10 reasons not to buy timeshares

[nursetanya1973 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close nursetanya1973]

I think one of the things that works well for us is something that I have heard TS salesmen use as a selling point. We are "forced" to take a vacation every year. Yes, we could probably rent for the cost of our maintenence fees, but renting is optional, paying our fees is not. When it came down to it, I might not be willing to pay for vacation every year, but I can't avoid the bill. And, of course, I don't want to waste the money we have paid, so we always use all our points. For me, I probably would want to vacation every year anyway, but for DH, this works well as an argument to use those last few points on something we wouldn't have otherwise done.

And we have always gotten much more than what we technically own every year, we just love the flexibility of points.

[hope54 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hope54]

For 6 years now I have owned a week in a "club" with properties in Hawaii. I don't like the quality of their condos so have never stayed in one but always traded the week away. We have had some nice vacation weeks. But I am not convinced I would want to add alot more timeshare weeks. I love looking for deals on the internet, spending time in "local" type properties. And I don't spend more than the MFs of $700 to $800. I think I might be happier with the concept if I had the money to put on a higher end timeshare - when the college tuitions are paid off.

Hope

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

I mainly trade my lock-offs and use ACs with II, and all are resale. BUT, I will soon be purchasing from developer a week 52, because I would like to to have this resort for sure every year, and there are not any resales available(only 8 units total)-developer adding.4 more units)
Mark

[Arline Member Find all posts View Profile Close Arline]

First of all, the author of 10 Reasons purchased from a developer, took out a loan with a high interest rate, relocated several times and expected "her timeshare" (like it's a person) to get in touch with her. We didn't buy our 1st timeshare until we were empty nesters and were able to pay cash. And after we began timesharing, we searched everywhere for information, including the internet. Traveling is a game to me. Where can we go for the least amount of money. We have purchased multiple years of RCI and II at a reduced yearly rate, in case we want to trade with them. We check out last minute deals for ourselves and family. We often deposit with TPI for bonus weeks. Except for our first timeshare, all other purchases were resales. We own multiple weeks at the same resorts so we can enjoy extended stays, bring family or friends, or trade extra weeks. We charge everything and pay credit card bills at the end of each month. Our flights to Hawaii are always made with FF miles, 330 days out. We have found incredible flight deals by checking frequently and we use those "snooze you lose" rates to bring our children and grandkids. We get to the airport early and surrender our seats for vouchers or bumps to Business or First Class. When we couldn't afford expensive accommodations, we traveled around the country pulling a RV with our kids. We all have our own lessons to learn! I thought the writer sounded a little pathetic.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Good points Arlene ! I always say if you can't pay cash for a timeshare, you can't afford it.

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

First of all, the author of 10 Reasons purchased from a developer, took out a loan with a high interest rate, relocated several times and expected "her timeshare" (like it's a person) to get in touch with her. We didn't buy our 1st timeshare until we were empty nesters and were able to pay cash. And after we began timesharing, we searched everywhere for information, including the internet. Traveling is a game to me. Where can we go for the least amount of money. We have purchased multiple years of RCI and II at a reduced yearly rate, in case we want to trade with them. We check out last minute deals for ourselves and family. We often deposit with TPI for bonus weeks. Except for our first timeshare, all other purchases were resales. We own multiple weeks at the same resorts so we can enjoy extended stays, bring family or friends, or trade extra weeks. We charge everything and pay credit card bills at the end of each month. Our flights to Hawaii are always made with FF miles, 330 days out. We have found incredible flight deals by checking frequently and we use those "snooze you lose" rates to bring our children and grandkids. We get to the airport early and surrender our seats for vouchers or bumps to Business or First Class. When we couldn't afford expensive accommodations, we traveled around the country pulling a RV with our kids. We all have our own lessons to learn! I thought the writer sounded a little pathetic.

I was just going to respond but you already said it all for me!!! I also thought the writer sounded pathetic paying 16% interest then not knowing she owed the maintenance fee until she got collection notices. We own seven timeshares and five weeks are outside the US. I rent out three Aruba weeks and I never received my maintenance bill for one of them which is being rented out for this week. I emailed the resort two weeks ago so I could pay the maintenance bill and make sure my renter would not have a problem when they checked in this past Friday. If I can keep track of seven weeks how come this dites can't remember that she needs to pay her maintenance and mortgage on time.

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

First of all, the author of 10 Reasons purchased from a developer, took out a loan with a high interest rate, relocated several times and expected "her timeshare" (like it's a person) to get in touch with her. We didn't buy our 1st timeshare until we were empty nesters and were able to pay cash. And after we began timesharing, we searched everywhere for information, including the internet. Traveling is a game to me. Where can we go for the least amount of money. We have purchased multiple years of RCI and II at a reduced yearly rate, in case we want to trade with them. We check out last minute deals for ourselves and family. We often deposit with TPI for bonus weeks. Except for our first timeshare, all other purchases were resales. We own multiple weeks at the same resorts so we can enjoy extended stays, bring family or friends, or trade extra weeks. We charge everything and pay credit card bills at the end of each month. Our flights to Hawaii are always made with FF miles, 330 days out. We have found incredible flight deals by checking frequently and we use those "snooze you lose" rates to bring our children and grandkids. We get to the airport early and surrender our seats for vouchers or bumps to Business or First Class. When we couldn't afford expensive accommodations, we traveled around the country pulling a RV with our kids. We all have our own lessons to learn! I thought the writer sounded a little pathetic.

