New to Timeshare - Got a few qustions - please Help :)

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

Greetings

I am new in to the timeshare field and have therefore some questions

A little background:
I am man, 33 years old, single, make about $75.000 a year, 6 weeks of vacation a year + overtime, get to travel from time to time with work and can take some time of in those cases.

- If I buy I will buy through ebay or similar – not retail
- Highest amount of points, lowest possible maintenance fee (max around 80 USD a month)
- Will prefer annual points – but if high enough more than 300.000 I can live with every 2. year (think the MF is lower pr month this way) or perhaps go for a small amount of points every year and 300.000 ever 2. year
- Tourist area (ex Orlando, Las Vegas, Hawaii)
- Don’t want to be stuck to one week or one place (resort) – so I think points and through RCI would be the prime way I would use it

My thoughts about buying a TS is not as an investment, more a way to spend the least amount of money getting the most weeks of vacation. Will probably be a mix of spending at the resort chain or by using RCI (full price and the 30 days before option, so the points spend are only 9000 for a week)

I was thinking somewhere between 150.000 -> 300.000 or more RCI points

I have been to 2 presentations one at Hilton and one at Wyndham (latest – and the one I can remember, why I use this as a reference). Both was ok and fun when the sales guy almost is about to explode when you say No….

But still have some questions - I have tried to look around but get a bit confused, so many different answers to what I see as the same question, so here I go

a) is the amount of points at the resort – the same on RCI.. Conversion 1:1 (ex 160.000 points at Wyndham is 160.000 points at RCI)

b) How to they transfer the points to RCI? Do I have to choose how many to transfer or is it the same amount as on the property?
c) Which resort is the best (got to be a big one that will not go out of business during the next financial crisis)

d) Been reading somewhere that you don’t have the same benefits if you buy “used” >< retail. What is the difference? What do I miss out on? Saw somewhere that you can’t be VIP is you buy of ebay (even though you get 300.000 + points? Is that legal?

e) If I have a week (fixed or flowing) can that be swapped into another week – same resort or different (ex I have week 34 at steamboat, but want a week at a skiresort (same resort or another) when there actually are snow)

f) can I change a week in to points

g) Can I save points for next year?

h)Can I take points from the following year?

i) How do I sell the TS again?

j) Some deals give you RCI membership included – is that for life or only first year? Or does it vary?

Thx
Clemens

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

I'll try to answer a few questions and let others chime in.

First of all RCI Points and Wyndham points are two totally different systems or "currency" if you will. As for Wyndham and RCI points, there is no ratio between the two. They are totally seperate currencies that trade in two different clubs that happen to have the same parent company and have some overlapping of exchange possibilities for an extra fee.

150-300K RCI points can get you alot of vacations depending on when and where you want to go. You will probably not be able to stay within your $80 a month budget owning this many points.

Most of my 2 bedroom exchanges in RCI points go for an average of about 38K-48K RCi points. I do get alot of mileage using the last minute 7.5K exchanges into places like Orlando or Florida beaches and if you live near a few timeshares this may be an option for you to burn some points and also get a few long weekends. I'd venture to say that your Maintenance Fees (MF's) will be roughly $1500-$3000 for this level of points. Probably around a penny a point if you're lucky and shop well. You probably won't find this MF ratio for $1 on ebay but I'd expect to pay about $500-1000 for something like this or maybe even a bit more.

Since you're single you probably don't need that many points unless you plan to take alot of people with you on vacation. I'm single and own 25K RCI points a year. Every now and then I add some to my account and there are different ways of doing that, be it renting from someone their points in a points transfer, renting from RCI or depositing a week from a non point resort that you own elsewhere.

300K in Wyndham will also have higher MF's. For example I pay around $700 for 168K Wyndham points and I pay less than most Wyndham owners do. So for 300K points you're probably looking at around $1400-$1500 in MF's. With this you will get enough for about 2 to 3 weeks of vacation in 2 bedrooms depending on the resort and also on the size and season of the unit you reserve.

Both of these systems have a few things you should know before buying into them. Keep studying and asking questions and take your time before you plunge into anything. You can always buy a Timeshare but it's not always so easy to sell one if you make a mistake so don't rush into anything.

Buying retail is not worth the extra benefits you get in either system so save your money and buy yourself more points or maybe a biennial in both systems so you have more options open for yourself to vacation in more places.