RCI Changing to All Points?

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

Hi, all.
I'm new to this forum, and it looks great, but I'm not sure where to post this question so any mod is welcome to move it wherever it belongs.
Is there truth to the rumor that RCI is going to insist that all "weeks" owners upgrade to points or lose the trading power of the resorts they own?
Thanks in advance!

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

HMmmmm , I would bet that you just recently took a time share tour. Rci is slowing hurting the weeks program and most new resorts are going toward the points to a certain extent. No one can tell the future but many do not like what Rci is doing to time sharing. Many people are now starting to fight back by using the independents some of which are helping out to answer questions on this site.

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

Thanks, but we've been owners of two resort timeshares for over ten years - no more tours for us!
We attended a meeting today put on by Vacation Solutions and they indicated RCI was going to force all owners to "upgrade" to points.
Vacation Solutions offered to make offers on timeshares in their mailing. What they offered us was the opportunity to pay them to take it off our hands.
We passed

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Thanks, but we've been owners of two resort timeshares for over ten years - no more tours for us!
We attended a meeting today put on by Vacation Solutions and they indicated RCI was going to force all owners to "upgrade" to points.
Vacation Solutions offered to make offers on timeshares in their mailing. What they offered us was the opportunity to pay them to take it off our hands.
We passed

Although you did not attend a tour this is just as bad. This is another form of a solicitation.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Thanks, but we've been owners of two resort timeshares for over ten years - no more tours for us!
We attended a meeting today put on by Vacation Solutions and they indicated RCI was going to force all owners to "upgrade" to points.
Vacation Solutions offered to make offers on timeshares in their mailing. What they offered us was the opportunity to pay them to take it off our hands.
We passed

This is pretty close to a scam.

They are trying to use scare tactics to get you to pay them to take your timeshare. They may also have offered to switch you to some kind of prepaid vacation program.

The reality is that your timewhare will almost always have some value, so not only do they collect from you, they turn around and sell your timeshare for profit. Then, the vacation program they tey to sell turns out to be almost worthless - at best it will offer weeks that are essentially Last Call weeks at RCi or II, and for about the smae price (or more) that RCI and II would charge for them.

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

Steve,
It was exactly as you say. No one in the group of about seven couples had any interest in the "deal." Indeed, we would have had free membership in their vacation club - at no charge What a deal!
One of their comments was about RCI making everyone who owns weeks switch to points, which is why I asked my question.

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

Hi, all.
I'm new to this forum, and it looks great, but I'm not sure where to post this question so any mod is welcome to move it wherever it belongs.
Is there truth to the rumor that RCI is going to insist that all "weeks" owners upgrade to points or lose the trading power of the resorts they own?
Thanks in advance!

I personally don't care anymore what RCI does, as I am not using them anymore. There are plenty other exchange companies that treat their members a lot better than RCI

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

RCI was good to me for 14 years but the last two years have not been acceptable!

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

Hi, all.
I'm new to this forum, and it looks great, but I'm not sure where to post this question so any mod is welcome to move it wherever it belongs.
Is there truth to the rumor that RCI is going to insist that all "weeks" owners upgrade to points or lose the trading power of the resorts they own?
Thanks in advance!

I believe that the long term "Trading Power" of weeks is practically obsolete. If you expect trades to be as plentiful as in the past - forget it. RCI wants points because the flexibility of points makes Cendant (or what ever their name is now) a LOT more money.

You can probably get a trade into a new development which has a VERY active sales force. I would not be surprised if RCI gets a commission on sales.

Points offers more flexibility but your costs WILL BE MORE! I believe points is a good avenue BUT I suggest you NOT make a LARGE investment in ANY property unless the property is or could be a favorite of you and your family.

If you can get a large volume of points for your maintenance fee dollars, points is a reasonable investment; BUT the cost/point should be $.008 or less. EX: Divide the total maintenance fee + real estate fees by the number of annual points. A $400.00 maintenance few should bring a minimum 50,000 points. But, I repeat, do NOT make a large investment in the property as your cost/point will be raised substantially.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

FF also belongs to the same company. It starts points system since 1991. And has been convert owner from week unit to point system. All its newly build resorts are point only. Last year, fix week owner is still count 2/5 of the total owner they have.