Exactly. Great post.

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

Where was this published? She has some good points, sorry to say. These are some of the reasons I tell our friends NOT to buy timeshares. I know none of them would be willing to do the management-y stuff that I think is fun.

I am in total agreement with you. We have owned since early 80's and I, too, advise friends NOT to purchase. (if they ask me about it -- I never offer unsolicited advice).

I do lead them to the MANY rental places for timeshare units (with prices waaay below maintenance fees).

We purchased to USE, not to exchange. I do not think I am "cut out" to do the 2- or 3-year advance planning that I read about here and on TUG. The few times we have exchanged, it has been for last minute exchanges (2 or 3 months out, at the most).

I do enjoy timesharing, but I do not feel I am into it as much as some posters here and on TUG are.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

Larry,

My hat is off to you. How in the world can anyone afford 7 t/s and pay all the fees? I was drowning with just one t/s but finally unloaded the darned thing and had to take a big loss.

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

Larry,

My hat is off to you. How in the world can anyone afford 7 t/s and pay all the fees? I was drowning with just one t/s but finally unloaded the darned thing and had to take a big loss.

I have 3 winter weeks in Aruba that I rent out each year that pays for all 7 weeks of maintenance. So that leaves us with 4 free weeks of timeshare vacations.

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

I emailed the resort two weeks ago so I could pay the maintenance bill and make sure my renter would not have a problem when they checked in this past Friday. If I can keep track of seven weeks how come this dites can't remember that she needs to pay her maintenance and mortgage on time.

I'm like you. Several times, I've had to email and phone my timeshares to ask whether they had received my payment instructions because I noticed my cc had not been charged yet!

Yes, I also think if you have to finance a timeshare with a high interest loan, you can't afford it. Travel and holidays are a luxury, i.e. a want, not a need. Better to stay in cheap affordable accommodation until one can afford to pay for something better.

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

OK, I am going to weigh in here with a newbie's perspective. My fiance and I just bought our first timeshare in August in Cabo. We knew going into in that there were maintenence fees, we paid with cash, and actually got a resale (that one was luck, the way it worked out). The one thing that I did not realize (or was not told is probably more accurate) was the trading aspect. Basically, I thought that wherever you want to go you can just trade in for it - so (1) I didn't realize that there was a whole waiting process (2) that there are not a whole lot of timeshares in certain places I am interested in going (like Italy) and (3) that it works better if you can be more flexible with dates.

With that said, I still think we made the right choice. We bought a 2BR for 1 week in Cabo, and this first year of ownership, we are going back to our home resort for a week (smaller unit), spending another week in Cabo at a different resort; and going to Hawaii for 2 weeks. OK, I'm good, but I'm not so sure I could convince my fiance (husband in the future) to go on 4 weeks of vacation plus the local stuff we do for about 2 weeks (PA, DE trips etc) at full hotel prices...

Plus, I think its important to note that if you dont utilize the trading aspect that often (although most of us seem to think its fun!) then, you avoid a good portion of the headaches associated with timesharing.. and we decided that we absolutely love where we bought, and would be happy going back there year after year (especially when we start to have small children - familiar will be better...)

OK, back to doing tax work ;-) (this is so much more fun!)

[brucecz Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close brucecz]

Larry,

My hat is off to you. How in the world can anyone afford 7 t/s and pay all the fees? I was drowning with just one t/s but finally unloaded the darned thing and had to take a big loss.

We bought our first (it was a resale) timeshare about a little more than 6 years ago. It can be done as of the beginning of today ( not sure what the total will be at the end of the day) we now own currently own 25 timeshare ownerships that we get about 100 yearly reservations from.

The way to afford good units and good trades is simply to study the various websites like this and learn from a lot of neat knownledgeable people that contribute to these boards.

I thought the articale was fairly good but IMHO she needs to take responsability for keeping track of her obligations and not changing to a lower percentage after buying.

Bruce

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

So Larry................
The murder of the Holloway girl on Aruba didn't effect your use ( renting ) of your weeks?

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

So Larry................
The murder of the Holloway girl on Aruba didn't effect your use ( renting ) of your weeks?

That was a terrible tragedy and not something that any family should ever have to experience but the island of Aruba is probably one of the safest places anywhere in the world. I have been to many Caribbean islands and have never been anywhere that is safer than Aruba.

So to answer your question, no I have never had a problem renting out my weeks.