that "small" owners want to be in a different trust from "big" owners, although BG, through annual MF adjustments, is bringing these costs closer to uniformity. It is much cheaper if all of your points are in the same trust (only one base fee).

The points I'm buying in are in trust fund E, which has a base fee of $310, plus $.0405/point (last year it was $310 plus $.0371/point). So, for a gold member (35,000 points), the MF would be $310 + 35,000 * .0405 = 310 + 1,417.5 = $1,727.50. The base fee is about 18% of the overall MF. For a 10,000 point owner in trust fund E (10,000 points is a common 1-week ownership amount for BG), the cost is $310 + 10,000 * .0405 = 310 + 405 = 715. In that case, the base fee is 43% of the overall MF.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

I look at small points vs lots of points not from the view of what the MFs cost but on what you can do with the points.

Most point programs sell their smallest package with the promise that the buyer will be able to use those points for a "great vacation" but in reality, the small package of points is so small that the buyer can barely get a "get-a-way". That why I alway suggest that a potential buyer buy a good size point package. They can make that bigger package affordable by buying it resell instead of from the developer.

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

Worldmark?

Thanks for the feedback so far. Any WM owners want to chime in? I know that the MFs/ratio on a 10K point ownership are better than a 6K ownership. I can't remember all the breakpoints and how they actually exist.

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

Thanks for the feedback so far. Any WM owners want to chime in? I know that the MFs/ratio on a 10K point ownership are better than a 6K ownership. I can't remember all the breakpoints and how they actually exist.

I'm not a WorldMark owner but here are the fees:

Worldmark Maintenance Fees

Annual Credits Yearly Maintenance Fees
5,000 $354.82
6,000 - 7,000 $462.68
8,000 - 10,000 $570.54
11,000 - 12,000 $678.40
13,000 - 15,000 $786.26
16,000 - 17,000 $894.12
18,000 - 20,000 $1,001.98
21,000 - 22,000 $1,109.84
23,000 - 25,000 $1,217.70
26,000 - 27,000 $1,325.56
28,000 - 30,000 $1,433.42
31,000 - 32,000 $1,541.28
33,000 - 35,000 $1,649.14
36,000 - 37,000 $1,757.00
38,000 - 40,000 $1,864.86

I hope this helps!