Upto last year, RCI exchange rate week to point is still week trump points by miles.

Jya-Ning

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

I hate that company!

All of those companies, all of their various names, their resellers, the way they sell the timeshares on ebay after stealing them from older people, it all makes me crazy.

The fact that Timesharing Today wrote an article that was "fair and balanced" about them is ridiculous because they are not fair and balanced when they get people to PAY to take their timeshares and then resell them. They lie when they say your family is stuck with the week and the liability and continue the lie by saying that there is no market for them. I bought two of my Kauai weeks from these guys, unknowingly. They made money from both sides. Those poor owners! Then they sell a ridiculous travel company (which I believe is of the same name as mentioned here, "dot com"); now they say that RCI is going to make everyone go to points? Whatever they can say to make people feel horrible about their timeshares. As though timeshare doesn't already have a bad name as it is!

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Steve,
It was exactly as you say. No one in the group of about seven couples had any interest in the "deal." Indeed, we would have had free membership in their vacation club - at no charge What a deal!
One of their comments was about RCI making everyone who owns weeks switch to points, which is why I asked my question.

If memory serves me correctly, Vacation Solutions was the same outfit discussed in the first scam in this article, i.e, the outfit that copied the TUG Advice article, rewrote the article to provide the exact opposite conclusions, then passed it off in sales meetings to back up their claim that the attendees could deduct the losses on their income taxes.

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

You are quite correct. Sunterra has also been aggressively trying to convert weeks-based owners and selling points-only at most new resorts. Still from figures on the Vogas site, a majority of Sunterra Europe owners are still weeks-based (I have not seen US market figures). That shows the huge market resistance to points among weeks-based owners.

Calfornia timeshare industry veteran Byron Wiegand's ''Points Revisited'' article earlier this year in Timesharing Today also clearly shows indicators of a huge market resistance to RCI Points.

These stories about RCI forcing members into points has been a mainstay of the companies pushing conversion. It was such a widespread pattern that it appeared to be something they are routinely trained to do, and led to calls to RCI to see that it was stopped. RCI gave lip service to stopping it but refused to take any meaningful action, like suspending companies from selling that employed the tactic.

Now these scam ''pay us to take your timeshare'' parasites have picked it up, too.

FF also belongs to the same company. It starts points system since 1991. And has been convert owner from week unit to point system. All its newly build resorts are point only. Last year, fix week owner is still count 2/5 of the total owner they have.

Upto last year, RCI exchange rate week to point is still week trump points by miles.

Jya-Ning

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Don't know if this part of history help.

FF has a FAX program. It allows all its week owners to exchange within the system without exchange fee. The number of members has been reduced every year.

Just my guess, since no new inventories add to that program, some of the exchangers find better tool for their purpose, and pull out. Some of the inventories have been converted to point system, which reduce the availability. People eventually find out there is not many desirable inventories.

However, a big % of people uses their own week or are very happy to visit the existing resorts, or have no idea they can save money by cutting this membership are still in that system.

If you look at RCI points, since a few people can PFD week into points, a few developers/resorts find it is profit generating machine and convert its week, a few exchanger find less and less new inventories coming and find a replacement, and then people start to find out there is not enough inventories.

I don't think you can ask RCI to switch back, it is their business decision, they have the data they should keep close look at, and if they decide to stick on that course, it their choice. You may force them to change back by move to other company. Even if that happen, RCI maybe hurt badly and no longer be a factor.

You can only look at the current available system and pick one you think will suit your need most.

Jya-Ning

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

RCI switching to all points?

When the resorts, get paid a big cut of the huge fee which many resorts are charging for their week owners to switch to points, there will continue to be alot of resorts switching to points. But there are also many resorts, which have BOD which listen to their owners, who do not want to switch to points. RCI will want the money from both these groups and continue both plans.
If RCI wanted to really switch everyone to points, they would insist that the resorts charge a reasonable fee to switch weeks to points.