Dri mf

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

Hello, new here but have done hours of reading the last couple of weeks. My hubby thinks I'm addicted. My question- I bought 3,500 points from Diamond last summer (super bad idea!) But I guess you live and you learn. I have learned a lot from these forums. I need to purchase more points, can't do much traveling on 3,500. I think I understand the Club conversion and of course have gotten many different answers (prices primarily) about converting points into my club account. I am searching for the lowest MF right now. It looks like to me the US is the lowest. Are all the US properties paying the same MF rate? I have been keeping an eye on E-bay, redweek and a few other sites.

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

Hello, new here but have done hours of reading the last couple of weeks. My hubby thinks I'm addicted. My question- I bought 3,500 points from Diamond last summer (super bad idea!) But I guess you live and you learn. I have learned a lot from these forums. I need to purchase more points, can't do much traveling on 3,500. I think I understand the Club conversion and of course have gotten many different answers (prices primarily) about converting points into my club account. I am searching for the lowest MF right now. It looks like to me the US is the lowest. Are all the US properties paying the same MF rate? I have been keeping an eye on E-bay, redweek and a few other sites.

The maintenance fees varies from property to property. The Hawaii properties tend to have the most expensive MF. I own with DRI. I have 30000 points. My maintenance fees cost about $3200. I have not had to pay for them yet for the last 2 years as I negotiated that as a part of my deal, but I am sure it is about that amount.

It sounds like you're going to buy properties resale and then try to Convert them to the Club. Good move if you can. DRI may ask you for a $2995 Club conversion fee, and they may want you to buy additional points.

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

We own in Hawaii and our 3,500 points cost us about $800 in maintenance fees and the CLUB fee. I called Diamond twice about buying resale and converting it to the club. The first person told me they don't do this anymore. I called back again, knowing I would get someone else. She said I would need to buy 2000 points for $8540 and let me add as much resale property as I wanted to for 12 months. I thought that was way too high!

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

We own in Hawaii and our 3,500 points cost us about $800 in maintenance fees and the CLUB fee. I called Diamond twice about buying resale and converting it to the club. The first person told me they don't do this anymore. I called back again, knowing I would get someone else. She said I would need to buy 2000 points for $8540 and let me add as much resale property as I wanted to for 12 months. I thought that was way too high!

The resale policy is a bit of a moving target.

It used to be that if you made a purchase you could negotiate to bring into the Club any affiliated properties you owned at the time of purchase, but you could open a 12-month window when you could purchase additional resales and include those in the Club conversion.

Last time we went through a sales presentation with them (in Hawai'i) they said the policy of keeping the window open had been abolished. Our sales person was quite familiar with the process, since she had such an option herself for her personal account. So when we asked for it she said, "No problem; it's a wonderful program."

But when the sale was written up for Sales Manager review, he came over to our table with a copy of a memo from Stephen Cloobeck, DRI President, killing the policy.

It's possible they may have added yet more restrictions on this since then. But your post suggests that maybe they reopened this program. That would be good.

IMHO - timeshare outfits such as DRI need to recognize that a purchase that makes sense at one time might no longer be appropriate as people age and circumstances change. Timeshare companies should be working on ways to help their owners get through those inevitable transitions as part of overall owner service.

A place to begin is to make it easier for current owners to transfer ownerships among themselves. Charge a $500 transfer fee, but allow the Club affilation to stay intact. Allow owners to acquire and aggregate small accounts (such as yours) into a larger account (with only Trust operation and Club fee for the account).

Those changes wouldn't cost the company much; the aggregation would actually reduce operating costs. And they would add value for to ownership.

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

All things are possible when doing a conversion. Just remember that even the Member Services Dept are on commission. The more they can get from someone to convert, the more they get to keep. It takes the patience of Job, super negotiation skills, and a tremendous amount of time to get down to $2995 where they probably get very little commission, if any.

"Keeping the Window Open" for a period of time has not been abolished. I personally know someone who is doing this right now and arranged the deal in Hawaii in the last three months. The Sales Manager there had the contract written so that this couple could add any number or resale Polo units purchased in the next 6 months at no charge - that is, after they purchased X number of points in the Hawaii Trust for $$,$$$.

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

We own in Hawaii and our 3,500 points cost us about $800 in maintenance fees and the CLUB fee. I called Diamond twice about buying resale and converting it to the club. The first person told me they don't do this anymore. I called back again, knowing I would get someone else. She said I would need to buy 2000 points for $8540 and let me add as much resale property as I wanted to for 12 months. I thought that was way too high!

$800 maintenance fees for 3500 points? That does not sound right. Also, 2000 points for $8540 seems excessive as well. Those amounts seem out of whack.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

$800 maintenance fees for 3500 points? That does not sound right. Also, 2000 points for $8540 seems excessive as well. Those amounts seem out of whack.

I was sort of thinking that myself. Right now I'm paying right at $2,000/yr on two deeded weeks worth 26,500 points. As for the price, I've seen what I feel are some excessive prices for a lot of timeshare weeks out there. Not just DRI but almost every timeshare we've priced at developer pricing the last 3 or 4 years.

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

$800 maintenance fees for 3500 points? That does not sound right.

Don't know what HI Trust MFs are but at 10.4cents plus ~$200 base Trust Fee plus $~$235 Club fee you do get ~$800.

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

I logged on to my account and read the letter about MF. Here is the breakdown: 10.27/point, $235 Club fees, $208 operational fee for 2009

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

I was sort of thinking that myself. Right now I'm paying right at $2,000/yr on two deeded weeks worth 26,500 points. As for the price, I've seen what I feel are some excessive prices for a lot of timeshare weeks out there. Not just DRI but almost every timeshare we've priced at developer pricing the last 3 or 4 years.

I see that the maintenance fees are not proportional to the number of points one has. I thought if one paid $800 for 3500 points then it would be $1600 for 7000 points. My error on that.

Doug, I guess because you don't belong to The Club you have a different formula for your maintenance fees being computed.

I still believe that the purchase of the points at $8540 for 2000 points is way out of line. That's that's $4.27/point!

Is that what they are offering now?

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

$800 maintenance fees for 3500 points? That does not sound right. Also, 2000 points for $8540 seems excessive as well. Those amounts seem out of whack.

I see that the maintenance fees are not proportional to the number of points one has. I thought if one paid $800 for 3500 points then it would be $1600 for 7000 points. My error on that.

Doug, I guess because you don't belong to The Club you have a different formula for your maintenance fees being computed.

I still believe that the purchase of the points at $8540 for 2000 points is way out of line. That's that's $4.27/point!

Is that what they are offering now?

You need to re-read the posts or be more specific in what you call Maintenence Fees as the MFs ARE proportional to the points BUT no matter how few points you have THE Club fees and the base/operational fee for the Trust remain the same.

$8540 is of course high, but you need to subtract the $2995 cost of joining THE Club to get what the cost per point is which results in $2.77/pt which is on the low end of their normal retail.

In Hawaii, I've seen retail sales floor contracts for the Hawaii trust average $4/pt.

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

You need to re-read the posts or be more specific in what you call Maintenence Fees as the MFs ARE proportional to the points BUT no matter how few points you have THE Club fees and the base/operational fee for the Trust remain the same.

$8540 is of course high, but you need to subtract the $2995 cost of joining THE Club to get what the cost per point is which results in $2.77/pt which is on the low end of their normal retail.

In Hawaii, I've seen retail sales floor contracts for the Hawaii trust average $4/pt.

Spence,

You're right. I did not take at the $2995 for the conversion. I don't know if I would have come into the Club if I had to pay that initial fee. I am glad that they waived that for us when Epic was bought by Sunterra.

It is a shame that Hawaii costs so much to own. When the OP initially started this thread stating they had only 3500 points, the first thing that came to mind was that there would not be enough points to Hawaii unless she saved a couple of years worth of points or stayed in a studio. They would be extremely limited in when they could travel as well. There would be no high or peak seasons in which to travel to Hawaii.

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

Spence,

You're right. I did not take at the $2995 for the conversion. I don't know if I would have come into the Club if I had to pay that initial fee. I am glad that they waived that for us when Epic was bought by Sunterra.

It is a shame that Hawaii costs so much to own. When the OP initially started this thread stating they had only 3500 points, the first thing that came to mind was that there would not be enough points to Hawaii unless she saved a couple of years worth of points or stayed in a studio. They would be extremely limited in when they could travel as well. There would be no high or peak seasons in which to travel to Hawaii.

It's all funny money, of course when people buy retail they 'waive' the fee and when they're trying to get whatever they wanted to accomplish when Sunterra bought bankrupt EPIC they did the same sort of thing, I guess. Someone with 3500 points wanting to go to Hawaii is certainly short, having to use two years just for the cheapest KBC garden view week. It really is a shame that salesmen, not just with this company but any TS organization will down-sell to the point that what they are selling won't get the owner much of anything and the annual cost per point results in being extremely high.

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

So what would your advice be if I would like to acquire 6500-8500 more points or so? What is a good MF ratio? On E-bay it looks like anywhere from .16-.25 or higher. We paid so much for the TS from the Hawaii salesman I have to make this a better transaction.

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

Best Bet

Best bet is to buy either resale points in the Hawaii Trust (not sure if they are on the resale market that often) or the US Trust (many out there) but what I understand about both of these approaches is that you can only get to each of the resorts within the trust you purchase. Therefore, if you buy the Hawaii Trust points, for example, you would only be able to go to the resorts rolled up in that trust. Limited to Hawaii and a few other resorts like Polo Towers, I think.

The other option would be to buy a traditional week from a non-Club member with a high points value. These can then be converted to the Club.

The first option can be converted to the trust, too, I suppose. Then you can get to all the Club resorts.

Others are better at this than I so I let's wait and see what others suggest.